Comparing and Contrasting the American (1775-1783) and French (1789-1799) Revolutions

A revolution occurs once the populace rebellions contrary to the government, typically because of supposed prejudice (social, party-political, or economic) or radical incompetence. Revolts have ensued in the social past, and their policies, length, and supervisory values have all diverse significantly. Substantial variations in culture, economy, and socio- partisan structures are often the product of their activities, classically in response to perceived overwhelming autocracy or plutocracy.

The American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the numerous Latin American uprisings were all connected by systems of thoughts, trade, and global proceedings that quivered the world in just a few years. Consequently, this paper will be discussing the American and French revolutions, comparing and contrasting as well as assessing their nature, impact, and importance on the modern world.

The Enlightenment principles that strained usual privileges and equivalence were at the core of both the American and French revolts. When comparing the French and American Revolutions, it is evident that individuals felt the necessity to be unrestricted from the domineering or dictatorial law of complete royals and to be able to live independently.¹ Both countries’ leaders were authoritarian at the time of their revolutions, particularly in terms of the revenue system.

Both areas experienced communal and commercial struggles, prompting the realization that something needed to be done to overthrow the elite and return power to the people. Although there several parallels between these revolutions, there are also some significant variations. Therefore, this paper aims to address the French and American Revolutions, the similarities and the differences between the two, and their significance in the present-day world.

The first significant similarity between the French and the American revolutions was their causes. Both revolutions started due to the common people’s desire for freedom and independence from an oppressive government. The desire for financial freedom from the overpowering nation of Great Britain sparked the American Revolution, while the French Revolution was a fight for social equality.² One major cause was the issue of taxation in both states, although with different scenarios. In America, England imposed exorbitant taxes on a variety of products, including tea and sugar.³ For France, on the other hand, the government only taxed the lowest income group, the third estate, while the first and second estates were exempt. Furthermore, the tax was extremely high for these third-class citizens, who still had very little without paying taxes.

Another significant parallel between the French and American revolutions was their focus on Enlightenment supposed. The Enlightenment, which began in France and was identified with authors like Rousseau and Voltaire, led those subjects to monarchies to understand the inequity inherent in such regimes.⁴ Individuals of all levels, especially the internal and subordinate levels, started to require these thoughts to develop a resistance ideology and demand the introduction of fresh laws that would protect all citizens’ normal privileges. Revolutionary War partisans, like their rivals, clashed aggressively with one another in both cases. Consequently, the two revolutions saw heinous acts of violence. Still, I believe it is fair to assume that the French Revolution was much additional vicious and chaotic than the American Revolution.

An additional similarity concerning the American Revolution and the French Revolution is that mutual response was impelled in both revolutions with strong responses from each state. Before 1789, most people (except the new United States’ citizens) lived under the general system of government that their forefathers had known for centuries, which was a typically hereditary monarchy.⁵ No form of government could be recognized as valid without reason after the French Revolution began in 1789. In 1792, revolutionaries formed a republic, and republicans all over the globe would defy monarchists from then on.

The French Revolution piqued North Americans’ attention, as they believed the proceedings of 1789 relied heavily on their own experiences with Britain.⁶ The French Declaration of Man’s and Citizen’s Rights appeared to derive heavily from the states’ bill of rights. Even more direct control was exerted when American Thomas Jefferson, who was living in France, communicated unique ideas to legislators through the Marquis de Lafayette. Even though the French Revolution followed a somewhat different direction than the North American version, the relationship was similar, so it is not shocking that the original response in the United States was positive.

Certainly, it is common in history to esteem the American and French revolts as more similar than dissimilar. The past record shows that these two rebellions had significant variations despite having much in common, and their outcomes were even more divergent. In cooperation, rebellions started with clashes sparked by the requests of privileged who were opposed to the current administration, but the clashes were somewhat dissimilar.⁷ Minutemen assembled in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, to inhibit British crowds from grasping Partisan leaders and weapons. Just one British soldier was injured in that brief skirmish, remembered for “the shot heard ’round the world,” while 18 Americans were killed or wounded.⁸.

The French Revolution started on July 14 1789, with the invasion of the Bastille to free imprisoned revolutionaries⁹. More than 100 rioters were killed or injured during the all-day barrier and capture of the noble stronghold by a crowd of rebels and the assassination of the fortress’ military governor Bernard-Jordan de Launay.

Another difference between the two revolutions was that, unlike American leaders, the French leaders did not prove beneficial to the nation. Some of these leaders, in truth, did much more harm than good. In that regard, a significant example is the Reign of Terror, which was one of the Revolution’s most contentious and frightening periods.¹⁰ Some French colonists saw it as a step toward democracy, while others saw it as an effort by Robespierre to seize power. Another contrast in that respect was that the Americans were attempting to maintain their principles of representative democracy and voluntary taxation.¹¹.

For the French, everything associated with the antique government, including its religion, was aggressive and had to be displaced.¹² The French Revolution was an envious battle between desperate country-dwellers who were beaten into a frenzy. On the other hand, the Americans were not envious of the British; they desired to be left unaccompanied to determine their governmental fate. The guillotine, in contrast to the American symbol of authority, the Liberty Bell, is a French sign of freedom.¹³.

Further, unlike the American Revolution, which had English liberals as intellectual forefathers, the French Revolution was essentially begotten by French radical thinkers, especially Jean Jacques Rousseau, and inherited The Enlightenment’s confidence in reason¹⁴. The French Revolution was driven by the ideas of René Descartes, who believed in geometrical logic, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed in the collective will and supremacy of the people. This is a mechanical term.¹⁵ Government is a machine that is fueled by coercion and guided by logic to achieve Social Justice. As a result, the government is a vehicle for achieving a long-term goal: improving man. Those in charge of the state must then apply justification to the government to advance and create Social Justice.

In both America and France, there was also a disparity in-class involvement in the revolutions. Even aristocracies and nobles in France were enraged at the realm because they were given less control.¹⁶ They still had money and some influence in local politics, but they were more like figureheads than individuals with real power. They recognized that the monarch was restricting their position in administration and joined the resistance movement. This is not to suggest that all members of the aristocracy supported the monarchy, but the number of French aristocrats who did was important.

Nonetheless, in both France and America, the rest of the people supporting the rebellions was strikingly similar. Therefore, the French Revolution was much more brutal, far-reaching, and liberal than the American Revolution. The French Revolution was encouraged by sharp conflicts with French philosophy, though the American Revolution replicated the straining of an expatriate relationship with a distant stately power. The French saw themselves as having to rebuild social order from the ground up, while the Americans wanted to restore or expand on earlier freedom.

The French Revolution and the American Revolution had an enormous and extensive result in the world, possibly more than any other rebellion. The penalties comprise a fall in spiritual consequence, the development of Modern Nationalism, the supper of Liberalism, and the commencement of the Age of Revolutions. Any major country in Europe suffered significant repercussions due to the French Revolution.¹⁷ However, the effect of the French Revolution was notable for its profound and long-lasting influence on the philosophical environment and its impact on the growth of policies both within and outside parliament. Likewise, the American Revolution unleashed prevailing economic, political, and social powers that would alter post-Revolutionary policies and values, including amplified radical and domination participation, lawful institutionalization of spiritual tolerance, and inhabitants’ development dispersion.

In shaping their respective nations, both the American and the French revolutions played major roles. The American Revolution altered the American social order into a republic grounded on what was then measured liberal principles, such as subordinating administration purposes to the normal rule.¹⁸ Although the Revolution was inspired by several concerns, the revolutionary ideals that drove the Americans were threefold. Above all, the philosophical underpinnings of the American Revolution, namely, that sovereign authority is always subordinate to natural law principles and that these principles are fixed to the attendant notion that natural rights inhere in all individuals by their humanity, are truly revolutionary.

Further, the American Revolution began as a liberation war for the colonies. Circumstances compelled Americans to pursue independence. As one would expect in a mercantilist empire, the congeries of English colonies were by definition dysfunctional societies, subject to foreign influence and sometimes negative interference, primarily for the benefit of the mother country.¹⁹ The Revolution was ostensibly the start of the end of slavery in the Northern states. From the point of view of the colonial economy, the Revolution had a significant effect. The complex, capitalistic spirit that emerged after the war in the United States predated the conflict.

The French Revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799, was a crisis moment in the world. It saw the French overthrow feudalism, behead their king, change their administration from dominion to republic, form a composition built on the principles of parity and democracy, and become the first government to grant worldwide masculine suffrage, among other things.²⁰ The significances comprise a decrease in spiritual implication, the appearance of Modern Nationalism, the extent of Liberalism, and the commencement of the Age of Revolutions. Most notably, the Revolution altered the direction of recent history, initiating outright monarchies to fall out of errand and be substituted by democracies and liberal democracy all over the universe.

The French Revolution did not immediately lead to the philosophies of Socialism and Communism in the nineteenth century. It did, however, create an intelligent and communal climate in which these philosophies and their propagandists could thrive. The late-eighteenth-century French socialist theorists opposed private property and named for its elimination and the creation of a civilization founded on democratic and shared property possession.²¹ François-Nol Babeuf, a political agitator and journalist from France, went so far as to advocate for violent revolt in the name of wealth redistribution. Further, the hereditary aristocracy was overthrown during the French Revolution under the motto “freedom, freedom, community,” and France developed the primary country in antiquity to grant worldwide male suffrage.

In summary, it is worth noting that great revolutions differ by epoch: some are fueled by necessity, while an idea motivates others, and still, others combine the two. General, there were many counterparts amongst the American and French rebellions and around prominent dissimilarities. Both revolts were positioned in nations attaining freedom and equality, emphasizing the ideals of liberty and equality. Moreover, social and economic implications are still up for debate, which is maybe to be expected. The response is evident in the most creative and popular ideas and ideals: The American and French struggle for liberty was and continues to be revolutionary.

Bibliography

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Bartsch, C. “Differences Between the American Revolution and the French Revolution.” The Classroom. Web.

Bowen, W. “The American and French Revolutions: Comparison and Contrast.” Owlcation. Web.

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Footnotes

1. Khan Academy, “The Atlantic Revolutions,”. Web.
2. William Bowen, “The American and French Revolutions: Comparison and Contrast,” Owlcation. Web.
3. Christine Bartsch. “Differences Between the American Revolution and the French Revolution,” The Classroom. Web.
4. Bowen, “The American and French Revolutions,” 2021.
5. Bartsch, “Differences Between the American Revolution and the French Revolution,” 2021.
6. Bowen.
7. Bartsch.
8. Richard Frothingham, The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 14, (Battle of Lexington, 2010). Gutenberg. Web.
9. Alphonse Lamartine, “The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 14, (Republican France defies Europe battle of Valmy, 2010), Gutenberg. Web.
10. Bartsch.
11. Charles Horne, 2010, The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 14, (The Epoch of Revolution), Gutenberg. Web.
12. Bartsch.
13. Thomas Jefferson and John Doyle, 2010, The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 14 (Signing of American Declaration of Independence), Gutenberg. Web.
14. Horne.
15. Horne.
16. Anirudh, “10 Major Effects of the French Revolution,” Learnodo-newtonic. Web.
17. Rudolph Rummel, ”Commentary: The American Vs. the French Revolution-A Freedomist Interpretation,” Hawaii. Web.
18. Khan Academy. “The Atlantic Revolutions,” 2021.
19. Khan Academy, 2021.
20. “Impact of the French and American Revolutions,” Liberal history. Web.
21. Julie Marks, “How Did the American Revolution Influence the French Revolution?” History. Web.