Claim and Focus: Sample Essay
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1750 / LESSON 3.1ACTIVITYCLAIM AND FOCUS: SAMPLE ESSAYUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “Claim and Focus: Sample Essay”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1Political Revolutions Sample EssayPrompt: What were the most significant causes of political revolutions during the long nineteenth century? (c. 1750 to 1914 CE)From the year 1750 to the year 1914, the world underwent an intense wave of societal changes and developments never seen before. This period, preceded by the Age of Enlightenment in which radical philosophers began examining the role of government under a newfound microscope of reason and logic, is commonly known as the long 19th century. It included critical moments in history like the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and more. These political revolutions were caused by many factors including the spread of liberal ideas developed during the Enlightenment, the actions of neighboring countries, and the tyrannical rule of the monarchy.Enlightenment-era ideas of a government’s role and how it should function provoked a series of revolutions during the long 19th century. John Locke, an English philosopher who argued that all men had inherent rights to life, liberty, and property, wrote that no man should “be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man” (Doc. 4). People already unsatisfied with absolute monarchies liked this idea and made them want to start a revolution because it justified pushing back against the rule of someone given power just by their birth. Another example of the profound impact of these philosophers can be found in Mariano Moreno’s (an Argentine politician) petition to the Spanish government: Moreno tells the king that the best way to do the Argentinians good is how “reason and the celebrated Adam Smith...lead us to see that governments that want to provide for the general good should be limited to removing obstacles” (Doc. 6).Additionally, the revolutionaries were inspired by the actions and ideas from other countries that had spread across various networks. For instance, the French satirist, Voltaire, writes of his visit to England that, unlike French taxes, “When the bill haspassed the lords and is signed by the king, then the whole nation pays, every man in proportion to his revenue or estate, not according to his title, which would be absurd” (Doc. 7). Also, this is apparent in Doc. 2 when the author writes, “On the establishment of independence of the United States of North America, a vague aspiration from the similar enfranchisement of Brazil was undoubtedly cherished there.” Though Armitage does call this hope a vague one, it is important to consider that this was merely one man’s opinion and that despitehow distant the root of this hope was, it still managed to
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 3.1ACTIVITYCLAIM AND FOCUS: SAMPLE ESSAY2spark hope and build morale for Brazilians. Clearly, these revolutionaries were inspired by ideas that had spread around the world.Abbe Lefeuvre, writes about how the increasing number of poor people (who were “destitute of any aid” from the government) had no choice but to leave for the city just to be sent back to the country where they continued to live in acute poverty. The state enacted edicts to help the poor, but these edicts required parishes to feed the poor -it was like asking “for the poor to feed the poor” (Doc. 1). Being a priest working in one of these parishes, the narrator would have been under a tremendous burden to help the suffering poor, a job that the current political system failed to do. This made people feel dissatisfaction and resentment between the government and its people who were forced to make up for the failings of their government. He says that the best way in which the state could have helped the poor was to lower taxes, but instead, all they did was increase them. These unfair taxes show how the government only worsened the lives of the poor, and it showed the French that the only way they could live prosperous lives was by fighting back. Hannah Griffitts implored other women to cease purchasing tea to protest unjust taxation (Doc. 3). In 1773, just five years after Griffitts wrote this poem, American revolutionaries dumped hundreds of boxes of tea into the Boston harbor to protest the tea tax. This event demonstrates the way that people living under a monarchy without adequate representation decided they had had enough of a system that seemed to only benefit those born into nobility.Because of the influences of Enlightenment philosophies, the actions of neighboring countries, and the oppressive way in which monarchs governed, the long 19th century encountered a series of political revolutions. These revolutions and the events that molded them have changed the way societies function and govern, but also how people understand themselves as autonomous individuals. Even hundreds of years later, the events of the long 19th century continue to teach lessons about the importance of freedom and liberty.