American & French Revolutions & Age of Enlightenment
The late eighteenth century witnessed ideological and political upheavals driven by Enlightenment philosophies advocating individual liberty, popular sovereignty, and constitutional governance. The American Revolution (1775–1783), sparked by colonial resistance to British taxation without representation, culminated in the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and the drafting of the US Constitution in 1787. In 1789, fiscal crisis and social inequality between the Three Estates triggered the French Revolution, marked by the Storming of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The revolution dismantled absolute monarchy and feudal privileges, navigated the radical Jacobin Reign of Terror under Robespierre, and culminated in the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Key Concepts & Examination Highlights
- The American Declaration of Independence was drafted principally by Thomas Jefferson and adopted on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia.
- The French Revolution began on July 14, 1789, with the storming of the Bastille fortress prison in Paris.
- The French National Assembly adopted the 'Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen' on August 26, 1789, declaring universal liberty and equality.
- Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and introduced the Napoleonic Civil Code, which reformed legal systems across Europe.