The Similarities And Differences Of The French And American Revolutions

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The French and American revolutions were two very important events in history that have similarities and differences in economic, military, financial and political terms. This essay will discuss how these aspects contributed to the unrests, and how they vary for either case. A cause that seems to occur in both revolutions is the problem of taxation, which is a financial problem. In the French Revolution, the Third Estate was the only class that payed the national tax. (1) This evidence shows that the tax was unevenly distributed amongst the French population, especially the Third Estate that was impoverished. This caused a financial unrest between the king and the tax paying Third Estate. On the other hand, in the American revolution, all of the thirteen colonies had to pay tax to the British. They found this unfair, because they had no representation in the British parliament, and they said: “taxation without representation is tyranny” (2). This makes it clear that the Americans had no rights or say in the British government. The similarities of these revolutions were simple: in both of the cases, they disagreed with their rulers’ desires. The differences of these financial causes was that the Third estate was the only social class paying tax, and the colonists in America all had to pay tax to the British, who were in charge of them. Overall, this information clearly shows how financial problems were one of the causes of both revolutions even though they were different in