Compare And Contrast The American And French Revolution

The American and French Revolution both had numerous incidents that warranted revolutions against oppressive monarchs. In 1776, 13 years after the American colonists and British won the French and Indian war, American colonists were footed the debt from Britain in the form of heavy taxation (Our Human History, pg.516). With the weight of heavy taxation, like the stamp act and the tea tax, pared with Britain’s decision to tax the colonists without an elected representative in parliament, American had set its sights on a democratic representative type of governing (Our Human History, pg. 516-517). In 1789, 5 years after helping the Americans fight their revolution, the French were in the midst of an economic collapse that was worsened by Louis

528-529). Different from their American counter parts, the French yearned to abolish the privileges geared towards the middle and upper classes. Similar to the Americans, the French wanted to create a “constitutional monarchy” that represented their desires of a democratic government which protected the rights of all its people and limited the power of the government (Our Human History, pg. 530). In comparison the American and French Revolutions had different reasons for resisting monarchies, however they had similar economic and oppressive factors that created goals and outcomes that mirrored each

The American colonists and British fought against each other in militant fashion with skirmishes, like 1777 Battle of Saratoga that the American colonists won, allied with aide from the French, and the 1781 surrender of Yorktown after the French navy surrounded British Commander Lord Cornwallis outside his quarters, before he fled back to Britain (Our Human History, pg. 520-521). The French in contrast held less poised revolution, examples of the revolutionary events include: 1787 in which the French attack the symbol of the crown, Bastille, and the vengeful French people behead the governor of Bastille (Our Human History, pg. 530). The French also executed their king Louis XVI by guillotine which then introduced an era called “The Reign of Terror” lead by Maximillian Robespierre where “tens of thousands of people” were executed for speaking against the “Terror” (Our Human History, pg. 534-535). As presented the American and French revolutionaries faced different circumstances and dealt responses as they saw fit, the two revolutions had similar political order outcomes. The Americans added the “Bill of Rights” to the Constitution in 1791, while the Constitution was ratified in 1788, all while also building a strong central government with “checks and balances” (Our Human History, pg. 522-523). The French saw what the Americans had created, whom took inspiration from enlightenment writers