6.1.1


 * Global Revolutions** [[image:button_era_6.png align="right" link="WHG Era 6"]]

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The Enlightenment
Enlightenment was a stage where philosophers began to think that people did things out of natural law. An example of that would be gravity, there are scientific laws for it. Some people thought that since there were laws that control things like gravity, then there should be some specific laws that explain how people work and how they should be governed.

The people who tried finding these laws were called philosophes (also known as philosophers). John Locke and Thomas Hobbes were a couple of these philosophes who began discovering these laws. Thomas Hobbes believed that people were cruel, greedy, and selfish, and thought that people needed to be governed by strict rule. One of these solutions was a social contract, where people should sign, to give up their natural freedoms, so that everyone could have an organized society. However, Locke had different ideas. He believed that a strict government wasn't needed. Locke believed in free trade and natural rights.

There were also others who thought of different kinds of government that they thought would be the best for ruling society. One of these such thinkers was Baron de Montesquieu, who had an idea that the three branches of government would be the solution. The problem was that half of the people of Europe wanted a strict government, and the other half of the government believed that a strict government wasn't needed to have an organized society.

Later on in history, the ideas of these philosophers were used for government, such as America. As the Framers of the United States Constitution were writing the Constitution, they observed the ideas of thinkers, like Montesquieu, Locke, and Hobbes, to determine how their new country should be governed. They wound up using Montesquieu's idea of a federal government, which has three branches (executive, judicial, and legislative). They liked this idea because each branch has a check (ability to cancel actions) on the others, so one branch couldn't have too much power. Also, it was a government that was run by the people.

The American Colonies Affect On Britain
The colonies that formed during the 1700's had a big impact on Britain. This was mainly because of the American Revolution, which was about the colonies gaining their independence. This was a bit unexpected to Britain, since the colonies were meant to be an expansion of their empire.

Britain had spent a lot of money during the Seven Years War, mainly because they were fighting a war overseas in the colonies. So, they had to figure out a way to replace that money. A solution they came up with to solve this problem, was to place heavy taxes on the colonies. They didn't place these taxes without a reason though. King George III strongly thought that the colonies should help pay for the Seven Years War, because Britain was trying to protect them, and it was expensive. Britain had to pay for supplies to be shipped over to the troops in the colonies, as well as sending more troops and making sure that they were kept fed. This didn't go too well with the colonists, and they revolted, in such ways as the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre. These events led to the colonists wanting independence. Hence, the start of the American Revolution.

During the American Revolution Britain went deeper into debt, and weakened Britain's global power. Afterwords, they had lost the colonies they had formed in America that were //supposed// to have a positive affect on Britain.

The Causes and Effects of the French Revolution


France tore apart when the religious war began in the 1560s. These wars were between the Catholics and Huguenots. On August 24, 1572, Huguenot and his Catholic nobles were gathered for a royal wedding, a plot by the Catholic royals led to the massacre to 3,000 Huguenots. The next few days, thousands more were slaughtered. For many, the saint Bartholomew's day massacre symbolizes the complete breakdown of the order in France. They lost a lot of money and the economy went down.

The constant fear of being under attack sent the towns people and the peasants into a constant panic. The peasants well, went crazy. They set things on fire and went on rampages.

On August 10, 1792, Parisians stormed the royal palace of the Tuileries and slaughtered the king's guards. A month later, citizens attacked prisons and about 1,200 prisoners were killed among those who were just regular criminals. France was now at war with most of Europe, including Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Prussia. In one region of France, all the hectic commotion going on for some years now, Royalist and Priests led peasants into rebellion against the government. The economy dropped tremendously when the Committee of Public safety, a committee created to prepare France for what was to come, put the mass levy into play, that required all citizens to contribute to the war effort.