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Hyperian History Of The World (18th Century, Part 4)

The end of the 18th century saw world events that would shake humanity to its core, with their effects still being felt to this day. The old powers of the world, the ones which sought to suppress humanity with irrational faith and ideologies of slavery and oppression had been best represented in the preceding centuries by the catholic church and the powerful monarchies of Europe. Since the renaissance, and in particular the protestant reformation, the church had lost a great amount of its power. Philosophers and scientists had moved away from christianity and no longer feared persecution from the church. Yet the political powers of the world still had great power over the people.

Back in the 17th century, there had been a civil war in England which had resulted in the execution of king Charles I and the brief abolition of the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell. As a hardcore puritanical protestant, Cromwell knew all about opposing great powers. Unfortunately, England was unable to recreate itself into a republic, so entrenched was the idea of monarchy and the will of the people to submit and be oppressed, and the monarchy was restored. Yet the new king did not have the absolute power he had once had, and parliament, made up of the representatives of the people, now had a greater role in the governing of the nation.

It is interesting that these events can be seen as resulting from ideas in the philosophy of John Locke, the founder of British empiricism. Although that philosophy was entirely incorrect when it came to understanding the nature of reality, the political aspect of Locke’s philosophy was all about the natural rights of all people, the idea that all people were created equally and therefore any government had to have the consent of those whom it governed. Clearly, absolute monarchy grossly violated this concept.

The greatest consequence of these ideas and events of the 17th century, would be felt towards the end of the 18th century, not in England, but in the British colonies in America. Since the beginning of the 17th century, pilgrims had been journeying across the Atlantic and settling in the new world. Along the east coast of the continent the British Empire had invaded and utterly overthrown the native Americans who had dwelled there and thirteen colonies had been established, all governed and controlled by the British parliament and the British monarchy.

Yet after a century, the people of these colonies, many of whom had been born there, began to identify as American rather than as British. In the middle of the 18th century, unrest began to grow amongst the American people, especially when new taxation was introduced to the American colonies. The British parliament was made up of representatives of the British people with the American people having no representation. These new taxes led to the idea amongst the Americans of ‘no taxation without representation’.

Eventually, protests would begin in the colonies against this taxation, with the British government and monarchy coming to be viewed as a tyranny by the American people. Things became violent in 1770 when protesters in Boston were massacred by British soldiers. The protests culminated with the Boston Tea Party in 1773, in which an entire shipment of tea was dumped into Boston Harbour by protesters, in opposition to the taxation of the tea. The severe response of the British to this act eventually led to full scale revolution.

The other colonies quickly rallied behind Massachusetts, which had been declared a state in rebellion, each setting up their own governments and a continental army was developed under the leadership of General George Washington. Battles between this army and the British forces led to revolutionary war. Ideas of republicanism and the liberty of the people spread around the American people (thanks to writers such as Thomas Paine) and the English king George III was declared a tyrant. Finally, Thomas Jefferson drafted a declaration of independence, which was signed by representatives of all the colonies on July 4th 1776, declaring that the colonies were now free and independent states, and the process began of forming a union of these states which would become known as the United States of America.

The war continued on, with the British obviously resisting the declaration but, with help from France, the Americans defeated the British in 1781 and in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the conflict and recognising the new independent nation. The constitution was written and George Washington was elected as the first president.

The United States of America was the first modern nation to be founded on republicanism and represented, at the time, the final move away from the dominance of both the catholic church and the old monarchies of Europe. This new nation was a huge beacon of hope for humanity at the time, showing that humanity could throw off the tyranny of the old powers and progress to new heights of enlightenment. Unfortunately, the old powers found all sorts of ways to worm their way back into this new nation and, as the previous two centuries have shown, the United States of America has become the very essence of everything it was created to oppose. Jefferson and his fellow founding fathers would be appalled to see the current state of their nation.

The American Revolution, however, was merely a prelude to perhaps the most momentous event in the history of humanity, the French Revolution. The French government had fought in the Seven Years war and had assisted the Americans in their revolutionary war. As such, the French government was severely in debt and sought to repair its financial situation with heavy taxation on the people of France. This, coupled with the harsh environmental problems of those years, with several bad harvests, led to the people of France growing to greatly resent the privileges enjoyed by the wealthy aristocracy and the catholic clergy which was still influential in France, whilst many of them were starving. The French were also aware of what was happening in America and became inspired by the enlightenment ideals of liberty, human rights and even republicanism.

The revolution began in 1789 with the summoning of the Estates Generale, which had not been called since 1614. This institution was an assembly representing the three estates of French society, the clergy (first estate), the nobility (second estate) and the commoners (third estate). The Estates Generale was called by king Louis XVI in order to solve the crises afflicting France at the time, but the commoners quickly saw the trap. Despite vastly outnumbering the other two estates, the third estate was consistently outvoted by the other two, who usually agreed with one another and who had equal representation in the Estates Generale.

To combat this, the third estate decided to form what was called the National Assembly and invited the other estates to join them. This was absolutely against the wishes of the king who attempted to intervene by going personally into the assembly to annul all of its decrees. To ensure his success, the king ordered the hall where the assembly met to be closed on 20th June 1789. However, the assembly simply met at another location, a nearby tennis court, and swore the ‘Tennis Court Oath’, in which they stated that they would not separate until they had settled the constitution of France. This was tantamount to a declaration of independence by the third estate, by which they took control of France away from the king and his nobility.

These events were seen by the king as merely a political insurrection. He had no choice, however, to accept the legitimacy of the National Assembly. Yet the king still attempted to exercise his power and he dismissed and banished Jacques Necker, the finance minister. This was seen by the people of Paris as the King attempting to undermine the Assembly and revolutionary fervour quickly spread throughout the city. The French military had been brought to Paris in large numbers, again convincing the people that they were under threat. To combat this threat, the people of Paris, on 14th July 1789, stormed the Bastille prison, a symbol of royal power, taking from therein a huge cache of weapons in order to fight back against the military.

This eruption of violence was symbolically the beginning of the revolution, the event which made the king realise that the people were now utterly against him and his nobility. The Assembly now had the full support of the people, who were now also arming themselves against the military who served the king. In August 1789 the assembly abolished feudalism entirely, granting equal rights to all citizens.

As time went on, the king lost more and more power, yet still had some support. There was much political struggle between those who opposed the king and those who still supported him, yet in 1792 France was officially declared a republic and the radicalisation of the revolutionary government was intensifying. The most radical group who rose to prominence at the time were the Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Saint-Just. So committed were they to the ideals of the revolution and the republic, that they insisted that the king was committing treason against the republic simply by being the king. As such, the Jacobins, who now held the most power in the revolutionary government, executed Louis XVI on 21st January 1793, an even which shocked the world.

After this, the Jacobins began to see many counter-revolutionary movements rise up against them and thus began the ‘Reign of Terror’ of 1793, in which anyone who showed any opposition to the revolution and the Jacobin cause was simply sent to the guillotine. The Jacobins were attempting to revolutionise every aspect of society, from the establishment of an entirely new calendar to the advocation of a new state religion known as the ‘cult of the Supreme Being’. The Jacobin vision was based on the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his ‘Social Contract’ which detailed how to express the General Will of the citizens rather than any Particular Wills of individuals. This was the highest expression of Left Wing politics yet was far too radical for the majority of the people of the time.

Perhaps the Jacobins moved too quickly with their vision, although the circumstances of the revolution seemed to necessitate such activity, but a huge number of counter-revolutionary factions rose up against them, some in response to the violence of the Terror, some who simply were unable to cope with the radical ideas and the effects they would have on society. Lacking the vision to see how these ideas, though radical and violent at the time, would lead to a better world for all, the opponents of the Jacobins overpowered them and Robespierre and Saint-Just, perhaps the two greatest left wing heroes of all time, were themselves sent to the guillotine on 28th July 1794.

This began the period of the revolution known as the ‘Thermidorian Reaction’, named after the name of the month in the new calendar, Thermidor, in which the Jacobins were brought down. This was the beginning of the end for the revolution, with France falling under the control of an executive council known as the ‘Directory’, which soon became corrupt. Alas, with the fall of the Jacobins, the old powers once again found a way to worm their way back in. Nonetheless, the Directory was overthrown in 1799 in a coup led by a general named Napoleon Bonaparte.

Earlier in the revolution, the French army had been involved in many military campaigns elsewhere in Europe and Napoleon had come to prominence in many of these conflicts, revealing himself to be a brilliant military leader, and he was seen as a hero of the revolution. Unfortunately, after he overthrew the Directory, Napoleon assumed power himself and, while adhering to many of the ideals of the revolution, eventually became the very thing it had attempted to overthrow when he declared himself to be Emperor of a new French Empire. This led to the Napoleonic Wars into the next century, in which the other old powers of Europe managed to defeat Napoleon and regain control of France. The greatest revolution in the history of the world had failed, yet its effects continue to be felt across the world.

The French Revolution was the closest that the old powers of the world came to being defeated. This terrified them and led to a complete change of tactics. The ideals of the revolution were allowed to spread around the world, but in a decidedly diluted form, with less power being given to monarchies or religious organisations and more power being given to the people and individuals. Yet the old powers continued to work behind the scenes, now very much playing a game of psychology with the people, allowing them the illusion of freedom while in fact continuing to dominate and control them. Never again would they explicitly show their dominance, for fear of another revolution on this scale.

However, in the world right now, these old powers have foolishly begun to show their true colours once again and the time has come for a new, global revolution to overthrow them once and for all. Hyperianism is that very revolution, yet to achieve it, we must summon up the spirit of the Jacobins, of Robespierre and Saint-Just, the great left wing heroes who so nearly transformed the world. It won’t be easy, and will require great deal of courage, willpower, resilience and a refusal to compromise on our ideals.

Liberté, fraternité, égalité, ou la mort!