Significance of the English Civil War

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of governance in Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and plentiful other countries to this day. The English Civil War also had an indirect effect on the American constitution, as the constitution utilised the ideals that had been inspired from a man who lived through the horrors of the Civil War in the book “Two Treatises of a Government”, written by John Locke in 1689. In said book, Locke argues that all men are created equal in the state of nature by God.

The actions and decisions taken by Charles throughout his reign greatly favoured the possibility for the conversion of the Protestant Church of England into one of Catholic faith. His arranged marriage to Henrietta Maria, a French princess, and his attempt at imposing a new prayer book in Scotland along with the planned reformation of the church that both Charles I and Archbishop William Laud endorsed, striked anger and fear into the English Puritans, who greatly disfavoured the possibility for reformation. The approaching arrival of the Civil War lead to family disputes and the eventual loss of 13% of the English population at that time. The great loss of life lead to the eventual appearance of famine and disease. The short term effects that were brought to England later encouraged the long term effects. The eventual development of ideologies such as democracy were strongly encouraged in the western world, as the idea that the people should have the power over their own government came to a large rise in popularity and demand. The English Civil War later encouraged similar revolutions throughout the European and global landscape. As merchants and artisans gained fortune through their trading and work gained increasing recognition in English society, the creation of an entirely new social class, the bourgeois, was an outcome of the development of the English economy soon after the end of the Civil War.

In conclusion, the English Civil War had and still has extensive significant effects on a national and global perspective. It has shaped the political landscape and ideologies that dominate the way in which nations are governed, it has created drastical social behaviours and beliefs, and has changed the way in which economies around the world function.