HIST 1001 Chapter 19: Chapter 19 - Revolutions in Politics
14 Apr 2017
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Document Summary
Certain important factors helped set the stage for reform. Among them were fundamental social and economic changes and political crises that eroded state authority. Another significant cause was the impact of political ideas derived from the enlightenment. Perhaps the most important, financial crises generated by war expenses brought european states to their knees and allowed abstract discussions of reform to become pressing realities. Europe"s population rose rapidly after 1750, and its cities and towns swelled in size; inflation kept pace with population growth, making it ever more difficult to find affordable food and living space. By the late eighteenth century european law accepted that only africans and people of african descent were subject to slavery. Even free people of colour - a term for nonslaves of african or mixed african-european descent - were subject to special laws restricting the property they could own, whom they could marry, and what clothes they could.
