The Four Great Revolutions
By: Mike • Essay • 984 Words • November 12, 2009 • 1,086 Views
Essay title: The Four Great Revolutions
Reasons for revolution
1) People feel restless and held down by unacceptable restrictions in society, religion, the economy or the government. People are also hopeful about the future, but they are being forced to accept less than they had hoped for.
E: The English population was prominently Protestant in religion and wanted to protect their religion, contrary to King James strong catholic beliefs that he was forcing upon the them. The people had also come to the realization that the king had been undermining their beloved parliament by passing laws and suspending rights without it's permission. The English believed it to be their duty to overthrow such an abomination of power.
R: Russia was suffering and starving for the effects that WWI had wiped out all their supplies for its troops. The government that was in control at the time, The Czar could not provide for both its troops and its people without having to give up on some of his own luxuries; so everyone suffered. Out of sheer necessity the Russians revolted.
F: France was suffering from a conflicting conundrum of the classes. The clergy and nobility flourished by crushing the peasants and bourgeoisie with high taxes. There was great resentment of royal absolutism seigniorial system by peasants, a rising bourgeoisie and the corruption of the Catholic Church. The French saw how corrupt the church was and assumed it was religion itself that was corrupt, and so the period of enlightenment began.
A: America wanted to have fair representation in Parliament and a say so in the law making process for their own country; what they thought were "self evident truths". They believed because of the lack of justice they were receiving that they could should and would revolt.
2) The government does not respond to the needs of its society.
E: King James II averted any legal form of ruling and was bent on tyranny and power. He suspended laws and rights as he saw fit. He fired and took good protestants out of office and replaced them with Catholics to bring his religion back into power while avoiding parliament altogether.
R: the czar of Russia, greatly influenced by Count Witte, promised the people a taste of freedom; saying that he would give them civil liberty, freedom of assembly and religion, and representation in the Duma (their form of parliament in a way). He failed to however go through with any of these promises and let his people down fueling the need for a revolt.
F: The Government was built up of nobility, clergy, and strongly the church. The government spent more money then it had on fashion and fancy foods. You know how the French are. They simply printed more money causing inflation too. The price of the assignat went down dramatically. An assignat was a statement by the church, a cash value of property owned by tee church. Because however the church was so corrupt no one was interested in anything to do with the church. Because of this they had neither the recourses nor the finances to help the abundance of disgruntlement that the merchants and peasants were feeling; nor did they even really care.
A: Parliament passed laws and acts restricting the colonists from "basic English rights".
3) Government attempts to suppress revolutionaries, often times drastically.
E: The English revolution was more of a political revolution then a bloodthirsty mob revolution. When King James II would send in troops