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SPAIN’S EMPIRE AND EUROPEAN ABSOLUTISM

 Age of Absolutism was the period around the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when
Europe was ruled by very powerful monarchs. These monarchs ruled by Divine Right or the
belief that their powers came from God.

ABSOLUTE MONARCHS IN EUROPE

 Rulers in Spain, France, England and other European countries were torn between two
conflicting philosophies whether to embrace absolutism as against a limited monarchy which
both required them to keep their staying power in their respective kingdoms not necessarily by
war but by means of properly arranged marriages. In this lesson you will encounter powerful
personalities connected to formidable families which not only secured a balance of power but
created a new trend in mapping out nations in Europe.

SPANISH EMPIRE

The reign of King Philip II was considered the beginning of absolutism in Spain. He
became King of Spain from 1556 to 1598. His empire includes Spain, the Netherlands, and the
rest of overseas colonies in Italy, Africa and Americas. During those years he became in charge of
almost everything inside his court. His office consisted of piles of paperwork on various aspects
about the kingdom even the minutest ones like details about his own burial.

The palace known as Escorial in Madrid, Spain served as an office, a home, and even a
mausoleum for the Spanish monarchs. Like his father, Philip II faced many challenges which
were also inherited including the problem of the Ottoman Turks. During his reign, he joined forces
with the Pope and the Republic of Venice in Italy in the naval battle in 1571 at Lepanto, near
Greece. They successfully subdued the Turks and freed more than 10,000 Christians who were
held as slaves.
King Philip II also inherited Portugal and merged it with his empire when the Portuguese king
died in 1580. Thus, the rivalry between Spain and Portugal ended when the latter’s dominance in
exploration and colonization waned when Philip II took over their possessions. He also faced
religious concerns in the Netherlands ( present- day Netherlands and Belgium) as the Dutch
headed by William the Silent, Prince of Orange rebelled against Philip II in 1566 when the latter

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prohibited them from practicing their Calvinist faith. Philip’s desire to create a Catholic Kingdom
forced him to impose Inquisition on his Dutch subjects. Thus, by 1581 the Dutch in the Northern
provinces declared themselves as a republic and became United Netherlands with Calvinism as
their state religion while the southern section remained as Catholics and were called Spanish
Netherlands.

After engaging in several internal and external conflicts in his kingdom, King Philip’s most
challenging event which caused his downfall was his conflict with England, another
European monarchy. This conflict began when England’s ruler, Queen Elizabeth I of the Tudor
Dynasty openly supported the Dutch in their rebellion against Spain.

When the Dutch revolt broke out, Elizabeth sent troops to aid the Protestants and even raided
Spanish explorers with a group of “sea dogs” or pirates headed by Sir Francis Drake that looted
Spain’s ship which carried gold from the Americas. Enraged by these actions, Philip II sent the
“Invincible Spanish Armada” along the English Channel in 1588. The armada comprised of 130
ships with over 3 000 canons set to attack England. However, terrible storms sunk half of the
number of the ships and resulted to an abrupt defeat on the part of Spain. The remaining Spanish
ships retreated to Scotland and Ireland and thus became the signal for the decline of the Spanish
dominance in Europe. By 1700s, Spain’s naval power lacked luster and resulted to its eventual
downfall. The Hapsburg line of rulers met its end after Philip II,s death.

Other factors which contributed to the fall of Spain:

1. Costly wars which involved Spanish monarchs for the past centuries beginning with the rule of
Charles V and Philip II drained Spain’s treasury ;
2. The expulsion of many Muslims and Jews in Spain deprived them from earning funds from
agriculture and enterprise;
3. Excessive sheep raising for wool production replaced farming as Spain’s major industry;
4. Spanish government’s dependence on gold and silver supplies from their colonies depleted
especially when the English and Dutch sea dogs raided Spanish ships which carried gold from the
Aztecs and the Incas.

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FRANCE

The Valois Dynasty of France was a longtime rival of the Hapsburg Dynasty of Spain. The
French monarchs envied the vast territories of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire. Even before the
rise of Charles V, the expansion of France’s territorial possession was on top of their priority list
especially when the cunning Valois King Louis XI(1461-1483) came to power. He came to be known
as the “Spider King” because of his ability to conspire with other influential people to form
machinations by means of bribery, diplomacy, treachery and taking advantage of the intrigues which
destroyed his rival families.

Likewise, Valois successor Francis I attempted to control the Holy Roman Empire but lost to
Charles V during the election of 1516. He then resulted to forming an alliance with England, his
former enemy through Henry VIII to put down Charles V. However, the Tudor king backed up Charles
V. He made several military campaigns to include Italy in his kingdom but all failed.

Francis I’s son, Henry II was the king of France when a civil war broke out following the mass
persecution of the Huguenots or the French Calvinists. Being an active supporter of the spread of
Catholicism in France from 1559 to 1589,Henry II together with his wife Catherine de Medici, his son
Henry III, and the head of the Conservative Catholic Party Henry of Guise were responsible for
terrorizing the Huguenots during the so called St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in August 1572 in
which over 10 000 Huguenots were brutally killed because of the marriage of Huguenot leader Henry
of Navarre of the Bourbon Family and Margaret de Valois. The assassination of Henry III and Henry
of Guise in 1588 ended the Valois dynasty. Thus, the Bourbon house gained royal ascendancy in the
person of Henry of Navarre who became Henry IV, as the new king of France and the first in the
Bourbon Dynasty in France. By 1594, Henry IV embraced the Catholic faith. His conversion marked
the end of the religious wars in France following the issuance of the Edict of Nantes in 1598 which
tolerated the Huguenots to openly practice their religion and allowed them to hold public office in the
French government. This policy created internal peace in France and respect for the Bourbon
monarch was established thereafter.

Henry IV was assassinated by a religious fanatic in 1610 and was succeeded by his nine-year-old
son Louis XIII. Marie de Medici, Henry IV second wife acted on her son’s behalf. However, her poor
leadership gave way for the dominance of her chief royal adviser Cardinal Armand Richelieu. From
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1624 to 1642, Cardinal Richelieu had the upper hand on both domestic and external affairs of France.
He engineered ways to make the French King absolute over his subjects and France won supremacy
all over Europe.
Louis XIV who was only five years old then, became the successor of Louis XIII after his death in
1643. He ruled France with the guidance of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, a loyal follower of Cardinal
Richelieu. By the time he came of age as king of France beginning 1661, his 72-year -reign was
characterized by absolute power based on the doctrine of the “Divine Right “ of kings .
Louis XIV referred to himself as the “Sun King” for he believed that just like the sun at the center of
the solar system; he is also the center of the state where everybody revolves. He was the life-giver to
the state and thus, his popular expression “L etat,c’est moi” _ (“I am the state”) came to mean the
triumph of absolutism in France.

CENTRAL EUROPEAN MONARCHS CLASH

While Spain under the Hapsburgs had declined by the seventeenth century, the Hapsburgs
rulers of Austria remained the leading family in Europe. Through their ties to Spain and as Holy
Roman Emperors, the Austrian Hapsburgs dominated much of the continent. Only Bourbon France
was a serious rival for political dominance, but religious conflicts were challenges to Hapsburgs
authority. These conflicts led to the long and destructive Thirty Years‘ War.
European states try to maintain a balance of power. Starting in the 16th century, the states
of Europe became concerned with maintaining a balance of power. That is why they tried to prevent
anyone state from becoming so strong that it could dominate the others. In the 16 th and 17th centuries,
the balance of power was threatened by both Spanish and Austrian Hapsburgs.
Hapsburgs rulers claim Bohemia. In the 16th century, Bohemia was a prosperous state with
a population made up of Czechs and Germans. Complex political and family ties linked Bohemia with
neighboring Austria, Hungary, Poland and the German states. In 1516, Louis II, the grandson of
Poland’s ruler, became king of both Bohemia and Hungary. Louis was killed resisting the Ottoman
Turks at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. Hoping for Austria’s help against the Turks, the nobles gave
the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary to Ferdinand I, the Hapsburg ruler of Austria (who was married
to Louis’ sister). This made Bohemia part of the Hapsburg domains.
Religious differences in Bohemia lead to war. The question of Hapsburg power in Bohemia
involved religious differences as well as politics. After Reformation, Bohemia became a battleground
between the Catholic Hapsburg and the Czech and German Protestants. The Protestant Czechs
treasured the memory of John Huss, the religious reformer who had been executed for heresy in
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1415. In 1618, the Czech nobles rebelled against their Hapsburg ruler. Ferdinand II, and killed
several officials. The following year, Ferdinand II became Holy Roman Emperor and ended the
religious toleration that the Bohemian Protestants had been promised earlier. In response, the
Bohemians deposed him and chose Frederick V, a German Protestant prince, as their king. They
hoped this would bring them support from the Protestant rulers of England and the Netherlands, who
were related to King Frederick.
The war involves many states. The Czech uprising marked the beginning of the Thirty Year’s
War (1618-1648), a conflict that eventually engulfed most of the major European states. Emperor
Ferdinand II soon sought support from other Catholic rulers. A Spanish army was sent by his
Hapsburg cousin, Philip III of Spain, and by another cousin, Maximillian, the Catholic ruler of the
German state of Bavaria. In 1620, this allied army quickly defeated the Bohemians at the Battle of
White Mountain and deposed Frederick. The emperor gave Frederick’s German territories to
Maximillian.
The war began to spread when the Bavarian army attacked Protestant regions in northern
Germany and threatened territory held by Denmark. King Christian IV of Denmark entered the conflict
in order to protect the Protestants, prevent the restoration of Catholic rule in Germany, and increase
his own land holdings. In 1626, however, he was defeated by the brilliant Austrian general Albrecht
Wallenstein, and Denmark soon left the war.
Other states try to maintain the balance of power. The Hapsburg victories allowed Emperor
Ferdinand II to take over the estates of the rebellious Protestant nobles in Bohemia as well as the
lands of several Lutheran princes in Germany. He ordered the return of property taken from the
Catholic Church since the Reformation. He also expelled Protestant clergy and teachers from
Bohemia and imposed Hapsburg rule on the embittered Czechs.
The increasing power of the Hapsburg Holy Roman emperor alarmed other European rulers.
The religious differences that had begun the war were overshadowed by the struggle to maintain the
balance of power. To prevent Hapsburg domination, both Catholic France and Protestant Sweden
entered the conflict on the side of the German Protestants.
Swedish forces invaded Germany in 1630, led by King Gustavus Adolphus, one of the great
generals in modern history. Under the leadership of this “Lion of the North,” the Swedes turned back
the Hapsburg advance. Although Gustavus Adolphus was killed in battle in 1632, he had kept the
Protestant German states from falling to Hapsburg rule.
In 1635, Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII brought France into the war, allied with the
Protestant forces of Sweden, the Netherlands, and the German princes. From 1635 to 1648, the
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forces of the French and Swedish armies hammered away at the forces of the Spanish and Austrian
Hapsburgs. The armies of both sides slaughtered innocent civilians and destroyed towns and farms.
Probably over a third of the German population died during the conflict. Flight from war and
oppression may have reduced the Bohemian population from three million to 800,000.
The Thirty Years’ War has lasting results. Five years of peace talks eventually brought
about the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Although the Thirty Years’ War caused few territorial
changes, it affected the European balance of power in several ways.
The Hapsburgs, as Holy Roman Emperors, had failed in their attempts to impose Catholicism
throughout the empire and to unite the German states, The war thus ended the medieval dream of a
Europe fully united under the Holy Roman Emperor and faithful to the Roman Catholic Church. The
treaty left the German prices free to rule their own states and choose their own religion. Though the
German people did not have this choice, the treaties promised them the right to emigrate if they
wished. With the loss of Hapsburg power, France was the leading state in Western Europe, while
Sweden dominated the area around the Baltic Sea. Spain finally recognized the independence of
United Netherlands, while Switzerland, also Protestant, became independent of the control of the
Holy Roman Empire.
The Thirty Years’ War was the last of the religious wars brought about by the Reformation.
Monarchs no longer went to war or made alliances purely for religious reasons. After the middle of the
seventeenth century, the politics of states were determined more by the threats to their security and
by desire for land and economic power.

Note: Taken from the book “A History of the World”(Revised Edition) by Perry, Marvin, Houghton
Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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PARLIAMENT LIMITS THE POWER OF THE ENGLISH MONARCH

The case of England was different from all the other monarchies in Europe. Since the Medieval
Period, the English monarchy exercised limited power because of the presence of the Parliament as
a result of the charter signed with the nobility during the leadership of King Edward I. The Parliament
was significant in the major political decisions in their government such as the funding and deciding
for plans of action taken by England during the Hundred Years’ War.
England flourishes under Elizabeth I. Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558. Intelligent, self-
confident and respected by all, Elizabeth was one of the great monarchs of European history.
Elizabeth’s 45-year reign was one of England’s greatest ages. Despite challenges to her rule,
Elizabeth succeeded in keeping peace within her kingdom. She showed respect for English traditions,
chose excellent advisers and was able to persuade Parliament to approve her policies. The spirit of
Renaissance also made Elizabethan England a time of remarkable artistic creativity.
England prospered under Elizabeth. English merchants, searching for new markets and raw
materials, traded around the world. England gained its first trading post in India, and London became
a busy center of commerce. By increasing overseas trade, expanding the English army, and
sponsoring voyages of discovery, Elizabeth laid the foundations of an empire.
The Church of England became solidly established during Elizabeth’s reign. A moderate
Protestant, Queen Elizabeth generally favored religious toleration.
Parliament clashes with Stuart kings. Mary Stuart’s son( Elizabeth’s cousin) James I
,succeeded Elizabeth in 1603. James, however, lacked the queen’s abilities either to persuade
officials and politicians or to win the English people’s support. James claimed to rule by divine right
and so was involved in an almost constant struggle with Parliament, which was determined to take a
greater role in government England.
During the reign of Charles I (1625-1649), the son of James I, tensions between Parliament
and the monarch intensified. The conflict centered on two issues – taxes and religion. Because of
extravagant spending and for foreign wars with France and Spain both James I and Charles I were
constantly short of funds. When Charles asked Parliament for more money in 1628, Parliament
refused until the king would agree to sign the Petition of Right. Like the Magna Carta, the Petition of
Right is one of the foundations of English liberty. It limited the power of the king and set forth specific
rights: 1) The monarch could not collect taxes without Parliament’s consent ;2) Civilians could not be
forced to provide food and shelter for soldiers; 3) Military law could not be imposed in time of peace;
4) No person could be imprisoned except upon a specific charge.
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Although Charles agreed to sign to the Petition of Right, he continued to levy taxes in a
manner that parliament considered illegal. When Parliament protested, Charles dismissed it. For the
next eleven years, the king ruled without Parliament.
Religious divisions bring unrest in England and Scotland. Charles’s troubles with
Parliament were made worse by his religious policies. While the Church of England had become the
established church in Elizabeth’s reign, some people remained Roman Catholic and a growing
number followed other Protestant faiths. The English Protestants called Puritans wanted to “purify”
the Church of England by eliminating what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices. Puritans
criticized the wearing of rich robes by the clergy, the ornamentation in churches, elaborate rituals, and
kneeling at communions.
James I turned down the Puritans’ request for changes in church practices. He did sponsor a
new English translation of the Bible published in 1611 which is commonly called the “King James
Version.”
In the reign of Charles I, the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, encouraged harsh
persecutions of Puritans. Many were imprisoned or fined. They continued to gain supporters,
however, particularly among middle-class townspeople, and they were well represented in the
Parliament.
In 1637 Charles I tried to impose Anglican (Church of England) forms of worship in Scotland.
The Lowland Scotch, who were Calvinist Presbyterians, rose in revolt. Needing funds to fight in
Scotland, Charles was forced to call a meeting of Parliament in 1640. As Parliament refused to vote
Charles money unless its complaints were settled, the king dissolved it after three weeks. It is thus
known as the Short Parliament.
Parliament places more limits on the monarch’s power. Desperate for funds, Charles
called for new elections to Parliament in November 1640.The new Parliament was not officially
dissolved until 1653 and is known as the Long Parliament.
This Parliament was also determined to reduce the monarch’s powers. It passed laws calling
for regular sessions of the Parliament and abolishing the special court called the Star Chamber,
where royal officials had held secret trials. Laws also made it illegal for the monarch to raise taxes
without Parliament’s consent. The laws passed by the Long Parliament were landmarks in the growth
of liberty in England.
The Glorious Revolution of November 1688 or Revolution of 1688, covers events leading to
the deposition of James II and VII, and replacement by his daughter Mary II and her dutch husband,
William III of Orange.
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The Glorious Revolution was a major step in establishing Parliament’s supremacy over the
English monarch. In 1689 Parliament presented the new rulers, Mary and William III, with a Bill of
Rights, to which they were expected to agree. This declaration made it illegal for the monarch to
make or suspend laws, levy taxes, or raise a standing army during peacetime without Parliament’s
approval. Subjects had the right to petition the monarch, and the ruler could not interfere with freedom
of speech within Parliament.
English parliamentary government becomes a model for other states. The English
revolutions of the seventeenth century had a great impact on government in the Western world.
Parliamentary government, the rule of law, limited monarchy, and the protection of individual liberties
became firmly established in Britain. They brought Britain centuries of stable government that was
able to meet political crises in an orderly way.

Note: Read the English Bill of Rights and its History. Open the link below.
https://s.docworkspace.com/d/ABUQPUrt1MBV4uz43ZanFA

ENLIGHTENMENT AND REVOLUTION

Among the important developments in history is the understanding of how people have
changed their ideas about themselves and the world we live in. perhaps nothing has done more to
change their ideas than the advances in science – the study of nature that began in the West
toward the end of the 15th century.

The Scientific Revolution was a result of both new information about nature and the new way
of gathering it, based on experiment and reasoning. Thus the period of the Scientific Revolution
was also the Age of Reason or Period of Enlightenment. The scholars who made observations and
introduced new knowledge were called enlightenment thinkers. They were also called philosophes.
Know the enlightenment thinkers who contributed new knowledge not only during their own
time but also the generations that followed them.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Events Leading to the American Revolution
The United States began as the thirteen colonies composed of settlers from England. They
established settlements on the Atlantic Coast of North America. They arrived in groups in different
times (1607-1733) with their own personal reason/s . These settlements were:

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Jamestown (Virginia)- The first settlers were adventurers. They wanted to seek fortune in
their new settlement. They also wanted to discover gold or silver and find new routes to the
Pacific. Half of the colonists died of starvation and diseases. Only the discipline and
determination of the leader Captain John Smith kept them going.

The Powhatan Indians taught the settlers how to grow crops. As the settlers became
prosperous, the Indians were forced to leave their farms and move farther inland.

Plymouth Colony / New England (Massachusetts) - The settlers were Pilgrims who were
seeking a permanent home where they can enjoy religious freedom. They sailed on the
Mayflower from England and named their settlement Plymouth. Like the first settlers in
Virginia, the Plymouth colonists also suffered from disease and malnutrition and many died
during the first winter. They, too , were given food, help and farming advice by the local
Indians.

The second group of settlers founded the Massachusetts Bay colony . They were also
Puritans who had been persecuted in England for both political activities and religious
practices. They hoped to set up communities and churches that, they believed, would be more
pleasing to god than the ones they left behind. This group was better organized, better
educated, and wealthier than the Plymouth colonists. They fared better than the earlier
settlers. In 1691, Massachusetts Bay absorbed the Plymouth colony.

Rhode Islands- While the settlers in New England sought a place to follow their own religious
beliefs, they did not welcome people with other views. The leaders of the Massachusetts Bay
insisted that all people in the colony conform to Puritan ways and beliefs. One minister, Roger
Williams, preached that the government had no authority in religious matters and that the
colonists had no right to land unless they had bought it from the Indians.

In 1635 the Puritan leaders banished Williams from Massachusetts but gave him until
spring to leave the colony. Early in 1636 Williams and other discontented settlers moved south,
establishing a colony in what is now the state of Rhode islands.

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This settlement was the first in America to separate the authority of the church and state
and to allow its people religious freedom. Because of these policies, the first Jews to settle in
English America made their homes in Rhode Island.

Connecticut and New Hampshire - The search for good farmland, as well as disagreements
with Puritan leaders, led more settlers to leave Massachusetts. They moved westward into the
fertile Connecticut River valley, settling in what became Connecticut. Other settlers moved
north of Massachusetts Bay and established New Hampshire. Small groups of people who
earned their living by fishing, lumbering and farming settled in Maine, which was governed as
part of Massachusetts. The people of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine established
governments, laws and churches like those of Massachusetts, thus spreading puritan influence
throughout most of New England.

New York and New Jersey - In the early seventeenth century, Dutch and Swedish colonists
settled in parts of what are now the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. One of
Henry Hudson’s voyages had given the Dutch a claim to the Hudson River valley, which they
called New Netherland. Settlement of New Netherland was slow because the Dutch West India
Company was more interested in trade than in colonization. The company established a fur-
trading post at Fort Orange and a settlement named New Amsterdam along what is now New
York harbor.

The English were trade rivals of the Dutch and viewed them as intruders in North
America. They also envied the Dutch monopoly of the inland fur trade and wanted control of
the excellent harbor at New Amsterdam. In 1664, Charles II of England granted the territory
between the Connecticut River and Delaware Bay to his brother, the duke of York( later King
James II) .

When an English fleet was sent to New Amsterdam, the Dutch were in no position to
defend their colony. New Amsterdam population was small, and its government lacked popular
support. The Dutch quickly surrendered and New Netherland became New York. The land
south of the Hudson river, which had been settled by Dutch and Swedish colonists, became
the English colony of New Jersey.

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Pennsylvania and Delaware - The settlers were another group of nonconforming Protestants
in England. Their leader was William Penn. They called themselves Quakers. The Quakers
stressed inward spiritual experiences and did not believe that people needed the guidance of
church or clergy. They rejected war, denounced the slave trade, and believed in religious
toleration.
William Penn was a devout Quaker whose father, an admiral in the navy, had helped
restore the Stuart kings to the English throne. To repay the debt he owed the elder Penn, King
Charles II granted William a huge tract of land in North America. Being the sole owner or
proprietor, he named the new colony Pennsylvania or “Penn’s Wood. Another tract of land
given to William Penn by the duke of York, later became the colony of Delaware.

Penn had been persecuted and imprisoned in England for his beliefs. In his colony, he
established policies of religious toleration and political liberty as well as giving generous land
grants. In 1682, Penn signed a treaty with neighboring Indians, paying them for most of the
land the king had granted him. Penn also barred the sale of alcohol to Indians and tried to
keep white traders from cheating them.
Penn’s policies attracted settlers not only from England but also from many European
countries where there were religious conflicts. Among the settlers were Presbyterians,
Anglicans, and Quakers from the British Isles, Lutherans and Calvinists from Germany, and
Huguenots from France. Despite their differing backgrounds, these settlers built a thriving
colony of farmers, trappers, merchants, and artisans. William Penn’s “city of brotherly love,”
Philadelphia, became the richest and largest city in the Thirteen Colonies.

Maryland and the Carolinas - Maryland and the Carolinas began as proprietary colonies like
Pennsylvania. Maryland was given by Charles I to the family of George Calvert, the first Lord
Baltimore, in 1632. Lord Baltimore, a royal adviser, had converted to Roman Catholicism and
wanted Maryland to be a refuge for Catholics who were persecuted in England. The first
settlers arrived in 1634. The fertile land and pleasant climate attracted more settlers and
Protestants soon outnumbered Catholics. In 1649, Maryland’s colonial assemble passed the
Toleration Act which granted religious freedom to all Christians in the colony.

In 1663, Charles II granted a large area of land south of Virginia to a group of

enterprising noblemen. It was named Carolina after the Latin form of the king’s name
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(Carolus). The first settlement started in 1670 at Charles Town( later called Charleston).
Carolina prospered by growing tobacco and later rice. Eventually conflicts arose between the
small farmers in the north and the plantation owners in the south. In 1712 the southern and
northern parts of the colony were placed under separate governments. In 1729 both North
Carolina and South Carolina became royal colonies.

Georgia - King George II granted the land between South Carolina and Spanish Florida to a
group of English reformers led by James Oglethorpe. The King hoped that the colony would
keep Spanish settlements from expanding northward. The reformers wanted to start a colony
in which people who had been imprisoned for debt in England could make a new beginning.
The first settlers came to Georgia in 1733. In 1733, Oglethorpe eventually gave up his charter,
and Georgia became a royal colony.

The Thirteen British Colonies are also grouped into three .Refer to the map below.
A. New England Colonies composed of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Islands
and Connecticut
B. Middle Colonies which include New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania
C. Southern Colonies composed of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia

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Settlers in the American colonies had the chance to own their own land, an opportunity many
could never have hoped for in Europe. The colonists also had greater freedom and had more political
rights than people in many European nations. Some traditional English liberties, such as trial by jury
and protection from unlawful imprisonment, had been transplanted to America. In addition, each
colony had each own elected assembly. In Britain, only men who owned a substantial property could
vote representatives to the House of Commons: few small farmers or artisans could vote. Each of the
colonies in America also had property requirements for voting but a larger percentage of the male
colonists were able to fulfill them.
The engagement of the British Crown into several wars with its neighboring states in Europe
forced the British Parliament to impose laws which include the:
Navigation Act (1660 and 1663)- which regulated the colonial states in manufacturing
and trading of goods. Later, it required colonists to sell only tobacco, sugar and indigo to
England and its possessions.
Hat Act (1732)- export of hats made in the colony was forbidden.
Iron Act (1750) - removed taxes on Britain’s import of iron ore from the colonies, but
outlawed the colonial manufacture of iron goods. The purpose was to force colonists to buy
British made iron products rather than manufacturing their own.
Sugar Act (1764) - lowered the tax on imported molasses. It also imposed new taxes
on luxury goods like sugar, coffee and wine.
Quartering Act (1765) -required colonists to provide living quarters and supplies for
British troops.
Stamp Act (1765) - placed a tax in printed matter

Townshend Acts (1767) - imposed new taxes. It raised the prices of paint, glass, paper
and tea. Because of this, the colonists opposed led by Samuel Smith passed the Tea Act
where the colonists refused to unload bags of tea instead dumped them into the sea. This was
known as the Boston Tea Party.

Intolerable Acts (1774) - It is a series of laws that : 1)closed the port of Boston until
Massachusetts have paid the East India Company for the tea (Boston Port Act); 2) a law
which replace the local government officials with an appointive one and increased the powers
of the military governor ( Massachusetts Act) ;3) a law which allowed British officials charged
with capital offenses to be tried in another colony or in England ( Administration of Justice Act);
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and 4) an act which permitted the requisition of unoccupied buildings to house British troops
(New Quartering Act).

Animosity between the thirteen colonies in North America and the British rulers grew when the
former organized the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774 in protest against the
Intolerable Acts. The First Continental Congress urged colonists to “take up arms and organize
militias.” When the British army attempted to stop the rebel mobilization in Massachusetts, fighting
erupted in Lexington and Concord between the colonists under the command of George Washington
and the British redcoats in April 1775.
After a year of fighting, the colonists decided to declare independence from the British Empire
inspired by the pamphlet “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine. On July 4, 1776, the Second
Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson of
Virginia. This document was inspired by the enlightenment ideas of john Locke and stated that the
thirteen British colonies in the Americas be “free and independent states absolved from their
allegiance to the British Crown.”

American Revolution
Following this declaration, the War for Independence in America erupted. A Continental Army
was created under the command of General George Washington. At first, the American forces were
at the losing end because of their inexperienced army, which were mostly comprised of farmers as
against the professional soldiers of Britain who also won the support of the loyalists in some states
and of native American and African slaves who were forced to support the British cause in exchange
for their freedom for enslavement. Despite this, the American
forces managed to win over the British redcoats due to the financial support given by other European
nations - France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic which were longtime rivals of Britain.
France supplied them with soldiers, arms and money. On the other hand, Spain and the Dutch
Republic declared war against Britain during the same period as the American war for independence,
making the British army meet its easy defeat in Saratoga in October 1777. By 1781, the American
and French forces under Washington’s command were victorious in Yorktown. Another factor which
may have contributed to American victory was the exhaustion from several wars engaged in by
Britain in the past two decades including the Seven Tears’ War which ended in 1763, the French and
Indian War in Canada and the Spanish and Dutch royalties war mentioned earlier.

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The Birth of the United States of America

Although the thirteen colonies gained their independence from Britain, their representatives
denounced the creation of a centralized government due to their fear of concentrated power and also
concerns on promoting their own interest. For instance, when they ratified the Articles of
Confederation in 1781, as their first constitution, there was no provision for a centralized government.
However by 1787, fifty - five delegates met in Philadelphia to devise a new constitution to amend the
Articles of Confederation.
It proposed the governments in individual states should remain but the creation of a centralized
government which was superior to the individual states must be given the power to levy taxes, raise a
national army, regulate trade, and create a national currency. This system was later referred to as a
federal government. The federal government is comprised of three branches namely, the Executive,
Legislative, and the Judicial branches. The said branches have separation of powers which means,
FEDERALISM

Powers Delegated to the Powers Reserved to

National Government States

 Declare war
 Create and maintain  Raise taxes
 Provide for  Establish local
armed forces
the public governments
 Establish foreign
welfare  Establish and
policy
maintain schools
 Regulate interstate  Criminal
 Regulate trade
and foreign trade justice
within states
 Make copyright and  Borrow
 Conduct elections
patent laws money
 Establish postal  Charter
 Provide for public
offices safety
banks
 Coin money  Build roads

they worked on the system of checks and balances of which the specific roles of each branch should
not overlap or be overpowered by the other branch. In this manner, the Constitution was considered
as the supreme law of the nation.
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By 1789, the Constitution was amended by adding the Bill of Rights which recognized the
Americans’ freedom or religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly. It also recognized the rights of
the people for the due process of law, protection of property rights, and protection against illegal
searches and arrests. The formula of the said government was inspired by the Enlightenment ideas of
Montesquieu (separation of powers), Rousseau (social contract), and Locke (Two Treaties of the
Government) which began in Europe.
Among the American philosophes that made a mark during the initial years of United States of
America as a nation are included statesmen like Benjamin Franklin who was exposed to these ideas
since he was 18 years old, Thomas Jefferson, who composed the Declaration of Independence, John
Adams, and Thomas Paine, author of the pamphlet “Common Sense”.
On the other hand, some French nationalists who supported the American cause like Marquis
de Lafayette served as a major general in George Washington’s Continental Army. He also became
instrumental during the French Revolution in 1789. The story of the birth of the United States later
inspired other European intellectuals or philosophes in their pursuit of an ideal system that recognized
political freedom and human rights.

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