User talk:Plains2009

American Revolution: William Howe

Both Independance and Revolution

From 1775 to 1781, the British Empire and the American colonists fought a war comprising both an independence movement and a republican movement simultaneously; therefore, historian refers to those events both as the American Independence War and the American Revolutionary War.

The first aspect of the events was a desire to be ruled in America. After the Seven Years' War ended in 1763, the American colonist expected to live in peace and to be able to live in the territories west of the Appalachian Mountains. But the British Empire intended to keep control of the American colonists as they did before.

Suddenly, the British soldiers treated the American colonists not as subjects but as enemies. To establish authority, the British parliament imposes taxation law and quartering law on the American colonists. Fearing the American colonists would not comply the British Empire sent 1,500 soldiers to enforce that law. Those events of asserting authority by Britain were the origin of the wish for independence by the American colonists. The American began to wish that their own parliament would control their lives.

The other aspect of the event was a desire to establish a republic instead of a monarchy. A republic is established under a constitution, i.e. a fundamental written law, which provides the basis for the establishment of authority; additionally the constitution comes with lists of basics human rights. In other words, the authority comes from a written Constitution. In a monarchy such as Britain, the power rests on the parliament and the parliament as all the right to remove even fundamental rights; therefore, without a written constitution, the rule is established by unwritten convention. Moreover, in Britain, the personification of power rests with a hereditary monarch. Such monarch still possess many unwritten prerogative; such as the power to close down parliament.

Context of the American Revolution

In 1775, the British Parliamentary-type of government represented an improvement over the absolute monarchy in continental Europe. Written law to restrict the power of government and representative government took 7 centuries to be established starting from Henry I dot Beauclerc and his charter of rights.

Since the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire in 300 A.C. continental Europe was ruled by Germanic tribes like the frank, the angle, the Visigoth and the Saxon. Kingdom based on hereditary right fought each other for land. Until came the invasion of England by a French vassal, William the Conquerant in 1066. From there, the English nobility was ruled by many foreign leader starting from French baron, followed by Scottish king, then Dutch king and finally by Hanoverian kings. Because Britain was often ruled by a foreign king who treated his subject as enemy, the English people or nobility requested written law to prevent them from getting absolute power.

The Charter of Rights 1100

So, in 1100 in England, the fourth son of William the Conquerant, Henri I dit Beauclerc, had to write a Charter of Right giving power to the English Baron, the nobility, in order for him to rule England. Although it was almost forgotten, the Charter was invoked in 1213, by a Bishop against King John.

The Magna Carta 1215

King John was a bad ruler and he lost the territory in France after the battle of Bouvine 1214. So, in 1215, the English barons forced him to sign a new Charter of Freedom (the Magna Carta) which was inspired by the previous Charter of 1100. The Magna Carta protected the power of the nobility, i.e. the baron, and not the right of common people. The English king was forced to sign it, a year later he revoked it. Once again 150 year will pass before it was used.

The first elected parliament 1264

In 1264 at the battle of lewes, the English baron fought against the absolute power of Henri III. Simon the Montfort, a French baron from Toulouse who was living in England at the time, won the battle. Simon the Montfort called an elected parliament; therefore, Simon de Montfort originated the first parliamentary democracy. This time common people have a voice. A year later at the battle of Evesham, the Henri III defeated Simon de Montfort and removed the elected parliament. Once again the written law and parliamentary democracy was forgotten for some centuries.

The protestant faith

In Germany in 1515, Martin Luther fought against religious taxations by the Catholic Pope. His protest began the protestant faith. One of the many difference with catholic faith is the teaching of the Old Testament. The Old Testament provide the story of Jewish tribes fighting the power of Egyptians King, the latter being neither Arabs nor Muslim at the time. Protestant having rejected the Pope authority would need to have assembly to elect the leader of their church. Thereby the teaching of democracies in protestant church. However, the Anglican were like the Catholic except that their leader was the very unelected King or Queen of England.

The Dutch Republic and Independence

In Netherlands in 1581, the Dutch declared their independence from the King of Spain. The Act of Abjuration inspired the American Declaration of Independence of Thomas Jefferson. After failing to find a King, the Dutch established a Republic of the 7 United Provinces; therefore, the inspiration for the 13 United States.

The Puritan in America 1620

In England in 1620, following religious persecution by the Catholic English King Charles I the puritan left England for America. William Penn establishedCharter for the New England Colonists. The 20 000 colonists brought their entire family with them; therefore they would bring a solid population outgrowing the French who comprises mostly soldiers without there wife.

The English Civil War 1649

In 1649 in England, the King closed down the parliament, therefore, starting the English Civil War. Cromwell and Fairfax fought for the roundhead, parliament against the cavaliers Royalists. Simultaneously in France, the Mazarin government fought against the Fronde, a revolt of nobility.

The Restoration 1660

In 1660, the Restoration of the King followed the civil war. The king called the man who fought for parliament traitor; the parliamentarian were persecuted and brutally executed. The American signer of the declaration of independence feared to suffer the same consequence.

The Glorious Revolution 1688

In 1688, the English called William d'Orange a Dutch Royalist to replace the Catholic King. The Bill of Right 1688 protected the protestant and prevented another Catholic King. The English Bill of Right inspired the American Bill of Rights.

John Locke 1700

In 1700, John Locke, an English philosophers whose father fought with Cromwell parliamentarian, advocate the right to overthrow bad king and religious tolerance, although it excluded the Roman Catholic who were believe to be against democratic reforms.

The Encyclopedist 1760

In early 1760 in France, the French encyclopedists, many books on various subjects including politics edited by Diderot, wrote praise for the English Law. However, Montesquieu explains in his book: the spirit of law, that the government must be divided into executive, legislative and judiciary in order to prevent absolute power; his teaching influences the American Constitution of 1787. Voltaire, another encyclopedist, fought against religious intolerance and against torture and summary justice; however, Voltaire was a Royalist and a slave owner. While Rousseau argued for an utopian form of government where private properties did not exist. Rousseau influenced Robespierre brutal regime and Karl Marx utopian communism; although Rousseau himself was responsible for neither.

The War of Austrian Succession 1745

In 1745 the French helped the Catholic King Jacques I to regain power, the war ended in a draw in Europe. For the British subject, including the American colonist, catholic became synonymous with absolute monarchy.

The Seven Years' War 1756-1763

In 1763, the Seven Years' War that followed the British took most of the French colonies in North America. The American wanted to establish on the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, the reason for Washington

In conclusion, in 1775 the American was influence by the Dutch Republic for their independence movement, their United States name and the declaration of independence. The American were also inspire by John Locke was in the English Civil War for the overthrow of a bad king. While, the American constitution separating power of executive, legislative and judiciary were inspired by Montesquieu teaching. This profound change was the founding principle of the American Republic.

The escalation of events

In 1620, the American colonist came in America fleeing persecution of their faith. They were mostly around Boston in Massachuset, around Williamsburg in Virginia and in Rhode islands. When the English Civil War happened the colonist had many difficulties with Charles II, a catholic. Each colony had a written charter understood to protect their English rights.

In 1745, an army essentially composed of American lead by Pepperell took Louisburg; thereby giving the American a sense of being capable of military victory.

In 1755, against the wish of the British, Georges Washington attack on Jumontville trigger a World War reaching Europe. The British sent a regular army to attack Fort Duquesne (now the city of Pittsburg). Braddock was arrogant and didn't listen to American advice. It was a disaster for him. But the American had seen a regular British army defeated by militia man.

The Expedition Particulière

Meanwhile, in France, Choiseul and his cousin were preparing their revenge by building a powerful French Navy. In 1759, the French had a powerful army to attempt to invade England. However, two naval battle defeats at Quiberon and at Lagos destroyed that plan. This plan was revived with success during the American Revolution.

During and after the war

During that war the first assembly of colonies was organized in Albany in 1756 to organize a common defense. This would become the future congress of America; since a similar assembly would be gathered in 1765 to protest against the Stamp act. This assembly was unusual and Benjamin Franklin was present.

In 1760, James Otis was a lawyer in a trial of Parson's Case. In Virginia, Patrick Henry asked if a King who doesn't respect the English Right should maintain the obedience of his American subjects. Those event preceded the Treaty of Paris of 1763, so both England and France new that a revolt was underway before they sign on the Treaty.

Soon after the war ended the British tried to establish authority over the colonist. Many problems arisen during the war and the British were aware of them. During negotiation in 1763, Murray tries to give New France back to France to prevent the likely consequence in America. Choiseul, cunningly, knew that by letting England keep New France they would soon be forced to defend their authority over a continent far away.

So, in march of 1775, when Gage man were sent to lexington it was not only to seize weapons but also to seize two American to sent them to trial for treason in England.

The origin and inspiration of the American Constitution of 1787

During the Greek antiquity around 300 B.C., rich owner established a form of elected representative government; except that it was not for ordinary citizens but for the nobility, it was therefore an aristocrat. Following the Greek, the Roman Empire and the roman republic established election to rule their land. Montesquieu, a Frenchman in the South of France in 1740, studied those governments. His book the spirit of law compare the form of government that works best and where people were happy and prosper. Montesquieu tried to understand the sharing of power among executive, legislative and judiciary; moreover, he seek to find the balance for stable federation. In 1787, James Madison, the father of the American constitution, found in Montesquieu the teaching he needed to establish the American federation and to strike a balance between separate executive, legislative and judiciary government. Madison sometimes disagrees with Montesquieu teaching but his book made him think about other who tries to achieve it. Madison favored a strong central government and he was opposed to Hamilton who favors strong state and small central government. Finally, the federation would be small in the center like Hamilton wanted, but the American sense of nationhood would become so strong that the bound of power was represented by Washington. Tocqueville, a Frenchman who visited the US in 1748, try to describe what he saw:It's not a confederation of independent state and it is not a unitary government either. It is a mix between both and we don't yet have a name for it.

(Plains2009 (talk) 20:54, 26 December 2008 (UTC))

References

http://www.haldimand-collection.ca/docaaaindex.html http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/colonies/independence-movement.htm http://www.marquisdelafayette.net/

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Battle of Quebec (1775)

I'm going to revert your contributions to Battle of Quebec (1775). I want it to be clear that there is probably value in what you added -- however, the paragraph you added to the article lead contains information that is better placed either somewhere else in the article, or in a different article. You added three sentences, each has problems:

• It is not really necessary to mention in the lead that Carleton expelled Patriot sympathizers -- there is already a sentence to that effect further down.
• Arnold was never (as far as I know) at Sorel, especially not during the march to Quebec City. Perhaps your source meant Montgomery, or a different location on the Chaudière? (I know that sources I have read indicate that the habitants helped Arnold's men on the lower parts of the Chaudière, but it doesn't go to Sorel, and I understand Arnold's route to leave the Chaudière to reach Point Levis.)
• The mention of cannon balls is without reference to any specific time or action. When was this work done? Who hired (or asked) Pélissier to do the work?

These things need to be made clear so that we can find the right place to add this information.

On the good side, you mention that the habitants in the countryside were helping the Americans, which was not in the article before. You also mention the Battle of Saint-Pierre, which ought to be mentioned in the Siege section. (The Invasion of Canada (1775), which I did much work on, mentions it.)

Some of the inline citations you provide are also incomplete or incorrectly formatted. One cites Baby; according to your references, it should be Vergereau-Dewey. Others cite Lacoursière without identifying which of the two works you added is the one being cited.

I'm going to copy this to the article talk page. Please continue the dialog there. (Quand cette message pour vous la plus difficile est, pardonnez-moi; my English is much better than my French, and I will try to write so you can understand.) Magic♪piano 15:47, 3 January 2009 (UTC)