From the American to the French Revolution

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From the American to the French Revolution

• 1776-1789

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The 13 British colonies
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Outline

• Introduction
• Part I. The American independence
• Part II. A New country
• Part III. The revolution of 1789
• Part IV. Impact on Europe
• Conclusion
• References

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Introduction

• The French and Indian War (1754-1763) changed the
  relationship between the colonies and their
  mother country, England
• A decade of conflicts between the British
  government and the colonists, beginning with the
  Stamp Act crisis in 1765, led to the outbreak of
  war 1775 and the Declaration of Independence 1776
  
• At the end of the war in 1783, Britain recognized
  its former colonies as an independent nation. In
  1789 the people of the several states ratified
  the Constitution that created a stronger central
  government
• French Revolution, major transformation of the
  society and political system of France, lasting
  from 1789 to 1799
• France was temporarily transformed from an
  absolute monarchy to a republic of free and equal
  citizens. The effects of the French Revolution
  were widespread, both inside and outside of
  France, and the Revolution ranks as one of the
  most important events in the history of Europe

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Part I. The American independence

• American Revolution (1775-1783), conflict between
  13 British colonies in North America and Great
  Britain
• Two related events the American War of
  Independence (1775-1783) and the formation of the
  American government as laid out by the
  Constitution of the United States in 1787
• Prior to France's defeat in the French and Indian
  War (1754-1763), Britain had 13 colonies in North
  America
• Each colony was a separate entity Inter colony
  ties were not created until events, such as the
  French and Indian War and conflicts with Britain,
  united the colonists

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Lafayette (1757-1834), French military leader and
statesman, fought on the side of the colonists
during the American Revolution and took a
prominent part in the French Revolution Friend of
George Washington and a member of his staff, his
contributions in the Virginia campaign led to the
surrender of the British in Yorktown
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Part II. A New country

• 1507 A German cartographer called the New
  continent Americus in honor of the navigator
  Amerigo Vespucci
• 1513 The French reach the Mississipi
• 1607 First English settlement at Jamestown
• 1664 New Amsterdam became New York, after the
  Duke of York
• Spanish Florida in 1513 and New Mexico in 1540
• Russians in Alaska 1741
• 1776 The 13 British colonies become independent
• American constitution in 1787-1789
• 1861-65 Civil War, the North wins, slavery
  abolished

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On July 14, 1789 the mob, tired of the oppressive
brutality of the French monarchy, captured the
Bastille, the royal prison in Paris
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Part III. The revolution of 1789

• Causes
• Growing economic and social importance of the
  bourgeoisie
• Economic recession in the 1770s frustrated some
  bourgeois in their rise to power and wealth, and
  rising bread prices just before the Revolution
  certainly increased discontent among workers and
  peasants
• The revolutionary process started with a crisis
  in the French state by 1789 many French people
  had become critical of the monarchy (inefficient
  government and antiquated legal system)
• Versailles came to symbolize the waste and
  corruption of the Old Regime
• Influential group of professional intellectuals
  called the philosophes They redefined such terms
  as despotism, or the oppression of a people by an
  arbitrary ruler liberty and rights and the
  nation

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Louis XVI of France married to Marie-Antoinette,
considered a well-intentioned but weak king. A
heavy tax burden and court extravagances led to a
popular revolt against him and paved the way for
the Revolution. Louis was guillotined by the
revolutionary regime in 1793
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Part III. The revolution of 1789

• Events
• France participated in a series of costly
  warsthe War of the Austrian Succession
  (1740-1748), the Seven Years War (1756-1763),
  and the American Revolution (1775-1783)
• June 20 1789 the Tennis Court Oath by members of
  the National Assembly
• July 11 the popular minister of finance Necker
  was dismissed
• On July 14 the crowd assaulted the Bastille in
  Paris
• August 4, 1789, abolition of the privileges
• At the end of August, the National Assembly
  promulgated the Declaration of the Rights of Man
  and of the Citizen
• The king reluctantly approved the new
  constitution on September 14, 1791

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Part IV. Impact on Europe

• Bills of rights and constitutions, establishment
  of legal equality among all citizens, experiments
  with representative democracy, the incorporation
  of the church into the state, and the
  reconstruction of state administration and the
  law code
• Many of these changes were adopted elsewhere in
  Europe as well by choice in some places, but in
  others imposed by the French army during the
  French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1797) and the
  Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)
• The French Revolution provided the most
  influential model of popular insurrection until
  the Russian Revolution of 1917

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Conclusion

• The conflict between 13 British colonies in North
  America and their parent country, Great Britain
  ended with a declaration of independence.
• George Washington became the first president of
  the United States
• The war with England continued at the beginning
  of the 19th century
• The French Revolution was a political movement
  devoted to liberty, abolition of serfdom,
  slavery, inherited privilege, and judicial
  torture belief that a nation was not a group of
  royal subjects but a society of equal citizens
• The French revolution also promoted nationalism.
  Napoleons occupation provoked nationalism to
  organize in Italy and Germany
• The fact that most European countries are or are
  becoming parliamentary democracies, along the
  lines set out by the French Revolution, suggests
  its enduring influence

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References

• http//www.usahistory.info/colonies/New-Amsterdam.
  html
• http//www.newyorkhistory.info/
• http//encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/SRPage.aspx
  ?searchusahistory
• http//encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/SRPage.aspx
  ?searchfrenchrevolution