The document discusses several factors that contributed to revolutions in the late 18th century, including growing wealth inequality in Boston, religious radicals rejecting church establishments, improved living standards for French colonists in Canada, Native Americans acquiring horses which increased their mobility, and Cherokee warriors killing settlers due to disrupted supply routes from the French.

1. Prelude to Revolutions
By: Toni Gonzales

2.  The British empire had turned
against piracy that had been an
English resource in
earlier, weaker times. England
had found piracy useful for
attacking the more powerful
Spanish Empire. Queen
Elizabeth I protected and
invested in pirate enterprises.
Piracy also invited offended
sailors to strike back against the
owners and operators of
merchant ships.

3.  The unemployed faced
starvation unless they entered an
almshouse maintained by the
city as a last resort for the poor.
Although they were sill a
minority, a growing number of
the urban poor alarmed
contemporaries. According to
the tax records, in 1771 the
wealthiest tenth of Bostonians
owned more than 60 percent of
the urban wealth, while the
bottom three-tenths earned
virtually nothing.

4.  The evangelicals became
subdivided into moderates and
radicals. Both had a
commitment to “experimental
religion,” but they differed over
the implications of church and
state institutions. The radicals
rejected any church
establishment as corrupting to
both religion and government.
They glorified the emotional and
physical outburst of the revivals
as pure manifestations of God’s
overwhelming power.

5.  Most of the French who did not
emigrate to Canada significantly
improved their status and
standard of living. At least 80
percent of the colonists lived as
habitants, leasing farms of about
two hundred acres. Habitants
took pride in their regular
consumption of meat and white
bread. Due to smaller, tight
houses and plentiful
firewood, the New French also
kept warmer during winter as
well.

6.  Although horses first evolved in
North America, before spreading
eastward into Asia and Europe
about twelve thousand years ago,
they had become extinct in this
continent by about ten thousand
years ago. It wasn’t till about the
late seventeenth century when
the Pueblo and Apache acquired
horses from the New Mexicans.
On horseback men could cover
far more land in less time. A
horse could haul loads four
times larger than could a dog,
enabling the Indians to transport
more possessions.

7.  In 1759 the Cherokee warriors
took revenge by killing about
thirty settlers. The Cherokee had
hoped to procure a supply from
the French, but the British fleet
blocked French shipments to
Louisiana. In 1763 native peoples
had captured most of the British
forts around the Great Lakes and
in the Ohio Valley. Indians could
not maintain their resistance for
long without European supplier.
Unable to take major forts, the
Indians longed to resume a
peaceful trade.