The whole point of America becoming its own sovereign country was Britain’s overbearing control on the colonies. Many early Americans had concerns and feared a government in which, by design, could become too strong. Consequentially, the Democratic – Republican party (later known to historians simply as the Republican Party) was formed with ideas of smaller government and thusly, less control. A semblance of the rivalry between the parties in the United States could be seen in the French Revolution. The Republicans supported the popular forces in the French Revolt and wanted America to assist.
At the time the United States was hoping to use their alliance with France to gain an advantage over the British, but did not want to lose their much needed trade with the British. At the beginning of the revolution, the Americans were enthusiastic and hoped that the revolution would strengthen their alliance with the French against the British. It was the violent nature of the conflict that divided the United States’ views. The changes in France caused the already present political divisions in the United States to grow. Because Jefferson believed the French had supported the United States during their revolution against the British, the pro-French Republicans lead by Thomas Jefferson should in return support the ideals of the French
The loss of English territories in France was the main cause of York’s hatred of Somerset and worsened the relationship between Henry and York, whose relationship was already strained because of the court faction’s suspicions of York’s intentions and fears of attainder. York and the Neville’s wanted to see better governance and for Henry to regard them equally as the Beaufort’s. The feud between Somerset and York was because York felt dishonoured by Somerset’s easy surrender of Rouen and other lands of York’s appanage in 1450. As the son of Richard, Earl of Cambridge; who was executed for treason against Henry V, York was sensitive to the issue of family honour. He presented an article to the king in 1452, criticising Somerset for his failure to defend Rouen from attack and his surrender of Rouen in 1449 despite soldiers protesting.
England was effectively bankrupt and on the edge of internal demise via privet feuds. The battle of St Albans can be pinned as the marking point for the start of the war,, but this would be highly unconventional to blame the conflict on one point such as this, as many other factors had been building up to this event since 1427 such as when Henry VI came of age. He was known as a puppet King, led by the government. It was this governmental rule that caused chaos amongst England and divided it as such, hope for the king to rule England efficiently with an iron hand seemed like an improbable dream. There was a massive loss of resources and income after the recline of land in France, leading to the powerful men of England to take arms in aid of their lords this lead to the battle of St Albans The weakness of royal power can be pin pointed to the king.
Although Zinn argues that the conflicts caused by the differentiating social classes in order to dissolve the class divisions was the main cause of the American Revolution, the “other side of the story” is told by Schweikart and Allen, as they reason that it was actually the British who unknowingly burdened the colonies with oppression, which brought about the revolution itself. In Zinn’s fourth chapter of A People’s History of the United States, Tyranny is Tranny; he focuses more on the class differences in society that triggers the opposition against England, rather than the effects of British oppression. He states that the “American leadership was less in need of English rule, and the English more in need of the colonists’ wealth” (Zinn 60). With this said, the colonists then focused more on the pursuit of exploitation and profit, which would definitely spark rebellions of the poor against the rich especially because the poor had been overwhelmed by British taxes and the fact that only a small percentage of the wealthy controlled a huge majority of the city’s taxable assets. For this reason, the poor developed a hatred for the upper class that would
The dispute over the Alien and Sedition Acts exposed bitter disagreements on a number of issues. Some of these important issues include immigration, concern of becoming a monarchy, and foreign policy. One of the many underlying issues that
Opposing ideas were being expressed in the parliament in England, some supporting others against the war. The portraits of the Georges on both sides of the Atlantic were provided. King George III, so often portrayed as awkward, arrogant, is given a more thoughtful treatment, he considered the colonists to be petulant subjects without legitimate complaint. His attitude led him to underestimate the will and capabilities of the Americans, “the war with ‘our brethren’ in America was unjust… fatal and ruinous to our country.” At that point in the revolution, George Washington was chosen as the commander-in-chief and he was making wise decision on choosing his
As the Cold War continued, the American public grew discontent with the handling of the disputes . They grew restless of the ongoing conflict and the injustices that were being committed by the American military towards these countries and the abuse that our American troops were experiencing at home. The Civil Rights movement again saw this as an opportunity to insert their agenda along with other injustices into the national picture. With the sentiment swaying against the established institution it was easier to gain public support for civil rights. The Cold War was fought to end the oppression and maltreatment of other countries citizens.
THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTION The revolution between the French and Americans were being forced by liberty and equality. Both wanting to obtain freedom by the high ranking monarchs. Differences were mainly visible between these two revolutions, such as the Americans wanting to get some sort of freedom from the taxes and laws that were forced buy Great Britain. Great Britain was a strong and powerful “group”. Whereas the French wanted a revolution to be freed from the monarchs that were implementing things in France.
A) What is ironic is that Jefferson, one of the men who was most apposed of the Alien and Sedition Acts, looked down on immigration. He believed that immigrants will bring in ideas from their previous government, and will cause the United States to slowly become an anarchy or a monarchy. (Doc. B) This leads in to another underlying concern with the Alien and Sedition Acts: the fear that the newly formed United States democracy would cave into a monarchy. The Sedition Act made it illegal to insult the federal government verbally or published in writing.