America, French and Latin American

America, French and Latin American Revolution

The American Revolution

This was a political turmoil that took place during the later years of the 18th Century, particularly between 1775 to 1783, where 13 British colonies joined together to liberate themselves from the British Empire and unite to from the United States of America (American Revolutionary War, 2011). It all began with the rejection of the Parliament of the Great Britain as governing body from overseas without their representation and consequently rejecting and sending away all the royal officials and representatives. In turn they formed Provincial Congress in 1774 which made up the self-governing state. This prompted the British to send troops to America to reinstate the direct rule and in return, the Second Continental Congress was formed in 1775 to wade off the British troops and also to defend their decision towards self-governance. This was what was and still is famously know as the American Revolutionary War of 1775.

At the end of it all, the U.S.A. determined that the British no longer had the legitimacy to rule the U.S.A. And in July 1776 the U.S.A. being a sovereign state then cut all ties with the British Empire and endorsed United States Declaration of Independence effectively rejecting the British monarchy. The Americans seized victory in 1781 bringing an end to one of the longest wars ever fought in America and the British had no option but to abandon any claims upon the U.S.A. ratified in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

The American Revolution was molded by various issues in the society running from the social, political and the intellection changes and enlightenment that took place during that period. These are what are referred to ac the American Enlightenment. It included the push for the development of republicanism based on the understanding of liberalism, rejection of the aristocratic European Oligarchies and a need for a democratically elected representative government that would be responsible and answerable to the people (Martin Kelly, 2011).

Some of the minds that influenced the American Revolution were John Locke on his book Two Treaties of Government that had a massive influence on the push for liberty as well as Jean-Jacque Rousseau whose writings were also very instrumental in influencing the struggle. It is worth noting that the American Revolution was majorly driven by the army generals. However, there are other major participants like Samuel Adams who in 1771 went about forming the various Committees of Correspondence which acted as a linking hub for all the collaborating patriots in the 13 colonies and eventually kick started the rebellion process. Other people like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson are also central since they served in the Committee of Correspondence of Virginia effectively; this was one of the largest states in the collaboration and fight against the British.

The French revolution

This was a revolution that began in 1789 after the meeting of the generals of the states in May 1789. This saw the storming of the Bastille and the eventual removal of Louis XVI and the entire royal family and been expelled from Versailles to Paris in July of the same year. Due to the advancing allied forces against French from Australia, Prussia, Holland and Sardinia, the Legislative Assembly, after sitting from October 1791 to September 1792 was replaced by the National Convention which effectively proclaimed the republic.

The king was tried in December 1792 and executed on January 21 of 1793, the same year that the revolutionary government of France declared war on the British, which was also known as a war for world dominion. At this time, there was a rule of terror and rampant extermination which lasted from September 1793 to July 27, 1794 upon the fall of Robenspierre after seeing the death of more that 1,400 people in a span of six last weeks of his domination (David Cody, 2010).

There was governance through the Convention which was replaced with the Directory in 1794 and later on in 1799 replaced again with the Consulate. After that, Napoleon Bonaparte became the emperor of the French in May 1804.

The French Revolution was widely propagated by the inequality that the French Feudal system had propagated, the bankruptcy of the government brought about by the spend thrift habits of Louis XIV and the heavy influence that American Revolution had on the French themselves after the writings of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau and others became too famous hence influencing the French to go against their own king.

The Latin American Revolution

This refers to various revolutionary wars that took place in the Latin America in the period between the 18th and the 19th century whose results were creation of various countries in the Latin America which account for more than 20 states that are in existence in the current Latin America (Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski, 2005). The Latin America revolutions followed closely the American and the French Revolutions which had impacted in a profound manner the French, Portuguese and Spanish colonies throughout the world.

The first among the many countries to follow the American Revolution was Haiti which was a French colony then known as Saint Domingue (Haitian Treasures, 2011). This was in 1791 to 1804 when the Haitian Revolution saw the fight for independence of the country from the French. It began with Boukman, an African priest calling for a revolution and Toussaint who was not trained in military took up the challenge of leading the troop and by 1804 he had moved with the troops to Santo Domingo and freed the slaves. Toussaint was sent to prison but Jean-Jacques Dessalines took over the leadership till the declaration of independence in January 1804.

There was a wide attempt by Napoleon to expand the French influence and occupation in Europe, Spain, Portugal and even the Spanish America, after his failure to reinstate the French influence in the North American states. The result of this was several wars including the Peninsular War in Spanish America that saw a Spanish Creoles question their allegiance to the metropole. This saw many other revolutions that lasted two decades including the relocation of the Portuguese monarchy to Brazil due to the French occupation of Portugal. After the relocation, the royal court gave back the big city of Lisbon to Portugal and in 1822, Pedro, who was a prince regent in Brazil, effectively declared himself the emperor of the independent Brazil.