2.2 Revolutions

The wars between European countries during the 18th century were not really about territory in Europe (though there was some of that, too); rather, they battled around trade and the power that came with colonial wealth. This economic warfare fostered numerous conflicts, including the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War that we already read about, and it led to late-century crises as well – most notably the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

After the Seven Years’ War, Great Britain argued that the colonies in America had caused the war and that, therefore, the colonists should pay for the war. (As it was, the people of England were already heavily taxed and couldn’t bear the burden alone.) This began the path that led to revolution as, after a century or more of salutary neglect, the sudden attention to the colonies and her finances greatly upset the colonists – especially those who had been exposed to Enlightenment thought of philosophes such as Locke and Rousseau.