Compare And Contrast The American Revolution Vs French Revolution

The American Revolution, from 1775 to 1783, was a war in which the British Colonies in North America fought against Great Britain, and eventually gained their independence and formed the United States of America. Across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1789 to 1799, The French Revolution, a bloody civil war which resulted in the downfall of the absolute monarchy in France, was being fought. The American Revolution and French Revolution were more similar than different because although they were an ocean apart, both revolutions were established on many of the same economic, political and social fundamentals and issues; specifically, heavy taxes, no government representation, and ideas from Enlightenment thinkers.

Both Britain and France were in great debt after the Seven Years War, due to the need of money “to finance military operations”, which caused taxes to be inflated for both country’s citizens (Problems and Issues in the Atlantic

However, even if the original goal of a constitutional monarchy was not reached in France, the revolution still had a large impact on the French population, for now they had the ideas of equality and natural rights in their minds, and also many of the peasants were better off in the country because feudal rights had been abolished for lords. Even though the French revolution was only partly successful, the values and foundations for the French and American revolutions were largely the same. It is important to draw similarities from these two Revolutions, so that questions such as “If these two revolutions were so similar, why did one result in a victory and one not accomplish its original goal?” to gain a deeper understanding of the French and American