History Of The American Revolution
1. What Is America’s History?
Before the 14th century, America was unknown to the rest of the world. In 1492, a merchant named Christopher Columbus wanted to sail to India but got lost and was lucky to meet the [native] Americans. The people of that land were ‘redskins’, and they preferred to hunt rather than settle and trade.
Ever since Columbus found America, people from other European countries came over to settle. White people wanted to enslave the Redskins, but they refused to submit, so Whites killed them, and then they took the blacks of Africa to America to work for them.
Many Europeans came to the United States, but the largest was the British (3,000,000 people). So, Britain conquered America as a colony.
2. Why Was There An American Revolution?
America is very rich in agricultural land, iron, coal, cotton, rice, cattle, and other resources. The English secretly wanted it all for themselves, so they promulgated the following three rules:
1) The Americans must always give their resources to the English; they were not allowed to sell them to other nations
2) The Americans were not permitted to set up factories or trading associations.
3) Other countries were not permitted to trade with America; only the English could trade.
These three laws, which also added heavy taxes and duties, depressed the American economy; the laws angered the Americans; so, they decided to ‘boycott’ the English in 1770.
3. How Was The Movement?
The boycott movement against the English government lasted for five years. The English brought soldiers to suppress the uprising and arrest its leaders for their ‘crimes’. Every time the English imposed one of their appointees, the people became angrier. In 1775, when the English army imposed a number of their officials upon the Americans as well, the people pulled together to fight, and when the English army killed nine people, it was like a flame falling into gunpowder. The people were so angry that, live or die, they were determined to get rid of the English government.
4. What Is The Significance Of The American Revolution For The Vietnamese Revolution?
1. The French policy toward Vietnam today is more shameful than English policy was toward America because France has grabbed all our wealth and has imposed restrictions on our people. They forced us to smoke opium and drink liquor. The English were only fond of American money; the French wanted money, but they also wanted to do away with our race, leaving Vietnam bereft. It is high time for the Vietnamese people to study how the American people made a revolution!
2. In America’s declaration of independence, there are these lines: ‘Under heaven, all people are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness … whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government’. But now, the American government does not want anyone to speak about revolution or have anyone threaten the government!
3. Although the American revolution was successful more than 150 years ago, American workers and peasants are still mired in poverty and thinking about a second revolution. Because the American Revolution was a revolution of the capitalists, ** The revolution of the capitalists is not a thoroughgoing revolution. the capitalist revolution cannot be our revolution.**
We would lay down our lives for the revolution, but to make a complete or world revolution, we must work in such a way as to deliver rights for all the people rather than for a few. Only after many sacrifices could our people have a happy outcome.
The Bourgeois Revolution In France
1. Why Was There A Revolution In France?
In the 18th century, the King was arrogant and lustful; the aristocracy and the missionaries were manipulating everyone everywhere; the tax burden upon the people was very heavy, and the people were miserable.
Canada and India, originally French colonies, were now lost to the British.
Moreover, some scholars such as Montesquieu (1755), Voltaire, and Rousseau (1778) propagated liberalism.
In addition, there was the British revolutionary movement (Cromwell executed the British king and established a Republican Government in 1653), and there was the recent American democratic revolution (1776) as examples.
Especially because the new capitalists were blocked by feudalism, the people were oppressed by the king, aristocracy, and missionaries. So, the new capitalists allied with students, farmers, and workers to abolish feudalism.
2. When Did The French Revolution Start?
The King saw that the people were agitated, so they arrested those who were propagandising and organising. The people were very angry, and on July 14, 1789, they came together to riot and rescue prisoners from the big jail (the Bastille). The King ordered soldiers to defend the capital; the people organised revolutionary forces to resist and fight the King, who then retreated to the Palace of Versailles.
On October 5th of that year, the workers of Paris came to Versailles to arrest the King and demanded that he sign a declaration to:
1. Abolish the feudal regime and free the serfs. Convert all church property into state property.
2. Allow for the freedom of the press, freedom to form organisations, etc.
3. Write a constitution, removing the King’s autocratic power.
In 1792, because the King sought support abroad and was in collusion with the counterrevolutionaries, the people dismissed the King and formed a republic.
On January 21, 1793, the King, his wife, and children were sentenced as traitors to their country and were beheaded.
3. How Do European Countries Approach The French Revolution?
People of all countries were happy to applaud and approve. But the ruling aristocracies of the other nations were in fear of their own people imitating the French masses, so outside France, they allied against the revolution, and within France, they supported the counterrevolutionaries.
Although the French people had little food and few guns, thanks to their bravery and cleansing violence, they broke the aristocracy and the foreign powers. At that time, the revolutionary soldiers were called ‘soldiers without trousers’. Without a hat, without a shoe, a torn shirt, a thin and starving face, but wherever these soldiers advanced, the foreign-backed forces fell away, unwilling to risk their lives.
This shows that a person without fear in their mind is worth more than a thousand people who are dispirited.
4. How Many Revolutions Has France Carried Out?
From 1792 to 1804 was the 1st Republic. In 1804, Napoleon moved against the revolution to become emperor.
In 1814, the allied nations defeated Napoleon and restored the old king to the throne until 1848.
In 1848, there was the 2nd revolution.
In 1852, Napoleon’s nephew rebelled against the revolution and declared himself Emperor.
In 1870, after their defeat by Germany, Napoleon the 3rd fled, and France established the 3rd Republic.
5. What Is The Paris Commune*** ?
*** The Paris Commune lasted from March 18 to May 28, 1871 before it was brutally suppressed. The first proletarian government lasted 72 days before defeat through the collusion of the French bourgeoisie and the invading German military. Marx wrote significantly on this in 1871 The Civil War in France in "On the Paris Commune", Moscow: Progress Press, 1971.In 1871, the French king was defeated and fled as the Germans surrounded the French capital, Paris. French capitalists offered two provinces to Germany for peace. The war caused many deaths, much damage, and huge losses. People had no food to eat, and the workers had no work. On March 18, the Parisian workers rose up in a communist revolution (The Commune).
Because the workers were still inexperienced, they were not well-organised, and because Germany helped the French capitalists to fight against the workers, by the end of May, the revolution had been defeated.
6. What Was The Purpose Of The Commune?
As soon as Paris was theirs, the Commune declared a People’s Government and declared that the commune would practice these things:
1. All private manufacturing workshops will be turned over to the public.
2. All children, both boys and girls, will go to school. Tuition will be paid for by the State.
3. Citizens have the right to freedom of organisation, press, association, emigration, etc.
4. Any man or woman may enter politics, elections, and candidacies for office.
5. The Government is elected by the people, and the people have the right to change the Government.
7. What Was The Outcome Of The Commune?
French capitalism, at that time, was like a house burning on two sides (caught in a pincer movement). On one side, the Germans were forcing its surrender, and on the other side, it faced revolution. The French capitalists chose humiliation with Germany rather than any reconciliation with their fate. The Germans were also afraid of revolution, so they tried their best to help the French capitalists put down the revolution. When France had surrendered, Germany had already captured all its soldiers, leaving only 40,000 police. When the revolution began, Germany allowed French capitalists an additional 100,000 soldiers with the aim of eradicating the revolution.
So, we must understand that Capitalism has no homeland.
After wiping out the revolution, the capitalists took revenge. They killed 30,000 people, men, women, the elderly, and children. They deported 28,000 people. They arrested 650 children, 850 women, and 37,000 men.
8. How Is The French Revolution Meaningful For The Vietnamese Revolution?
a) In all three revolutions, 1789, 1848, and 1870, the people were courageous, but the intellectuals were few, and so the capitalists were able to take advantage.
b) Because the Paris Commune’s organisation was not very sophisticated and because it did not communicate with the farmers, this led to its failure.
c) The capitalists used the words Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity to deceive the people and encourage them to overthrow feudalism. When the people overthrew feudalism, the bourgeoisie replaced the feudal lords as the new oppressors.
d) The French revolution was similar to the American revolution, which means it was also a bourgeois and incomplete revolution. France is formally a republic, but internally workers and peasants are deprived of their rights, and externally France oppresses and exploits its colonies. There have been three revolutions so far, but now the French workers and peasants must have one more if they are to escape oppression. The Vietnamese revolutionaries should keep these things in mind.
9. What Are Examples Of What The French Revolution Teaches Us?
The French revolution teaches us that:
1. The workers and peasants are the root of the revolution, but the capitalists are opportunists; the bourgeoisie will take advantage of the masses, if not they are counter revolutionary.
2. The revolution must have a very sustainable organisation to be successful.
3. Women and children will also take part in making revolution.
4. Where the people have great morale, no weapon can resist them.
5. The French revolution saw so many people sacrifice without fear. If we want to make a revolution too, then we must not be afraid of sacrifices.
Tomorrow, Part 3.