Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Comparison american and french revolution
The negative economic impact of colonialism
The american and french revolution comparison
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Comparison american and french revolution
The American and French Revolutions were profoundly motivated by economics. Prior to the Revolution, British colonies in America were thriving. Colonists paid fairly few taxes and were permitted to participate in domestic economic activity, granted they adhere to the Navigation Act, an act requiring, “that all trade within the empire be conducted on ships which were constructed, owned and largely manned by British citizens. Certain enumerated goods whether exported or imported by the colonies had to be shipped through England regardless of the final port of destination.” (Baack) Its mother country however, was not analogous. England’s debt had nearly doubled due to their victory over France during the 7 Year War and was frantically looking for a way out. Unluckily for the colonists, mom had decided to give them the responsibility to fix it since citizens in Britain were already paying considerably higher taxes. Some taxes that were established for the British colonies included the Stamp, Sugar and Tea Act. All taxes were repealed as a result of boycotts in most colonies, except the tax on tea. In response, patriots planned the Boston Tea Party, in which they would heave chests full of tea overboard at Griffin’s Wharf. The American Revolution had begun. Similarly, helping the Patriots in the American Revolution had also caused France’s debt to skyrocket to 50% by 1788. Inflation quickly ensued on the working class, and the price of bread, a staple in the common kitchen, had become ludicrous. Rather than cease the frivolous spending at the Palace of Versailles, the King’s resolution was to tax the nobility, who in turn argued like the American colonists, that they could not be taxed without representation. (France’s Finan...
... middle of paper ...
..., had some resolution of the issues at hand.
Bibliography
Baack, Ben. "The Economics of the American Revolutionary War." EH.net. Ed. Robert Whaples. N.p., 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. .
Belloc, Hilaire. The French Revolution. N.p.: Arden Library, 1979. 93. Web. 30 Mar. 2011.
SparkNotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2011. .
Tignor, Robert, Jeremy Adelman, Stephen Aron, Stephen Kotkin, Suzanne Marchand, Gyan Prakash, and Michael Tsin. Worlds Together Worlds Apart. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York, London: W. W Norton & Company, 2008. 646-47. Print.
Trask, Scott. "Inflation and the French Revolution: The Story of a Monetary Catastrophe." Ludwig von Mises Institute. N.p., 28 Apr. 2004. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. .
The American Revolution was caused by a series of attempts from the British to tax American colonists. After a war against France, Britain ruled an enormous overseas empire. Britain however faced war debt and was in need of money to administer the overseas empire. The crown decided that since the colonists were the primary beneficiaries of this empire, it was time to have them contribute to the empire’s revenue by paying taxes.
Stokesbury, James L. A short History of the American Revolution. New York. William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1991.
Tignor, R., Adelman, J., Brown, P., Elman, B. A., Liu, X., Pittman, H., & Shaw, B. D. (2011). Worlds together, worlds apart A history of the world: V. 1 (3rd ed., Vol. 1). New York: WW Norton &.
The American Revolution began due to problems within the British economy. The most prevalent issue of the time was "taxation without representation". Unlike the leaders of America, the leaders of the French did not turn out to be as positive for the country. In fact, some of these leaders have caused much more harm than good.
This is because the American Revolution had influenced the French Revolution. The French Revolution is believed to have an even greater impact on Europe. Brad Mackey in his article “American Revolutionary Influences on the French Revolution” claims, “…the influence of the American Revolution on the French Revolution must include recognition that the French were interpreting the American Revolutionary ideological successes first…”. Mackey says this to explain how the French may have used America has an example when identifying their own problems. One way the American Revolution influenced The French Revolution as that it showed the Americas problem with the King of England and taxation was similar to the kings In France and the taxations of the French people. Mackey states, “the conflict between the people of America and the King of England over taxation and American representation in the British Parliament was, to the French, similar to the conflict over taxation between the Kings of France and the people of France who had been represented in the judiciary by the hereditary noble-dominated parliaments of France”. Perhaps the greatest influence on the French Revolution from the American Revolution was the similarity between them with monarchies having total control over them. In his article, Richard Mackey writes, “These conflicts in France had has as their primary source the disagreement between the monarchical government, which had claimed absolute power, and the parliamentary judiciary system which had been, since 1615, the only institution which had had the right to question that absolutism”. These are all examples of how the French had used America has a model in their revolution and also how the American Revolution had an impact in the French
"Economic State of The United States At The End Of The Revolutionary War."Economic State OF THE United States At The End Of The Revolutionary War. MultiEducator, Inc., 1996. Web. 02 Jan. 2014. http://www.historycentral.com/NN/economic/afterrev.html
Taking Breen and Degler into consideration, the American Revolution was both an economic and political revolution. “Professor Breen believes that the American Revolution was a consumer revolution that was based on the British importing of goods. American colonists used the boycotting system to break away from Britain, and establish their own economic currency” (128). Breen feels strong about his argument and gives excellent supporting evidence of an economic break. However, Breen seems to have missed the most important aspect of American culture of why we fight for “Liberty and Freedom.”
Any historical event with-world changing consequences will always have two sides to the story. What most Americans refer to today as the American Revolution is no different. As Americans, most of us view eighteenth-century England as a tyrannical power across the ocean, and see men like George Washington as heroes who fought against the oppressor. If history and wars were that simple, everyone would understand them, and the need for wars would be diminished. The truth is, England was not the least bit tyrannical to the colonies. Actually, the rebels had no idea, nor any intention of establishing a new and separate government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." They only meant to make a statement and attempt to avoid every tax that Parliament could dream up in the process. Across the Atlantic Ocean in England's Parliament, some men such as William Pitt and Edmund Burke understood opposition to taxes by the American colonists. After all, the colonies had been all but ignored by England since they were established in the early part of the seventeenth century up until the Seven Years War (1756 - 1763). Other men such as George Grenville and Charles Townshend did not understand at all the protests against any taxes implemented by Parliament . These men felt that was not only the right of Parliament to demand taxes, but also their duty to raise money for the Crown. Parliament had the power to demand a tax of every British citizen in the empire, and these men had developed their own ideas about how those taxes would be implemented.
This book is the unbiased, detailed narrative of the war in chronological order. Summarized, this literary piece is an explanation of why the British lost the Revolutionary War. Christopher Hibbert explains the reasons behind their loss and provides supporting evidence as the War’s timeline progresses. One
The French Revolution evokes many different emotions and controversial issues in that some believe it was worth the cost and some don't. There is no doubt that the French Revolution did have major significance in history. Not only did the French gain their independence, but an industrial revolution also took place. One of the main issues of the Revolution was it's human costs. Two writers, the first, Peter Kropotkin who was a Russian prince, and the other Simon Schama, a history professor, both had very opposing views on whether the wars fought by France during the Revolution were worth it's human costs. Krapotkin believed that the French Revolution was the main turning point for not only France but for most other countries as well. On the other hand, Schama viewed the French Revolution as unproductive and excessively violent.
The French and Indian War set the stage for future events that no one could ever have imagined. The economic practice of mercantilism, which insured profit only to the mother country was the accepted practice between England and her colonies. As long as these economic policies were met, England left much of the day to day governing of the colonies up to the colonies. It was this "salutory neglect" that ultimately led to the ideological differences between England and the colonies. England won the war, but it paid a great price for that victory. England was bankrupted, and as a result had no choice but to look to her colonies to regain financial stability. The pressures of taxation and naval restrictions imposed by the crown and Parliament, were viewed by the colonists as tyrannical acts. Although the colonies were on a path to becoming "Americanized" they held the lessons of Magna Carta, the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 close to their heart. In their eyes, "Englishmen had rights" under the laws of the mother country. It was only when these laws were usurpted by the crown that the colonies had no choice but to protest their discontent. The political authority that England executed over the colonies after so many years of neglect led to the ideological differences that would ultimately result in the American Revolution.
The American Revolution and French Revolution were two long lasting uprisings that had great value to those battling for their rights and want they wanted to change. Yet there are a few distinctions details set them apart in a small way. The Americans wanted a change in their government, but the French wanted a huge change in everything including their government, religion, social structure (whereas American’s social system stayed the same) and economy. Other than the few differences they had, they two Revolutions were much alike, basically twin revolutions.
In concern to the American Revolution, there are two sides debating its primary cause. One set of historians believe the cause to be ideals and principles. The other set of historians and scholars credit economic and social interests as the primary cause of the Revolutionary War. Historians Jesse Lemisch and Dirk Hoerder used the mobs in colonial cities as evidence of the social concerns of Americans at that time. Another Historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger argued in a 1917 study “that it was the colonial merchants who were chiefly responsible for arousing American resistance to the British; and that although they spoke of principles and ideals, their real motives were economic self-interest: freedom from the restrictive policies of British mercantilism.” This argument is very concrete and is supported by the different legislation that the British Parliament passed after the Seven Years’ War. In fact, an act was passed in 1764 by the Parliament that was instrumental in specifically angering the merchants that played a major role in leading the Americans to independence. That piece of legislation was the Sugar Act which placed a tax on sugar being brought into the colonies. This tax was a significantly less than the one that was logged in the book previously; however, that tax had been ignored for years. The initial response of the merchants to this piece of legislation was anger because this new law cut off their highly profitable smuggling organizations which greatly affected their earnings. Soon after tha...
Marking a significant beginning stage of the economic downturn was the Seven Years’ War, a battle that saw few positive achievements, but several losses both in terms of land and money, which had been acquired through loans that would establish France’s first significant debt. The reign of Louis XVI would further this debt, while also creating a greater divide between the estates of France by placing the heavy burden of repaying much of the new debt on the poorest class of France, the Third Estate. Participation in another war, only ten years prior to the French Revolution would create even more debt for France as they entered the American War of Independence, again with funding from loans that would need to be paid soon thereafter. Throughout this period of debt creation within France, society worsened in many ways due to the inability of the nation, from royalty to the Third Estate, to evolve economically, socially and agriculturally. With this overall sense of decline throughout France, a nearly unanimous desire amongst France’s Third Estate, the most populous, was to pa...
The American and the French revolutions had many similarities and differences. One similarity being is that they both wanted to escape the rule of their King. Second, they both started by an uprising of people against unfair taxation by the monarchy. The French peasants were not represented by the Parliament. It was mainly composed of middle and upper class people. Now, the American colonists were not represented in England because of their lack of presence. Both wanted to set up a Republic, which provided liberty and justice to all classes of citizens. Just like France, the American colonists were composed up mainly middle and lower class citizens. The American Revolution started out by not wanting bloodshed and violence. France started out with violence and bloodshed. (American Revolution)