3.7Meanwhile, elsewhere (1763–1791)

The American Revolution was part of an age of revolutions. Its success, and its ideals of natural rights and popular sovereignty, inspired reformers across the Atlantic. In 1789, France erupted in a far more radical revolution that toppled its monarchy and shook every European throne.

Elsewhere, Britain, having lost its American colonies, turned its imperial energies toward India and the Pacific. Spanish and Portuguese America remained under colonial rule, but revolutionary ideas were spreading there too. The world was entering a turbulent era in which the question America had just posed—by what right does any government rule?—would be asked again and again.