The main reason why the colonists wanted to break away from Great Britain was "taxation without representation." Great Britain were taxing the colonists, through things like the Stamp Act, and the colonists felt like this was unfair. They did not get a say in what they were being taxed on and how much it was. They had no representation in British Parliament and had no way to make these decisions, so they felt it was unfair to be taxed. This made the colonists end up boycotting the products that were being taxed, leaving Great Britain with not as much money to pay war debts. Another reason was Great Britain sometimes made large armies stay with the colonists, who were normally armed. Great Britain then made the colonists provide housing for them, along with cooking, and even paying for them.
Providing women, girls and men with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes.
Throughout the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, most parts of Europe had a monarch who claimed to have the right to rule from <u>God.</u>
In opposition, <u>the Enlighment thinkers challenged the legitimacy </u>of those absolute monarchs and introduced the first democratic concepts during the last decades of the 18th century: social contract (the power of a state is held by the citizens who should transfer it to political representatives through suffrage), the division of powers (three branches of goverment: legislative, executive and judiciary, in order to prevent authoritarism), etc. These new principles directly threatened the pillars of the governments of the authoritarian kings, and brought reason to the political sphere.
When the legitimacy was questioned, the peace and stabiliy were broken and this is why the 19th century was denominated as the century of the revolutions in Europe.
