A More Tortuous Revolution英美资产阶级革命对比

A More Tortuous RevolutionSince the 1600s, many western countries had started their road to modernization, including Britain and America. The American people achieved their countries modernization with the American Revolution. From 1640 to 1688, British people fought against the King for their profit and power and eventually they succeeded. Though both these two countries started their road to modernization through war, the two revolutions still had a little differenceThe English Revolution was more tortuous than the American Revolution.The English Revolutions duration was much longer than the American Revolution. The English Revolution began from 1640 when Scottish peoples revolt outbroke and ended in 1688 when James II abdicated (Kenneth 285). It means that the English Revolution lasted 48 years“English did not get peace for almost half a century until the Glorious Revolution (Stavrianos 272)”. And the American Revolutions starting time was 1775 and its end time was 1783, which just continued for 8 years. So, its obvious that the English Revolution took a long time at the road to modernization.The American Revolution was briefer than the English Revolution. In the morning of April 19th, 1775, "the gun of Lexington" opened the prelude of the American Revolution and in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was passed at the Continental Conference, which declared that the America established. Finally in 1883, America and British signed an agreement which announced that the America was independent truly (< >). As for the English Revolution, it was more complicated. From 1640 to 1642, it was the Parliamentary Struggle through which the parliament wanted to limit the King power and then from 1642 to 1649, it was the civil war in which the parliament defeated Charles I and send him onto the guillotine. Next, the Commonwealth of England was established and it lasted for four years and then from 1653 to 1659 was time of Cromwells autocracy. Then, House of Stuart came back but the parliament launched the Glorious Revolution, which truly finished the English Revolution (Stavrianos 272). The English Revolution was so repeated and complicated with so many events.Meanwhile, Britain had the royal tradition which complicated the process of the English Revolution. At the beginning of the English Revolution, the House of Stuart had such great power that it could dissolve parliament and Charles I had disbanded parliament several times. And after Cromwell died from disease, Charles II was back and killed many opponents. Charles IIs atrocity made it impossible for his opponents to tolerate him. “In the early sixteenth century the monarchy had used the bourgeoisie as an ally against its most powerful rivals But by the last decade of the sixteenth century, when all its internal and external foes had been crushed, the bourgeoisie ceased to depend on the protection of the monarchy (Christopher 3).” It can be seen that how great the Kings power was. Oppositely, America was a new continent at that time without any feudal tradition, which decreased the obstructions of the revolution. Different countries had their different roads to modernization because every country hah its own special condition. We can not deny the fact that for the success of the American Revolution, the American people fought hard. However, the British people were tougher and they experienced more in the English Revolution. The English Revolution lasted a long time and it was filled with transitions and obstructions. So, the English Revolution is more tortuous than the American Revolution.Works CitedL. S. Stavrianos. A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century. Prentice Hall PTR, 1998.Chengdan, Qian. History of England. Shanghai: The Shanghai Academy of Social Science Press, 2002.Joseph J. Ellis. His Excellency: George Washington. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2004.Kenneth O. Morgan. The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford University Press, USA; Revised edition (June 6, 2010).Christopher Hill. The English Revolution 1640. 2002. < http:/www.marxists.org/archive/hill-christopher/english-revolution/ >.<