The American and French Revolution

During the late 18th century, both France and the British colonies in America experienced wars the opened the eyes of nations. The French Revolution and American Revolution drastically changed political thinking. In the French Revolution, monarchism was abandoned and political power was given to the people until the country became out of control, and a military dictatorship was necessary to regain control of France. In the American Revolution, a new nation was formed as the British colonies tore themselves away from the English monarchy. In the end, both France and the new United States of America moved away from absolute rule by a king or queen and wanted to put the political power in the hands of their people. However, there are many differences as well as similarities along the way to their political reformation.

One of the early differences in the revolutions is the way each began. At the beginning of the French Revolution, the government was about to collapse. While at the beginning the American Revolution, the colonist felt oppressed but had a stable governing body. The French Revolution was caused by problems that can be categorized into three categories: political and social imbalance, government bankruptcy, and Enlightenment thinking. The American Revolution was caused by impeding political laws and taxation on the British colonies by England.

France was about to collapse due to imbalance, bankruptcy, and a new way of thinking. In France, feudalism was still practiced where the nobles and clergy had exceptional benefits over the commoners and lower class. For example, the nobles and clergy did not have to pay taxes; they owned most of the land, and they had the most political power in France. However, the ...

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...three branches of the federal government each with some way to check the other branches of government. With the system of checks and balances, no one branch of government had too much power, and the power of the government stayed in the hands of the people. The American Revolution successfully changed the ruling government to a monarchy oversees to an independent nation with a government run by the people.

The French and American Revolutions were both revolutionary then and still today. There are still lasting effects from both the French and American Revolutions. The French Revolution had lasting effects such as the birth of Nationalism and making a huge move away from Monarchism. To us Americans the lasting effects are obvious from the American Revolution. We still live in freedom with the same system of government set up by our early political leaders.