Years 1509-47 1656 1558-1603 1609+ 1649-52

Dispossessed Fitzgeralds O’Moores Earl of O’Neill’s Catholic

Irish family O’Connor’s desmond O’Donnell’s landowners
{fitzgeralds}
results failure Land shired Undertakers *undertakers Act of
failure Garrisons *servitors settlement
New farming *Irish Protestant
methods landowners ascendancy
Towns Towns class
rebellion Success
Religion
Language
customs

Revolutionary
movements
Sources of discontent
• In the eighteenth century most countries in Europe
were ruled by monarchies. In England and France, for
example, kings and queens were in control.
• They were helped by the nobility, who were the
landowners.
• Monarchs believed they got their power to rule from
god. This was called the divine right of kings. They
believed that they had absolute (complete) power –
they had the power to make whatever laws they
wished.
• England only had a limited monarchy.
• England had a parliament, but countries with an
absolute monarchy didn’t.

The age of enlightenment

• This was also called the age of reason.
• The philosophes were French thinkers such as
Rousseau, Voltaire and Montesquieu.
• In America, their views were spread by the Englishman
Thomas Paine in his books “common sense” and “the
rights of man”.
The American war of
independence
Backgrounds and causes
• By the middle of the eighteenth century, English
settlers had established thirteen colonies in northern
America.
• The navigation acts were examples of Britain’s control
on America. They stated that products being exported
from, or imported to, America could be carried only in
English ships, and that some American products, such
as sugar, cotton and tobacco, could be sold only to
England.
• These laws lead to widespread smuggling by the
Americans, which lead to clashes with the English.
• In the seven years war (1756-63), the British and the
Americans combined to defeat the French, who had
colonies in Canada and America.
• To cover some of the costs of the war, the British
government passed the stamp act, which was very
unpopular.
• It stated that all newspapers, wills, legal documents,
etc had to be stamped by a stamp official, and the
Americans had to pay to do this.
• The Americans said “no taxation without
representation”, which meant that unless they were
represented in British parliament, Britain had no right
to impose these taxes on them.
• This became the slogan of the sons of liberty, who
campaigned to reduce British control of the colonies.
• Britain next imposed taxes on a number of imported
goods, including tea.
• When an angry crowd stoned British troops, the soldiers
opened fire and killed five people. The Americans call
this the Boston massacre.
• In December 1773, Americans disguised as Indians
dumped 342 crates of tea from British ships into Boston
harbour. The “Boston tea party” led the British
 government to close the port of Boston and impose
martial (military) law on the town.

The American war of independence begins

• When the British commander, General Gage, heard that
Americans were storing weapons and ammunition in
concord, a small town north of Boston, his reaction lead
to the incidents that sparked off the American war of
independence.

• As 800 British troops marched toward Lexington and

concord in April 1775, Paul revere rode his horse
through the night to warn people along the way.

• On Lexington green, British soldiers shot 8 and

wounded 10 Americans in the first incidents of the war.

• The British reached concord but the weapons had gone.

• On their way back, they were ambushed by the

Americans. 273 British soldiers were killed or wounded.

• Soon after this the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. The
British were victorious with huge American losses.

• Later, the British withdrew from Boston.

George Washington – early life

• George Washington was born on the 22nd of February
1732.

• He lived in Virginia on his family’s tobacco plantation,

Mount Vernon.

• He became a surveyor.

• He then became an officer in the British army.

 • He left the army in 1758 to marry Martha Dandridge.

Commander-in-chief
• He was elected to the local assembly because he was
critical of the British rule.

• He attended the 1st continental congress in

Philadelphia.

• He was then elected to the 2nd continental congress.

• In June 1775 he became commander-in-chief of the

continental (American) army.

• The continental congress passes the declaration of

independence on the 4th of July 1776.

Washington as commander
///////////////// British army Continental army
Advantages • Professional • Use of guerrilla
(full-time) tactics – used the
army and cover of the
navy British
countryside to
• Four times attack and
more soldiers retreat.

• Much stronger
navy, with
control of the
seas
disadvantages • Little • Part-time militia
knowledge of fighters, who
the sometimes went
countryside back home to
work on their
• Difficulty farms.
getting
recruits for • A mixed multitude
 the army and of people with
navy very little
discipline or order
• Use of
mercenaries, • Problems of
mostly thieving,
German, who drunkenness and
often smallpox disease.
deserted.

The progress of war

• There were a lot of problems for Washington in the war.

• In 1776 he ordered an invasion of the British-controlled

Canada, but this plan failed.

• Then New York was captured by the British.

• He was forced to retreat to Pennsylvania.

• Many of his soldiers deserted.

• However, he finally had a victory on the 25th of

December 1776 in Trenton, and then again in 1777 in
Princeton.

A turning point
• The year 1777 was a very important turning point in the
war, though Washington did not play a big part in it.

• The American general Horatio gates forced a large

British army to surrender at the battle of Saratoga.

• France, and later Spain and Holland, joined the war on

the American side.

Winter in Valley Forge

• Despite his victory at the battle of Princeton,
Washington was not successful in 1777.
 • He failed to stop the British from capturing Philadelphia,
which was regarded as the head of the 13 colonies.

• Washington and his army were forced to spend the

winter in Valley Forge.

• The conditions at Valley Forge were very difficult. Many

of the soldiers’ feet and legs froze until they went black.

The battle of Yorktown

• The war continued from 1778 to 1781, each side
winning some battles.

• The war ended in the battle of Yorktown in 1781.

• In it Washington and his army + the French navy

surrounded the British commander Cornwallis and
forced him to surrender.

• In 1783, the treaty of Versailles was signed and

England recognised America’s independence.

Washington: first president

• But Washington was soon recalled to become president
of the constitutional convention in Philadelphia.

• He became the first president of America, serving two

four-year terms.

• He was named “father of the united states”.

• He retired and returned to Mount Vernon, dying there in

1799.

The constitution
• America has a federal system of government.

• controller • What do they control?

 • states • education
• police
• local taxes
• federal (central) • foreign policy
government in • overseas trade
Washington D.C • army + navy

• In the American constitution the power is shared by:

• Executive (president) Rules the country

• Congress (senate and house Makes the laws
of representatives)
• Judiciary (supreme court) Decides whether
laws are in
agreement with
the constitution

The affects of the American war of independence

• The American declaration of independence was similar
to the French declaration of the rights of men and of
the citizen.

• The ideas of democracy brought back to France by

French soldiers.

• In Ireland, a volunteer movement grew up which won

greater independence for the Irish parliament form the
British government.

• The United States of America was founded and is now

the most powerful country in the world.
The French
revolution
Background and causes
• Cause no.1: France was an absolute monarchy.
It was ruled by King Louis XVI and his wife, Queen Marie
Antoinette.
They lived in the palaces of Versailles.

• Cause no.2: the privileges of the nobility and the clergy.

France was divided into three estates:

• First estate Clergy • No taxes

• Lived in
castles
• Second estate Nobility
• Third estate All other people: • taille – land
• Merchants tax
• Bankers • corvée –
• Lawyers peasants and
• Shopkeepers labourers had
• Farmers to repair the
• Small roads without
merchants pay
• tithe –
• Peasants
peasants had
• labourers
to hand over
one tenth of
their crops to
the clergy
every year
• Cause no.3: the French philosophes
the French philosophes were a group of French thinkers
that wanted the king to share his power with a
parliament.
 • Cause no.4: the influence of the American war of
independence.
The war spread many ideas to France.
France’s help in the war caused it to go bankrupt. This
made the king raise taxes, making the French people
want a revolution even more.

• Cause no.5: the meeting of the estates-general

in may 1789; the meeting of the estates-general was
called.
Straight away, there was an argument about the
system of voting.
The 3rd estate wanted a vote for each of its members,
so that its 621 members would outnumber the 1st
estate’s 308 members and the 2nd estate’s 265
members.
The 1st estate wanted 1 vote for each estate so that the
1st and 2nd estate’s 2 votes would outnumber the 3rd
estate’s 1 vote.
They came to no agreement.
The third estate was locked out of the meeting place in
Versailles.
The 3rd estate took the tennis court oath, promising that
they would stay together until the constitution was
drawn up.
The king ordered the 1st and 2nd estates to join the 3rd
estate and form the constituent assembly, later called
the national assembly.

The fall of the Bastille, 14th July 1789

• In 1789 there were severe bread shortages in Paris.

• The city of Paris formed its own militia (part-time

voluntary soldiers), called the National Guard.

• On the 14th July 1789 a large crowd stormed the

Bastille because they thought weapons were stored
there.
 • Noble’s houses were attacked and many nobles fled.
This was the start of the revolution.

The spread of the revolution

• The fall of the Bastille encouraged the middle class, the
peasants and the labourers in other parts of France to
take action.

• The national assembly responded to the attacking of

nobles’ houses by:
abolishing the feudal system (privileges of the nobles)
abolishing tithes
introducing the declaration of the rights of man.

• The declaration of the rights of man stated that:

man is born free and equal.
People have rights to liberty, property and security.
The law must be the same for all.
People have the right to speak, write and think what
they wish.

• These ideas are summed up in the phrase “liberty,

equality, fraternity”

The women of Paris

• Many people were still angry with the king and his wife,
Marie Antoinette.

• The women of Paris marched to Versailles because the

bread shortages continued.

• They forced themselves into the palace, making the

king have to move to Paris.

The flight to Varennes, 1791

• Louis continued to resist the revolution.

• He decided to leave Paris and go to Austria to get help

from his brother in law, the emperor of Austria.
 However he was caught in the village of Varennes and
brought back to Paris.

France at war
• Tension rose between France and Austria, and war was
declared on Austria in April 1792.

• Prussia joined the war on Austria’s side.

The storming of the tuileries

• There was now a great danger that the Austrians and
Prussians would win and give the king back his old
power.

• The people of Paris were very angry.

• The sans-culottes were especially angry. They were a

group of working class citizens that were very strong
supporters of the revolution. They got their name, sans-
culottes, which means “without breeches”, because
they wore trousers rather than the expensive knee
breeches that the richer people wore. In august 1792
they stormed the tuileries palaces where the king lived.

• The king was imprisoned by the national assembly.

The execution of the king

• Eventually, the news from the battlefields improved as
France gained the upper hand over Austria and Prussia.

• In 1792 France was declared a republic.

• The national assembly found Louis guilty of working

with the enemy to end the revolution.

• On the 21st of January 1793, King Louis XVI was

executed.

Robespierre and the terror.

 • The war was still in progress.

• The country was in great danger. The committee of

public safety was set up to protect it. The committee
had 12 members. Maximilien Robespierre was its
president.

• Robespierre’s nickname was the “incorruptible”

because of his honesty in financial affairs.

• He was also a member of the Jacobins, a political group

in revolutionary France.

• Britain, Holland, Spain, Prussia and Austria were

fighting in the war against France.

• Robespierre believed that what was needed to save

France and the revolution was a strong government
and a reign of terror.

Problems in France
• Robespierre and the committee of public safety were
faced with a number of problems:
+ opposition to the revolution from the
nobles.
+ Rebellions in the vendee and elsewhere.
+ The war
+ rising food prices.

The reign of terror

• The committee decided that violence and terror were
necessary to save to revolution.

• To solve the problem of opposition to the revolution,

the law of suspects was passes. This meant that was
thought to be against the revolution could fall victim to
the guillotine. The guillotine became the symbol of the
 reign of terror which lasted from June 1793 up until
Robespierre’s death in July 1794.

• Rebellions were put down cruelly, for examples in

Lyons, 30,000 people were killed.

• To solve the problem of war, 1 million soldiers were

recruited to the French army, which became bigger
than any of the opposing armies.

• To solve the problem of food prices, the law of

maximum was passed. This set the maximum price you
were allowed to sell certain goods for.

Death of Robespierre
• The revolution was no longer n danger, and many
expected the reign of terror to end.

• To put an end to the reign of terror, Robespierre and

100 of his supporters were guillotined on the 27th of July
1794.

• This ended the revolution and the terror.

The results of the French revolution.

• The ideas of the revolution, liberty, equality and
fraternity, spread to many other countries.

• Napoleon rose to power as a very successful army

commander and established the French legal system.

• Slavery was abolished in France.

• The power of the nobility was reduced, causing the

middle class to gain a great deal of power.

• The metric system was introduced in France.