Topic: World History

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Jefferson to John Adams

In this letter to John Adams, Jefferson reviewed the mostly unpleasant news from Europe. An exception was the Greek war for independence, which began a few months earlier. Many Americans...
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Jefferson to John Hollins

In the spring of 1811, Jefferson worried about how partisan conflict would affect U.S. foreign policy. Caught between warring European powers, President Madison tried to keep the U.S. out of...
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Jefferson to Tench Coxe

In the 1790s, Jefferson followed the news from Europe, as this letter shows. Here, he applauded the success of the Dutch republicans and worried about the violent excesses of the...
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Liberian Coat of Arms

Liberia’s crest portrays the West African republic as a haven for slaves and free blacks whose “love of liberty” led them across the ocean to live in peace as free...
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Louis XVI

This is a portrait of King Louis XVI of France, a key ally of Americans in their war for independence against Britain. Painted in 1779, this image shows Louis surrounded...
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Magna Carta

In 1215, King John’s Magna Carta–or Great Charter–recognized the property rights of Englishmen and the authority of local county courts. John also pledged to seek the “common counsel of the...
Lesson Plan

Revolution of the Mind

The word “revolution” can take on a number of meanings. Most often we think of it in terms of the forcible overthrow of one government and the institution of another....
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Signing of the Act of Independence

This painting by the Venezuelan patriot Juan Lovera records the signing of his country’s declaration of independence in 1811. Beginning in Venezuela in 1806, a series of revolutions resulted in...
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Taking of the Bastille

On July 14, 1789, a revolutionary crowd stormed the Bastille, as this contemporary painting shows. Both a fortress and a prison, the Bastille housed valuable gunpowder (which the crowd seized)...
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The Congress of Tucuman

In 1816, the Congress of Tucumán, shown here, declared independence from the Spanish Empire. The congress met in what is now Argentina, but it also included delegates from modern-day Uruguay...