Cameron Campbell

1/30/18
AP Euro
Reading and Responses Ch. 19
1. There are several general factors that led to the revolutions in the late 18th century. First,
the Enlightenment philosophy removed the authority of the monarchy and the church,
promoting a society based on reason instead of traditions. Next, the emergence of an
influential merchants, which aspired to political equality with other social classes. In
addition, new taxations inflamed the masses against monarchical power. Assemblies
became an important democratic area where resistance to royal reforms was organized.
Finally, higher prices in basic commodities such as grain were beginning to arrive. The
changes came together in a society that was ready for a revolution.
2. American colonists were always very independent people. They longed to have their own
government and make their own decisions without the British interfering. Americans
didn’t like having to make political decisions based on Britain and also hated being ruled
by a small island all the way across an ocean. The process of American independence
began when the Americans had to pay, through tax, a large share of war debt from the
French and Indian war. The American colonists hated being taxed if they weren’t being
represented in British parliament. This combination of taxes and lack of representation
made many Americans mad and soon a strong anti-British feeling arose. Many patriots
started to lead the call for an independent America. They became very influential and a
fight for an independent America was in full effect. People got guns and ammunition
ready and soon the Revolutionary War was underway. After the Americans won, they
became a separate nation from Great Britain.
3. The events of 1789 were the Tennis Court Oath, the Storming of the Bastille and the
formation of the National Assembly. These events resulted in a constitutional monarchy
with a lot bloodshed with the revolution. The first constitution emerged because the third
estate was mad at the first two estates because of their assumed superiority and because
of the way they could both easily outvote the third estate. To try and fix this, the third
estate drafted a constitution which was accepted by King Louis XVI. After the
acceptance of this the NA dissolved itself, giving way to the Legislative Assembly, a
group of young, enlightened individuals with not a lot of government experience. This is
when we see the consequences of constitutional monarchy come into play. The
Legislative Assembly was led mostly by the Jacobin group who, at the time, were
extremely radical. They proposed new things such as reforms that were completely
unheard of by most of the people there. At the forefront of this group was Robespierre, a
radical who was hell bent on his beliefs. He started the mass executions against internal
potential enemies. The consequences of the constitutionalist monarchy were a new,
radical Legislative Assembly with no political experience, terror, and mass death and
execution.
4. The French Revolution took a radical and crazy turn when Robespierre was placed at the
head. Most of the country's problems that happened during the revolution began because
of this. First, Robespierre decided that the country could not be truly free while there
Cameron Campbell
1/30/18
AP Euro
Reading and Responses Ch. 19
were still wealthy people living in it. After this declaration, a long and unfortunately
successful campaign to kill wealthy people began. Robespierre also started to believe that
people did not agree with his policies or ideas which led to his executing many people he
suspected of siding against him or spreading anti-Robespierre ideas or really anything
that he deemed "bad". The revolution also took a radical in Europe because Robespierre
deemed it a good idea to wage war with multiple countries at once. This came at a time
when France was still in pieces and didn't really have powerful standing army. This
meant that men were needed to wage the countries wars, leading to more conflict as many
people didn't want to volunteer especially under a leader such as Robespierre. All of
theses wars also created more tensions with European countries that made France have an
even harder time when the country just needed to focus on repairing itself and not on
fighting with other powers.
5. There were many reasons that contributed to Napoleon’s assumption of control of France.
The first was his newness. By that I mean he was a fresh face who came at a time when
the French were tired of their old ways. After years of absolutism, the French people
wanted someone who they felt would serve them. Napoleon also said whatever he wanted
to say, not caring what effects his statements had. Napoleon had no regard for
government and made ridiculous speeches which led to him being extremely popular with
the middle class, which the majority in France at the time. Napoleon took control of most
of Europe because, despite his lack of political experience, he was a brilliant military
strategist and managed to beat other countries by taking advantage of his wit and
intelligence. The factors that led to his downfall all pretty much came from one:
Napoleon adopted Robespierre’s idea of declaring war on multiple nations at once. This
went well for a short time but quickly the economy started to decline and France became
unstable. This all came together, in a bad way when Napoleon attempted to conquer
Russia. He fell victim to its unforgiving winter and returned to France with the majority
of his 600,000 men army died, were killed, or were taken prisoner. He was tried for his
crimes and exiled to the small island of Elba.
6. The slave revolt on St. Domingue led to the creation of independent Haiti in the same
way that most other revolts did: it got the ball rolling. After the initial revolt many related
ideas spread around the island at a time when France was very unstable. The island was
cut off from all of the French benefits except for taxation. The combination of the slave
revolt against the government in place on the island as well as hearing about the
successful American revolution against the British inspired the colonists of St. Domingue
to come to the realization that if they seceded from France that France would be too busy
trying to fix its own problems to even really care. After St. Domingue seceded, other
neighboring colonies were inspired and did the same. Eventually they all came together
to form the independent state of Haiti.