Chapter 7 2. Households struggle for independence

One cannot talk about the bourgeois revolution without mentioning the American War of Independence.The American War of Independence began with the shooting of Lexington in 1775 and ended with Britain's recognition of American independence in 1783. From 1775 to 1783, it was also 8 years, which was comparable to our 8-year war of resistance in China.However, the history of the American War of Independence is not as complicated as that of China. It fought for 6 years in the past 8 years and sacrificed more than 6,000 people. In our 8 years, 18 million people died. In 1775, the Lexington gun fired the first shot of the North American Revolutionary War and became the symbol of the beginning of the North American Revolutionary War.The cause was that the British in Boston went to raid the arsenal of the militia and were discovered.In small towns in Europe and America, the main building is the church. In April 1775, it happened to be spring, and everything was revived. The fields were yellow, the trees were green, the village was gray, and only the British soldiers were red. A striking one.At that time, it was the opposite of what it is now. Now the military uniforms worn in war tried not to expose and hide as much as possible. At that time, they tried to be as bright as possible, so that people could see themselves.In the red uniform, he didn't know where the wound was after being shot. As soon as he came out, he was seen from a long distance.As soon as the church bell in this small town rang, the church bell in the next town rang, and a series of church bells along the route rang, which was similar to the beacon towers in ancient China.As I said before, the North American Continental Congress has organized militias and has its own armed forces. The establishment of the North American colony itself was formed by white people pioneering and fighting with Indians or local aborigines, so they began to form their own armed forces. Now, the silversmith is striking a ring, he throws away his hammer, and finds the gun out from under the stove; the farmer, too, stops farming, throws away his rake and goes home to get his gun; the teacher is in class, throws away chalk, the children I went to the war, and the children happily followed, helping the teacher to fill the bullets.

The Lexington conflict broke out, and more than 800 British troops attacked. It is said that more than 800 people were killed and more than 600 were injured, while the casualties of the militia were minimal, because the British lined up their formations and their current tactics. The militia fights, but you can’t find him in the North American militia. He hides in the fence, behind the tree, tunnel warfare, let’s start this with you. No matter how powerful your British armed force is, it’s like punching into the air. So the British The people became angry and increased their troops on a large scale, preparing to annihilate the North American militias in one fell swoop. The North American militias also knew that the British would not let it go. It seemed that they had completely torn faces with the United Kingdom. A big fight must be inevitable, so they started the first Second Continental Congress 03.This Continental Congress reorganized the militia into the Continental Army and appointed Washington as the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

General Washington was born in Wakefield Manor, Virginia, USA in 1732.The son of a wealthy plantation owner, he inherited a considerable fortune at the age of 20.General Washington had no son, but only one daughter. After his daughter got married, the manor gradually fell into disrepair, and later passed on to his grandson-in-law.His grandson-in-law is the famous commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army during the Civil War in American history, General Robert Edward Lee.Because General Lee was the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, after the defeat of the Confederate States, General Washington's estate was confiscated by the government, which was similar to expropriation.Today, it has become the most famous Arlington National Cemetery in the United States. All the warriors who died heroically in the previous foreign wars of the United States are buried in Arlington National Cemetery, including the American soldiers who died in Iraq today and in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. As long as you apply, you can be buried in this cemetery.To date, more than 400,000 soldiers have been buried in this cemetery.From the War of Independence to World War II, about 1 million people died in the United States in all foreign wars, and 400,000 of them were buried in this cemetery, and one of the most unique places in this cemetery is from privates to four-star generals. The area is about the same size, the size of a second-class soldier, and the size of a four-star general, but your military rank is engraved on the cross.The cemetery is very neatly arranged, and you are buried according to the number of the army you were in before you were alive. You are buried in the army's grave of which army you were originally from, and the army commander is buried at the front.It is also very interesting that most people here are buried standing up, and the coffin is placed vertically.The only one that occupied two plots was President Kennedy, who was also buried here after he was assassinated.Why can he have two?It is because the special forces donated a place to him, and in the future our special forces will bury one less person and let the president lie down to bury him. Only he is like this.So you see that real democracy is not only reflected in 03. The Continental Congress was the legislative body of the thirteen colonies of British North America from 1774 to 1789 and later the United States of America. It was held for two sessions. In 1781 the role of the Continental Congress was replaced by the Confederate government of the United States.

When a person is alive, it is even more reflected after a person dies. There is a saying in the Bible, "When we pass the grave, our souls are all equal." The current Arlington National Cemetery is the original General Washington's estate. At that time, it was thousands of acres of land and 392 black slaves.To say that the general’s life is really cool. The general liked fighting since he was a child, and he envied the military profession. During the 7-year war between Britain and France, the general served in the British colonial army and was promoted to colonel after hard work. After the British defeated France, The suzerain country of Britain discriminated against native-born whites, and discriminated against him, an officer of colonial origin, and demoted him from colonel to major. General Washington resigned from the army in a rage, and returned to his hometown farm to feed pigs and chickens.Now that the Continental Congress is convening, and his nation is calling to him, the general resolutely abandons his comfortable life, wields his sword and becomes the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, leading the American people to fight for independence and freedom.Before he left, he signed a proclamation, freeing all his slaves, and you are all free men.But none of these black slaves left, and those people didn't even know A when they went out, so why did they go out, they could only help the general take care of his manor.

The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army, with General Washington as the commander-in-chief. On July 4, 1776, the "Declaration of Independence" was promulgated. "Published. The "Declaration of Independence" stated that all men are born equal, they are endowed by the Creator with inherent and inalienable rights, among which are the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. .If any form of government violates these rights, the people have the power to change or abolish it; the second point is the social contract theory, the government has a contract with the people, the people sign a contract with the government, and the government is hired by the people to The people serve the people, the people are the master, and the government serves the master, so if the government does not serve the master well, the master will change the government.Any government that wants to change is violating natural human rights, and the people have the power to overthrow you.Therefore, from the date of this declaration, the 13 British colonies solemnly declare that all ties between the 13 North American states and the Kingdom of Great Britain are terminated, and that King George is no longer recognized as our head of state.The 13 North American states won their independence, and July 4, 1776, became the National Day of the United States, and the United States of America was born.

After the birth of the United States of America, the difficulties it faced were extremely long and beyond imagination.At that time, the population of the British mainland exceeded 10 million. If you count the colonies, you can have 40 to 50 million people, and if you count India, it will be even more.There were only 3 million people in the 13 states of North America, and there were 800,000 black slaves. The British army and its mercenaries came to North America, and there were about 90,000 people who suppressed North American independence. At its peak, the Continental Army was less than 30,000.The British army is well-equipped and well-trained, and they are generally professional soldiers; the Continental Army used to be farmers, ring-fighters, lecturers, and church bell-ringers. They were all militiamen, with poor combat quality and insufficient experience , the difference in equipment is even more difficult to imagine.

Four or five soldiers share one gun. When soldiers march in town in winter, a line of bloody footprints will be left on the ground, indicating that they have no shoes to wear.To keep out the cold in winter, soldiers had to take off their horse blankets and wrap them around their bodies. Wrapped in the horse blankets, they charged forward with ragged clothes and a disheveled appearance.Not to mention the navy. Britain was already the sea supremacy at that time. It defeated Spain in 1588, defeated the Netherlands in three Anglo-Dutch wars in the 17th century, and defeated France in the 18th century. At this time, it was already a famous sea supremacy. Just over 300 ships.The entire US Navy has only 3 armed anti-smuggling tanks, which is almost zero compared with the UK, and it is the same as none.

Therefore, under such circumstances, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston were captured by the British army one after another. The war was once in an extremely difficult situation. The Continental Army was able to persevere entirely because of its desire for national independence and freedom, so it achieved victory in 1777. The Saratoga victory turned the tide of the war. After the victory in Saratoga, the American army attacked from north to south and wiped out the British general Burgoyne in one fell swoop. Burgoyne led 5,000 British troops and surrendered to the Continental Army.More importantly, after the news of Saratoga's victory reached Europe, France began to provide assistance to the United States.Before the United States became independent, it sent an ambassador to France. After Franklin arrived in France, he could only stay in a hotel for a year. No one received him, nor did he accept his credentials.And when the news of the Saratoga victory reached France the next day, King Louis XVI summoned Franklin at the Palace of Versailles and promised to provide aid to the United States. Land, you don't let me farm now, let me fight every day, and you don't pay, then I have to mutiny; the Continental Army has no navy, and France provides a navy to the United States, and it also supplies its own navy to cut off the British sea. The other is the army commanded by the Marquis of Lafayette, which landed in North America and joined the US military in attacking the British army. The Marquis of Lafayette also brought a large amount of weapons and equipment to the Continental Army.He was also assigned an instructor to help him train soldiers, so the combat quality of the U.S. military improved all of a sudden, and they fought vigorously. The British commander Kang Huali led 7,000 British troops and put down their weapons in front of the ragged Continental Army. , thus achieving the Yorktown victory in 1781.

The commander of the British Army, Cornwallis, is not reconciled. We, gentlemen, were actually defeated by North American farmers. How embarrassing, I am upset!So the British troops were ordered to play a song when they surrendered.There is a word in it, "Yankee", the Chinese translate it into Chinese to mean "Yankee". The English literal translation of this song is actually a silly Yankee. Although I am defeated, I am a gentleman and I am proud. The land failed, although the defeat was glorious, your peasants did not fight according to the rules, they were all playing guerrilla warfare, which was boring!So I don't accept that I lost, and I despise you stupid Yankees.You see, the Americans are different from the Chinese. If we Chinese, you are defeated by me and you still refuse to accept it, I will go up and beat you and call me a fool.The victorious General Washington ordered that this song be used as the military song of the Continental Army, stupid Yankee, you can't even beat a stupid hat, aren't you even more stupid?

The Americans have such a point of view. One of the scenes that impressed me the most is the "Pearl Harbor" filmed by the United States. When the Japanese pilot was about to bomb, he found a child playing on the ground, so the Japanese pilot waved to the child. , you dodge, I'm going to drop a bomb.The war movies made by the Americans will never vilify the enemy, and will never portray the enemy as something ineffective. The enemy is also a warrior and a knight. I am even stronger when I defeat such a person.The war movies we make in China vilify the enemy to nothing. The enemy is afraid of death, the enemy is stupid, and the enemy is funny... The most boring thing is Pan Changjiang's "Hands Up". , there were only 1.05 million people by the time of surrender. This kind of people have fought with you for 8 years.You want to watch the anti-Japanese war movies we made in China. An Eighth Route Army is holding a machine gun without a magazine changer. After a while, hundreds of Japanese devils will die. Your machine gun only has 20 bullets, and you have no end.An Eighth Route Army took turns with large knives and hacked to death more than 100 devils. At that speed, they could go to Tokyo in a few years.Looking back at the victory at Yorktown, you played the military song, and you called me a fool, but I still sang this as a military song.So what the Americans mean is that we don't bicker, winning is the most important thing.Two years later, Britain and the United States signed the "Paris Peace Treaty", and Britain recognized the independence of the United States.Therefore, it took 8 years for the War of Independence in North America to start with the gunshots of Lexington until Britain recognized its independence.

After the independence of North America, we still need to understand the process of French independence.France's independence process is really magnificent, ups and downs, and too complicated.The French Revolution, from 1789 to 1830, the first was the Constituent Assembly.The Constituent Assembly developed from the three-level meeting held by the French king. At the third-level meeting, the French king also wanted to solve the tax problem. He wanted to pay more than 4 billion yuan, but he wanted to continue borrowing, so he convened A conference that has not been held for 165 years.The third-level meeting was held in today's Versailles Palace. There is an image of a sun with a human face on it, which is the symbol of Louis XIV, the Sun King.The Palace of Versailles was built by Louis XIV. There are rows of colonnades. Outside the colonnade are representatives of the third class, and inside the colonnade are representatives of the first and second classes. The farthest is a crown, a dome crown, Below the crown is His Majesty's throne.When the third-level meeting was held, the gate was made of heavy white gilded oak, with intricate carvings on the bottom and a human face with a sun on it, very beautiful. When representatives of the first and second ranks enter the arena, they are assigned odd and even numbers.Representatives of the first class wear exquisite robes, usually white silk and satin, with icons and crosses embroidered with gold thread, and heavy instruments are hung—crosses and scepters made of pure gold.The representatives of the second class are all in military uniform with swords, wigs, powder, shorts, high-heeled shoes, and stockings. The medals jingle, and the diamonds on the swords dazzle people's eyes.As soon as they entered, the gate closed, the small doors on both sides opened, and the representatives of the third class entered, and the sans-culottes entered.They are wearing black or gray clothes, what color is ugly to wear what color clothes, these people must be very angry, can I afford to wear them?The big capitalist is so rich, the king owes me several million. It is the law that I can’t wear good-looking clothes. Those nobles still wear clothes that I lent him, so they are very angry.It turns out that there are 300 representatives for the first level and 300 representatives for the second level, and 600 representatives for the third level. It seems to be okay when you hear it, but the problem is that the first two levels only account for 3% of the population, and the third level has 600 representatives. The population of the third class accounts for 97%. Why is the proportion of the 97% population more than that of the 3%? This should not be the case.Furthermore, the meeting is very funny. It uses separate halls to hold meetings. Representatives of the privileged level hold meetings in one hall, and representatives of the third level hold meetings in another hall. rating vote.One level, one vote, you know the odds without voting, it must be 2:1.One level one vote, the first level represents 10 people, the second level represents 10 people, and the third level represents 10,000 people, one level one vote is 2:1, useless.So now the representatives of the third level require everyone to hold a meeting together, not to operate in secret in a secret room, but to hold a meeting together, I will watch you, you supervise me, and vote by head in the final vote.If voting by head count, there will definitely not be representatives of the third level to support the privileged level. On the contrary, the liberal nobles and low-level priests in the privileged level may support the third level, and even senior priests may support the third level. . The group of people who supported it advocated amending the law. Priests are also mortals and want to get married, but the previous law did not allow it.Now, under the new voting method, the priests actively support the third level and want to amend the law.This meeting was held, His Majesty the King walked in, the representatives of the three levels stood up, took off their hats, cheered and saluted His Majesty the King, and then the representatives of the privileged level put on their hats and sat down. According to the past, the representatives of the third level stood there with their hats , Listen to the king.As a result, the representatives of the third level also put on their hats and sat down, so the king saw that something was going to happen, what happened, these people were not convinced.So the king started beating drums in his heart. He stuttered already, and he stuttered even more when he was nervous. As soon as he came to the stage, he said, let's go straight to the point, gentlemen, I called you here today to ask you for money.The representatives listened for a long time, what do they want?Want money? !Against him! So the representative of the third level first scolded his mother and left the stage. When we went to the prince's lawn, we drove it by ourselves and didn't take him to play.Immediately afterwards, the liberal nobles and low-ranking priests also came out. The rest of the big nobles and high-ranking priests saw that there were only a few of us left, so let’s go out too. In the end, only the king was left in the venue. .The prince's lawn was very lively, and everyone continued to hold meetings.The three-level meeting was immediately changed into a constitutional assembly, which wanted to formulate a constitution, limit the power of the king, and turn France into a British-style constitutional monarchy.The king, who came out to watch the commotion, lost his nose and immediately mobilized the army to suppress it. The French people became angry and attacked the Bastille. The Great Revolution broke out completely. July 14, 1789, later became a national holiday in France.France is the only country in the world that insists on holding a military parade every year on its National Day. Of course, the military parade is not like China, which has to be practiced. They don’t need to practice. They walk in the same way as usual. I don’t think it’s called a military parade, but a parade.When I went to France for the first time, it happened to be July 16th. Two days after the military parade, the tanks were left on the main road without leaving, and citizens could climb up to visit.The distance between China's military equipment and ordinary people is very far, so it is kept secret.You see Southeast Asian countries, including Europe, drive past this kind of air force base, and the planes are parked there one by one. They are not afraid of being destroyed by people, and they are not kept secret. They can be seen from a satellite photo. There is nothing mysterious. The latest Vauclaire main battle The tanks are there, and everyone can line up to visit.After the Bastille was destroyed, a square was built, which was as big as our roundabout, with a bronze memorial column on it, and a golden Statue of Liberty on top, holding a torch to commemorate the 1789 revolution.It is said that the foundation of the wall of the Bastille is still there, which is the wall of the subway station. Why bother to storm the Bastille?Because this is a prison for political prisoners and a symbol of feudal rule.After breaking it down, it was found that there were only 7 prisoners inside, and they were all criminals.After that, France began a preliminary transformation, which was a constitutional monarchy.The constitutional monarchy is also called the Feyon faction because they are active in the Feyon Club. They advocate a constitutional monarchy and oppose a democratic republic.The rule of the constitutional monarchists is the rule of the Feuillants, who are representatives of the big bourgeoisie and the interests of the financial bourgeoisie.The financial bourgeoisie, as the name suggests, run banks.They opened a bank to lend out money and usury. His debt was mainly lent to the king.The king owes 4.5 billion, not to the common people, so they insist on keeping the king, who will pay for the king's death? In addition, liberal aristocrats, such as the Marquis of Lafayette, are known as heroes of the two worlds. They helped the American War of Independence and led the revolution in France. However, one thing to understand is that no matter how free a liberal aristocrat is, he is still an aristocrat. At least he has a relationship with the king that blood is thicker than water.At that time, the Marquis of Lafayette was the commander-in-chief of the National Guard, and the big financial capitalist Bailly was the mayor. Therefore, the rule they established advocated the retention of the king, so they were called the constitutional monarchy.The governing body at that time was the Constituent Assembly at the beginning, and later developed into the Legislative Assembly. Third, many major events took place during the rule of the big bourgeoisie. First of all, the Constituent Assembly announced the abolition of the feudal system in the August decree, which was tantamount to a preliminary transformation of France.But this transformation is far from complete. Fourth, the Constituent Assembly promulgated the famous "Declaration of Human Rights". The full name of the Declaration of Human Rights is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.The Declaration revealed the principle of freedom and equality of natural human rights, negated the feudal hierarchy and the idea of ​​the divine right of kings, and became an ideological weapon for the bourgeoisie to seize and consolidate political power. The "Declaration of Human Rights" is a programmatic document of the bourgeois revolution. It affirms the political views of the Enlightenment Movement in the form of law, saying that natural human rights, freedom and equality are sacred and inviolable. The "Declaration of Human Rights" completely negates the feudal autocratic monarchy and hierarchy, which is conducive to the progress and development of society.Here is another cliché, saying that capitalist society is not equal, and the inequality of property replaces the inequality of birth.Wealth can be achieved through personal struggle, but your background cannot be changed through struggle.However, the "Declaration of Human Rights" is not a law, it is just a legal document, just a piece of paper, not a book, very beautiful, blue and gold letters, colorful, there are two girls on it, the one on the right is dressed in white and has wings It's the goddess of victory, the one with no head in the Louvre.The one on the left in blue is called Marianne, the national symbol of the French Republic.In terms of its extended meaning, she is also an anthropomorphic expression of freedom and rationality, opposite to the "Gallic Rooster" that represents the French nation and its history, land and culture.She belongs to the national girl, just like the national flower and national bird. Then, France convened the Legislative Assembly and issued a constitution, the Constitution of 1791, declaring France to be a constitutional monarchy.At this time, foreign armed intervention occurred, and Prussia and Austria emerged.Prussia was later Germany, and Austria was also part of Germany at that time, so it was a joint armed intervention between Prussia and Austria.Why did you say that Prussia and Austria interfered in the French Revolution for no reason?People who are revolutionaries, what kind of muscle hurts you?The reason was that they were afraid that the wave of the French Revolution would infect their country.In case the people of our country see that the French people are so good, and they have overthrown the French king, what are we doing idle, brothers.We all come to be the wavers of the revolution. If the feudal ruling order in Europe is shaken, then there will be big troubles.Therefore, the two countries advocated that the so-called feudal countries in Europe should unite to form an intervention army to interfere with the French revolution, and the situation in France immediately became precarious. The original French army was not incapable of fighting, but at this time, they didn't want to fight anymore.We know that the second estate, the nobility, served the king with the sword.They were unwilling to fight to maintain the republican system and the constitution, so the French nobles defected and rebelled on the front line.There was a minister of the navy who ordered the entire army to take vacations as soon as the war broke out.Another War Secretary defected with a battle plan.The king wrote to his brother-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, encouraging him to march boldly to Paris, with our people accompanying him along the way.But the frontlines are always defeated, and the French people are angry when they are always defeated like this, and they formed the National Self-Defense Force, the Volunteer Army.People from all over the country joined the Volunteer Army and drove to the front to resist aggression and defend the motherland. Among them, the Volunteer Army from Marseille composed a war song, which became the famous "Marseillaise". The people of Paris revolted for the second time and overthrew the rule of the constitutional monarchy, that is, the rule of the Faillant faction was overthrown.After the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy, the Girondists began to rule in France.First of all, the Girondins represent the interests of the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie, are the representatives of the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie, the representatives of the big merchants, and the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie.Second, during the period of Girondin rule, the state power structure was evolving, from the Legislature, the Parliament to the National Convention.The National Convention was created by universal suffrage, one person, one vote, and then the revolution overthrew feudal rule.The vast majority of the French population at that time were farmers.Farmers still need land. French farmers are the same as Chinese farmers. When they see land, they are so kind.So the result of the natural revolution was the distribution of communal land.This is the famous "Valmy Victory" in French history and even in European history. The French volunteer army, led by Dumouriez and Kleman, mainly composed of sans-culottes, defeated for the first time in Valmy near Verdun. the Prussian army. The "Valmy Victory" repelled the foreign intervention forces and reversed the passive situation of the French army on the battlefield. From then on, the French army began to counterattack across the board.