French, Spanish, Polish & Prussian influence in the American Revolution

FRENCH SPANISH , POLISH AND PRUSSIAN INFLUENCE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Introduction

On one end of Europe to the other , a simple but dangerous anthem that brought a great change on the face of world history is the word why Time-honored certainties crumbled : traditional assumptions on the authority of society , the structure of the universe , and even the very existence of God , were put into question . Dare to know ' challenged thinkers and philosophers , just centuries before the wave of revolution took place in different parts and phases in Europe and America . This

also paved the way for the equal emphasis on practical and theoretical doctrines , which has placed great faith in innovation and a belief that all members of the human race had a right to share its fruits

Such principles as these , embodying new visions of human rights and opportunities , would be translated into action before the end of the century . In North America , England 's 13 colonies severed themselves from the mother country to forge a republic . In 1776 , the revolutionaries issued a Declaration of Independence , with a text that rang out with enlightened precepts , ranging from the practical notion of government accountability to the credo that every individual had a natural right to life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness . It would take eight years of war before the Declaration could be put into practice , and , when it was the power relationships within the new state revealed that Enlightenment still had its limitations : the land 's original inhabitants were being remorselessly driven into the wilderness , slavery was legal , and only a small percentage of the male population --- and at all of the female --- enjoyed the right to vote . Nevertheless , the principles of tolerance , self-determination and equal citizenship in a democratic republic had become reality , and the force of these ideas would prove unstoppable

Soon thereafter the Old World experienced its own revolutionary upheavals . In 1789 , France 's disaffected bourgeoisie and downtrodden poor rose up together against their weak but autocratic king . The men who came to power when the monarchy fell were the children of the Enlightenment . They had imbibed the unsentimental rationalism of Voltaire , the broad historical perspectives of Montesquieu , and the passionate social idealism of Jean Jacques Rousseau ( The Age of Reason . The bloody course of their Revolution , with its years of terror and turmoil , might have horrified these mentors , but the Revolution 's rallying cry of Liberty ! Equality ! Fraternity ' was a triumphant answer to a century of searching and fundamental questions

The American Revolution

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends , that is against the protection of life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness , it is the right of the people to change or to abolish it and to establish a new government laying the foundation on such government as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness

American Declaration of Independence

The signing of the Declaration of Independence as drafted by Thomas Jefferson...