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One Pattern Behind Four Great Upheavals
The American, French and Russian revolutions and the two World Wars look like separate chapters, but they share a chain: a state deep in debt, a burden falling unevenly on the poor, new ideas about rights, and a spark that made the anger political.
American Revolution (1775–83). Thirteen British colonies were taxed by a Parliament in which they had no representative — hence "no taxation without representation". The Boston Tea Party (1773) was the protest; the Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4 July 1776; Britain accepted defeat in the Treaty of Paris, 1783. The US Constitution followed in 1787.
Why it matters for every exam: this was the first successful colonial revolt in the modern era, and it gave the French their model of written rights. Keep the sequence in mind: tax → protest → declaration → war → treaty → constitution. Each later revolution can be described in the same six steps.
1. The French Revolution is symbolically marked by the storming of the Bastille on:
2. The slogan "No taxation without representation" is associated with which revolution?
3. Who led the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution of 1917?
4. The First World War was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at:
5. Which treaty of 1919 imposed harsh terms on Germany after the First World War?
6. The League of Nations, formed after the First World War, had its headquarters at:
7. Which of these events happened first?
8. The Second World War in Europe began with which event?