The Glorious Revolution, American and French Revolutions

Posted on Mar 9, 2026 in History

Great Britain: The Glorious Revolution (1688)

King: James II

Causes

  • He was Catholic.
  • He attempted to increase absolute royal power.
  • Protestants feared a Catholic dynasty.

Events

  • Protestant nobles invited William of Orange.
  • James II fled to France.
  • Parliament offered the crown to William and Mary.

Consequences

  • 1689: Bill of Rights
    • The king cannot suspend laws.
    • Cannot impose taxes without Parliament.
    • Cannot maintain a peacetime army without Parliament.

Result: Parliamentary monarchy (Parliament limits the king).

Act of Union (1707)

  • England and Scotland united.
  • Creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
  • One Parliament in London.
  • Separate legal systems were maintained.

The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763)

Main rivals: Great Britain and France.

Results:

  • Britain gained territories in North America, India, and Africa.
  • Became the dominant naval power.
  • The war was expensive, leading Britain to tax the colonies.

This directly contributed to the American Revolution.

The Thirteen Colonies

Organization

  • 13 British colonies in North America.
  • Governors appointed by the king.
  • Colonial assemblies managed internal affairs.

New Taxes (Causes of Revolution)

  • Stamp Act
  • Townshend Acts
  • Tea Act

Slogan: “No taxation without representation.”

Boston Tea Party (1773)

Colonists threw 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

British response: Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts).

American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)

Conflict between the colonies and Great Britain.

1776: Declaration of Independence

France supported the colonies. Key battles included the Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of Yorktown.

1783: Treaty of Paris

Britain officially recognized American independence.

United States Constitution (1787)

Main principles:

  • Popular sovereignty.
  • Federal republic.
  • Separation of powers:
    • Executive: President
    • Legislative: Congress (House of Representatives and Senate)
    • Judicial: Supreme Court

Important amendments:

  • 13th Amendment (1863): Abolished slavery.
  • 19th Amendment (1920): Women’s suffrage.

The French Revolution (1789–1799)

Crisis of the Ancien Régime

King: Louis XVI

Causes

  • Economic crisis.
  • War debt (including support for the American Revolution).
  • Privileges of nobility and clergy.
  • Enlightenment ideas.
  • Food shortages.
  • Estates-General (1789).

The Estates-General

  • Voting by estate (clergy, nobility, Third Estate).
  • The Third Estate demanded individual voting.
  • They formed the National Assembly.

Tennis Court Oath

They swore not to separate until France had a Constitution.

14 July 1789: Storming of the Bastille

Symbolic beginning of the Revolution.

Constituent Assembly

  • Abolished feudal privileges.
  • Constitution of 1791.
  • Constitutional monarchy.
  • Census suffrage.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen:
    • Liberty, Equality, and National sovereignty.
    • Did not include women.

1792: The Republic

  • Austria and Prussia attacked France.
  • Storming of the Tuileries.
  • King suspended; Republic proclaimed.

National Convention (1792–1795)

  • 1793: Execution of Louis XVI.
  • Slavery abolished.
  • Radical Constitution drafted (never applied).

Reign of Terror (1793–1794)

Leader: Maximilien Robespierre

  • Committee of Public Safety.
  • Mass executions.
  • 1794: Thermidorian Reaction; Robespierre executed.