By conspiring against and then depriving King James II of the throne of England, Parliament, through the English Bill of Rights, firmly established the principle of a limited monarchy with Parliament holding ultimate political power. The appointment of William and Mary as king and queen of England was accompanied by a declaration of rights which itemized the alleged criminal acts of King James II and indicated the rights of the peoples' representatives. Parliament later passed a number of laws which guaranteed these rights.
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies, 4 July 1776, after much debate over the form that the relationship between the North American colonies and the United Kingdom should take. Relations had been deteriorating for some years over a perceived lack of representation for colonial grievances in Parliament. The Declaration signaled the formal start of the war for independence.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) was one of the first and most important political documents of the French Revolution. The French National Assembly, having just overthrown the Ancien Régime, decided to secure the revolution with a declaration of principles. The Declaration borrowed heavily on the examples of the English Bill of Rights and the statements of rights in the American state constitutions, which had been translated into French with considerable influence. The Declaration is a brief, but powerful, statement of the central themes of the revolution: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood).
There were many reasons for the outbreak of Romanticism at the turn of the nineteenth century. For example, some artists and intellectuals had begun to feel uncomfortable with the rationalist outlook of the Enlightenment--which had never completely dominated--and turned to more emotional, spiritual releases in the arts and in politics. The Romantics accused the philosophes of being narrowly logical, overly-optimistic, and depriving man of supernatural or spiritual inspiration. In addition, many held the Enlightenment responsible for the excesses of the French revolution, thus the counter-revolt of Romanticism.
Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) experienced family privations as he grew up. He later became a reporter in London and began to publish literary sketches in the early 1830s. At the end of 1837 the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club appeared in book form and sealed his literary debut. Dickens published Hard Times in 1854 as an overt critique of the impact that industrialization/urbanization was having on England.
The socialist movement, in a manner of speaking, was a direct result of the Industrial Revolution that produced a working class. If there had been no industrialization, then there would probably have been no socialist movement. One of the most famous, and influential, explanations (and then critique) of the industrialization process was The Communist Manifesto (1848), published by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). The Manifesto was meant to serve as a call to revolution for the working class and was only a very sketchy explanation of Marx's ideas, which he would late develop, with Engels, in longer works such as Das Kapital. The communist revolt, envisioned by Marx and Engels, did not occur in 1848, despite widespread revolutionary unrest in Europe in that year.
Prussian King Frederick William IV was succeeded by his brother, William I, as Regent (1858-61) and then as king (1861-88). Aroused by the uncertain state of international affairs in 1859, William sought to reform and enlarge the Prussian army. Liberals in the Prussian Landtag, opposing the military build-up, claimed the legal right to control expenditures, whereas the king, as head of the army, claimed the right to institute military reforms and to require the necessary funds be appropriated. A political deadlock arose for which the Prussian constitution had no provision. The King considered abdication, but finally fell back upon Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) to break the deadlock. Bismarck already had a reputation as a conservative, an anti-parliamentarian, a nationalist, and a man of intelligence. A staunch supporter of the king during the Revolution of 1848, he had served as Prussian representative to the Frankfurt Diet (1851-59), as Ambassador to Russia (1859-62), and to France (1862), in which capacities he had acquired a thorough knowledge of the internal affairs of the German states as well as of the European diplomatic scene.
Chinua Achebe (1930-) was born in Nigeria and attended University College in Ibadan. He published Things Fall Apart in 1958 as a commentary upon the destruction of Ibo society at the hands of Europeans. He has taught, and continues to teach, at schools in the United States, such as the University of Massachusetts and Bard College. Take a moment and read the article by Peter Monaghan, "Coming Together: On the 50th anniversary of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe Reflects on His Intentions and His Influence." (PDF version)
Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) fought in the German army during World War I and was wounded many times. The publication of All Quiet on the Western Front in 1929 brought him immediate fame, wealth and notoriety. During the 1930s, a number of governments banned publication of the book because of its anti-war theme. Remarque resided in the United States during World War II, but returned to Switzerland after the war.
Soon after the seizure of power in late October 1917 in Russia, the Bolsheviks issued a series of decrees, including important proclamations on workers' rights (An increased role in running factories for workers.), the land question (The peasants would get access to all the land.) and World War I (Russia would leave the war.). This specific decree that you are analyzing for the exam, the Declaration of the Rights of the Russian People (2/15 November 1917), was intended to form the basis for future Bolshevik treatment of the national minorities of the former Russian Empire (perhaps promising equal treatment for all nationalities in the empire?). The Declaration was signed by Lenin and Stalin (reputedly an expert on the nationalities question).
The Wikipedia entry has a bit more information about the Declaration.
Please be very careful as you analyze this document. While the title, the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia (Декларация прав народов России) resembles the title of the French Declaration from 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, you will see, on close scrutiny, that the Russian Declaration is a much different document than the French Declaration.
In addition, and this is important, the Russian Declaration was not a document that was similar in form or substance to the American Declaration of Independence. In other words, do not write in your essay on the exam that the Russian Declaration was similar to the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Although it is thought of as having been "written" by Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf is not a book in the usual sense. Hitler never actually sat down and pecked at a typewriter or wrote longhand, but instead dictated his random ideas to Rudolph Hess while pacing around a prison cell in 1923-24. He later continued to work on the "book" at a local inn at Berchtesgaden. The original title Hitler chose was "Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice," but his Nazi publisher knew better and shortened it to "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle or My Battle).
When the book was first released in 1925, it sold poorly. People had been hoping for a juicy autobiography or a behind-the-scenes story of the Beer Hall Putsch. What they got were hundreds of pages of long, hard to follow sentences and wandering paragraphs composed by a self-educated man. However, after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, millions of copies were sold. It was considered proper to give one to newlyweds, high school graduates, or to celebrate any similar occasion. But few Germans ever read it cover to cover. Although it made him rich, Hitler would later express regret that he had published "Mein Kampf," considering the extent of its revelations.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) served in the Russian army during World War II and was arrested in 1945 for allegedly making anti-Stalin remarks in a letter to a friend. After serving time in the camps, he was released in 1953 but still sentenced to exile. Rehabilitation occurred only in 1957, the year after Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech denouncing the crimes of the Stalin era.