American And French Revolutions: Turning Point Of The American Revolution

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Two major turning points in history are the American and French Revolutions. They changed the way people see the way society is run. Both were caused by similar reasons, but they progressed in different ways. They both inspired new documents and ideologies and gave insight into individual rights and freedoms. Being critical in history, it is important to know how each revolution was caused and what critical factors are important. The American Revolution was a result of the American colonists revolting against Great Britain in an attempt to tax the colonies more due to the damages caused by the Seven Years' War. Before the war, there were several events protesting the taxes that Britain levied; for example, the Boston Tea Party happened when the Tea Act was imposed because that increased taxes on tea. The main goal of the American Revolution was to become independent from Britain due to their "taxation without representation" to Parliament. Critical documents like the Declaration of Independence (1776) and Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776) also played a critical role because they both mentioned that a tyrant or king should not rule a free land, but rather by …show more content…

That system was a social system that included three different statuses for people, clergy, nobility, and everyone else. The cause of the French Revolution is contested among historians, but many think that it happened because the clergy and nobility groups did not pay their taxes unlike everyone else. Additionally, the execution of King Louis XVI was the event that may have caused the contests to start between groups. In the months after the execution, France was under months of unrest caused by the citizens. This resulted in the Committee of Public Safety fighting against the French citizens in a nearly eleven-month-long period called the Reign of Terror. Thousands of people died at the hands of their own