do violent revolutions effectively change the form of government they sought to overthrow?
...ugh Scottish rebellion. The Parliament, which contained mostly Puritans, refused, Charles attempted to arrest the Puritans, and then England broke out in civil war, the first event of the Puritan Revolution. The Puritans won the civil war with the help of the Scottish and they beheaded Charles in 1649. Oliver Cromwell took Charles’s place, but was also unpopular with the people of England. He ruled like a dictator, asserting his “divine right” just like Charles did. The revolution did not at all change the form of government. It only changed the leader. After Cromwell died in 1658, Charles II took his place. Charles II, son of Charles I, tried to avoid violating the English common law in fear of a beheading, similar to his father’s. Parliament told him to approve the Habeas Corpus Act, which limited the monarch’s power by allowing an arrested person to be let free on bail with a jury trial afterwards. James II, Charles’s brother, took power after Charles in 1685. James was a Catholic and he asserted his “divine right,” making him unpopular with Parliament. This time, Parliament led a non-violent revolution called the Glorious Revolution in 1688. James fled the country when he found his protestant daughter looking to be queen. This revolution led to a government change in 1689 with the Bill of Rights, which gave the English people and Parliament more power over the king, and with the Toleration Act, which allowed freedom of religion. The American Revolution, which lasted from 1775 to 1783, took place after a sudden change in England’s policy towards the American colonies. Before 1763, the colonies governed themselves in a very democratic way and they did not follow the English trade restrictions, which were not enforced. Colonists enjoyed a rich economy without any restrictions, and almost everyone was part of the middle working class. But after the French and Indian war, Great Britain needed money to repay their debts and they made their main source the colonies. Heavy taxes, such as the stamp and sugar tax, were placed on Americans and brought in large amounts of revenue until the colonists refused to pay more. Ten years after the end of the war in 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place in Massachusetts as a way to protest the taxes. Britain restricted the colony’s self government, called the Intolerable Act by Americans. Two years later in 1775, Americans fired upon British soldiers at Lexington and Concord as a start to the Revolutionary War. In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Based on Locke’s ideas, the Declaration explained the basic principles of a democratic government, such as “all men are created equal” and they have the right to overthrow a corrupt government. The Americans beat the English mainly with strong leaders and guerilla warfare, and then the Americans officially declared themselves independent from Britain in 1783. After the Revolutionary war, Americ...