Practice CST #2

The Declaration of Independence was the document created by American revolutionaries who wanted to justify the reasons for breaking away from England. In it, the Americans were stating that they had a natural right to life, liberty, and property, which was in line with Enlightenment philosophies, and that because Britain was infringing on these rights the American colonists had the right to demand independence.

The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. While the prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille and the subsequent Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was the third event of the revolution. It demonstrated that popular protest would play a role in the French Revolution due to the number of people involved in the Storming of the Bastille.

The American Revolution succeeded in producing the U.S. Constitution, which established America's democratic-republican system of government that is used today. Although the French Revolution also produced a constitution, it was short-term and did not last.

The Magna Carta was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges.

By the time Napoleon rose to power, the French government was weak from years of war and economic problems. Napoleon was able to seize control of France fairly easily.

When members of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (1789) at the start of the French Revolution, they pledged to continue to meet until a constitution had been written, despite the royal prohibition. The oath was both a revolutionary act, and an assertion that political authority derived from the people and their representatives rather than from the monarch himself.

The Magna Charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties that belonged to the English people, and accept that his will was not arbitrary; for example, by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land, a right which is still in existence today.

The Concert of Europe was established to ensure a balance of power between the European nations by preventing a reoccurrence of events similar to the French Revolution where one nation is able to take over so much territory.