Difference Between American And French Revolution

The late eighteenth century was a time of political revolution in the Atlantic world. The abuses of monarchies and nobility had angered the populations of many countries to the point of inciting them to war. Perhaps the two most prominent examples of this were the American and French Revolutions. In the case of the Americans, British laws and taxes passed without American consent had angered much of the population, and in the case of the French, lack of ability for the peasantry, the majority of the population, to represent themselves in government compared to the privileged classes led to a mass movement. The American and French Revolutions had several key differences, such as how the Americans established a government with very limited power

The American Revolution was a result of years of anger from Americans over British control, and an increasingly diverging national identity. In the year 1763, the Seven-Years War between Britain and France came to an end. Left economically devastated, Britain turned towards its American colonies for increased funding. Britain justified these laws by claiming that the Seven-Years War had served largely to protect the American colonies, as well as the idea that the interests of the British were the same as the interests of the Americans. Influential American figures who would go on to be called the Founding Fathers disagreed with this. From their perspective, these new laws and taxes passed by the British came without the consent of the American people, and because the Americans had no representation in Parliament, there was no way for them to prevent such laws. The next decade would be a pattern of the British attempting to pass laws to further control their colonies while the Americans rallied a resistance to the British. Eventually, as tensions rose, war broke out, and the United States declared itself an independent republic, free from European monarchies. One notable fact about the American Revolution was the group of men who led and incited it. The Founding Fathers, as they are called, were primarily wealthy, landowning men. This

This dichotomy explains many of the differences between the two revolutions. In America, the wealthy were generally safe from rebellious colonists. The anger in that case was directed towards the British, often towards soldiers, tax collectors, and British officials. Wealthy landowning men like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson not only went unharmed by the Revolution, but were the leaders of it. Comparing this to the French Revolution, one will see a stark contrast. Wealthy landowners in France were the very target of the Revolution. Nobles at the time owned around one quarter of the land whilst representing two percent of the population, and this was one of the chief complaints against them. The American focus on national identity led to a government that protected the rights of the wealthy. Voting was restricted to only landowners in the new republic, which guaranteed that reforms favored by those who were poor could not pass without the approval of the wealthy. France, on the other hand, expanded the right to vote to all men (if only temporarily) under Jacobin rule. The very popularity of the Jacobins also was a result of the poor base of the French