The British and American models
The evolution of modern political systems was shaped by two major influences: the gradual limitation of royal power in Britain, and the revolutionary foundation of a republic in the United States.
While Britain developed a constitutional monarchy based on law and parliamentary authority, the American colonies broke away to create a republic grounded in popular sovereignty and individual rights.
These two models would later inspire political change in France, offering contrasting paths to liberty and political representation.
#1. How Britain reduced the king’s power
#A. The Great Charter (1215)
On 15 June 1215, one year after the defeat at Bouvines, King John Lackland was compelled to grant his barons the Great Charter (Magna Carta). This foundational text, which holds constitutional value in England, saw the king agree to limit his power by establishing a Great Council, soon to be known as Parliament, composed of major barons and representatives of London’s burgesses, the only body authorised to approve taxation.
By the 14th century, this Parliament was divided into two chambers (bicameralism), the knights (representing landowners) and the burgesses (representing town populations) formed the House of Commons, while the clergy and nobles formed the House of Lords.
The king also undertook not to conduct arbitrary arrests, “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his possessions, outlawed, exiled or executed, in any way whatsoever. Nor will we sentence him to imprisonment except by the lawful judgment of his peers and in accordance with the law of the land.”
#B. A first revolution (1640)
#a) Parliament’s victory (1649)
Charles I Stuart (1625–1649) clashed from the outset of his reign with parliamentarians, mostly Puritans, who held a strict interpretation of Anglican faith.
Concerned with moral standards and financial restraint, they disapproved of the king’s expenditures, whether for wars against Spain or France, or for courtly extravagance. They denied him the right to raise new taxes.
In 1640, seeking funds to wage war against the Scots, the king overstepped his authority and had opposition leaders arrested. This marked the beginning of a civil war between the Cavaliers (royalist supporters with long, curled hair) and the Roundheads (Puritans with shaved heads, aligned with Parliament). Charles I was eventually defeated by Parliament’s army, led by Oliver Cromwell, who had him condemned and beheaded on 9 February 1649.
#b) Cromwell’s dictatorship
Oliver Cromwell established a dictatorial and harshly puritanical republic. From 1653 he assumed the title of Lord Protector and ruled with a military junta.
Festivities (except religious ones), music, and performances were banned, and his repression in Catholic Ireland and in Scotland led to thousands of civilian deaths.
Upon his death on 3 September 1658, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief.
#c) Habeas Corpus (1679)
Charles II, son of Charles I, restored the monarchy on 29 May 1660. He was somewhat sympathetic to Catholics and adopted a policy of religious tolerance.
In 1678, Anglican preacher Titus Oates spread a rumour accusing Catholics of having caused the Great Fire of London in 1666 and of plotting to assassinate the king. Many were imprisoned and executed without trial. It was later shown these were mere fabrications.
To prevent such abuses, the king granted Parliament the Habeas Corpus Act in May 1679, a legal safeguard requiring any prisoner to be brought promptly before a judge. It forbade the detention of any free man “except by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
#C. The Glorious Revolution (1688)
#a) The reign of James II
Charles II’s brother ascended the throne in 1685. A staunch Catholic, the new monarch admired Louis XIV’s example, particularly his persecution of Protestants and revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
He immediately faced opposition and resorted to military repression. In 1688, fearing a resurgence of Catholicism, the English invited William III of Orange-Nassau, governor of the Dutch Republic, to intervene.
William was the grandson of Charles I and husband to Mary, James II’s eldest daughter. Both were devout Protestants. James II was ousted, and Parliament placed his daughter and son-in-law, Mary and William of Orange, on the throne.
#b) The Bill of Rights (1689)
On 13 February 1689, the new monarch issued the Bill of Rights, a declaration severely restricting royal power in favour of Parliament.
This was the happy outcome of a Glorious Revolution that unfolded without bloodshed.
#D. Summary
England thus became a parliamentary monarchy: the king could no longer raise troops without Parliament’s consent, and a freely elected Parliament voted on laws. Citizens’ protection and individual liberties were safeguarded.
Parliament, based in Westminster in central London, comprises two chambers, one elected, the other hereditary. The lower house (House of Commons) votes on laws and holds the government to account; the upper house (House of Lords), a remnant of the aristocratic past, reviews and amends laws, serving a moderating role.
These organisational principles have persisted in the United Kingdom to this day, with the main changes concerning how MPs in the House of Commons are elected, now by universal suffrage.
| Period | Key events | What changed for royal power |
|---|---|---|
| 1215 |
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| 14th century |
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| 1640 – 1649 |
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| 1653 – 1658 |
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| 1660 |
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| 1679 |
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| 1685 – 1688 |
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| 1688 – 1689 |
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By contrast, France stuck to an absolutist model, with no enduring representative body to curb royal power. When discontent finally exploded in 1789, it turned into a tsunami of violence, as the monarchy had no gradual mechanism for negotiation.
#2. The American War of Independence
#A. An anti-tax movement
#a) A multiplication of taxes
The British government, emerging from the Seven Years’ War against France, was financially ruined. Believing that they had defended the American colonists during the conflict, the British deemed it fair to demand a financial contribution from them.
From 1764, new taxes were introduced (on sugar, printed documents via the Stamp Act, etc.), even though the American colonies, subject to the system of mercantilist exclusivity, were only permitted to trade with their mother country. Mercantilist exclusivity was an economic policy under which colonies were only allowed to trade with their mother country, ensuring that wealth, resources, and profits remained within the empire and served the interests of the metropolitan economy.
In response, the inhabitants of Boston launched a powerful boycott movement against taxed British goods, resulting in a halving of imports. On 5 March 1770, a confrontation in Boston led to the death of five demonstrators. This “Bloody Massacre” (as it came to be known) fuelled resentment against British rule in London.
#b) The Boston Tea Party (16 December 1773)
In the major port of the British colony of Massachusetts, the colonist Samuel Adams and several companions, disguised as Native Americans, boarded a moored ship and threw its cargo of tea into the sea (343 chests valued at £100,000).
This act of protest marked the beginning of the War of Independence. King George III declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. However, in 1775, British troops were routed at Lexington.
#c) The Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776)
On 4 July 1776, delegates from the thirteen colonies met in Congress in Philadelphia. A committee of five members, led by Thomas Jefferson and assisted by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, drafted the Declaration of Independence. The text reflects many ideas from French Enlightenment philosophers (liberty, equality, etc.).
The Declaration asserts the right of all human beings to pursue happiness: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...”
This declaration marked the beginning of armed conflict between the small group of Insurgents, led by George Washington, and the British and Loyalist forces, reinforced by many German mercenaries.
The new federation adopted the "Star-Spangled Banner" on 14 June 1777: it featured 13 stars on a blue field, representing the thirteen colonies, along with red and white horizontal stripes.
#B. The involvement of European powers
The uprising and the Declaration of Independence had a profound impact on the liberal nobility of Europe. Against the wishes of the young King Louis XVI, the Marquis de Lafayette, aged 19, equipped a frigate at his own expense and joined the Insurgents.
Other officers also joined the cause, including Commander Pierre L’Enfant, who would later design the plans for the future U.S. capital, as well as the Prussian von Steuben, the Pole Kosciuszko, and the German de Kalb. Their military experience proved invaluable to the insurgents, who achieved an important early victory at the Battle of Saratoga (1777).
The writer and spy Beaumarchais organised arms shipments to America with the approval of Foreign Minister Vergennes, who was keen to support any effort that could weaken France’s hereditary enemy, Britain.
King Louis XVI himself eventually agreed to send a force of 6,000 soldiers in 1780, under the command of the Count of Rochambeau. The support of France, as well as Spain and the Netherlands, enabled the insurgents to secure final victory after the British troops’ surrender at the Battle of Yorktown on 19 October 1781.
The independence of the United States was formally recognised by Britain through the Treaties of London (30 November 1782) and Versailles (3 September 1783).
#C. Summary
In 1775, the thirteen British colonies in North America revolted against Great Britain. On 4 July 1776, they declared their independence.
They established a republic founded on key principles: equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, and the separation of powers. The Constitution of 1787, followed by the election of George Washington as president, reinforced national unity.
However, the revolution left some groups behind: Black slaves, Native Americans, and women were all excluded from political rights.
#3. The influence of the British model and the American Revolution
#A. Britain’s constitutional monarchy and the limits of royal power
Long before the American Revolution, Britain had pioneered a system of government that gradually curbed royal power and expanded parliamentary authority. From Magna Carta (1215) to the Bill of Rights (1689), Britain developed a constitutional framework in which the law increasingly took precedence over the will of the monarch.
The British system introduced Parliament as a legislative body, which gained the power to approve taxes and scrutinise government action. The principle of habeas corpus protected individuals from arbitrary imprisonment, and after the Glorious Revolution, the monarch ruled by the will of Parliament rather than divine right.
Though Britain retained a monarch and a hereditary aristocracy, its system offered an early example of power-sharing between sovereign and representatives, with increasing accountability and rule of law, ideas that would deeply influence the American colonies.
#B. The American adaptation and the birth of a republican model
Building on their experience of British law and representative assemblies, the American colonists pushed the idea of liberty even further. The U.S. Constitution (1787) formalised a republic without monarchy, based entirely on popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.
The colonists took key elements from the British tradition, legal protections, the role of assemblies, resistance to absolutism, but rejected hereditary rule and constructed a written constitution to guard against tyranny. The inclusion of a Bill of Rights further entrenched individual freedoms, making the American model a more radical offshoot of the British experience.
#C. France between absolutism and revolutionary inspiration
In contrast to Britain and America, pre-revolutionary France remained an absolutist state, with unchecked royal authority and no representative institutions. This centralisation of power left no gradual path for reform, making revolution far more violent and sweeping.
However, both the British and American models inspired French revolutionaries. From Britain, they drew the concept of a constitutional monarchy; from America, the vision of a republic founded on Enlightenment principles. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) reflected both influences, asserting the rights of individuals and the legitimacy of government based on consent.
While France ultimately charted its own, more radical course, it did so in dialogue with the political experiments of Britain and America. These models offered contrasting but complementary visions of limiting power and protecting liberty.