During American Revolution, the Parliament of the Great Britain was summarily rejected. When this became impossible to achieve within the British Empire, Americans declared their independence and then won it on the battlefield. The American Revolution: An Encyclopedia 2 vol 1993 , 1850 pages Carnes, M. Often compared because of similarities in ideology, era and impact, dissimilarities exist between the two wars in context, complexity and outcome. In essence, Americans intended to break away to form a new government and establish a new country, whereas in France, the intent was to replace or change the existing government.
Americans travelled to Paris 4 times begging for assistance against the British to which the French obliged and were semi-secretly involved from the get go supplying 90% of gunpowder stocks in 1776. After the French Revolution began in 1789, no form of government could be accepted as legitimate without justification. The French Revolution and American Revolution had some similar aspects; however, there are a lot of differences between these two wars. It way was blocked and recognition of its worth was denied by a decaying class of parasitic, hereditary privileged, noble landowners. With such an ideological basis, it becomes clear when one sets out to compare the French Revolution and American Revolution that people felt the need to be free from oppressive or tyrannical rule of and have the ability to live independent from such forces. The First Continental Congress was formed in Philadelphia in 1774 to petition the British government to ease their control of Massachusetts and to repeal what the colonists considered taxation without representation in the British Parliament. The system if one can even call it that in place was socompletely antiquated that reform was deemed impossible, and theold regime was completely swept away on the tide of progress.
Both had a large gap between the rich and the poor. Beginning in 1793, the French revolutionary government abolished the Catholic monarchy and confiscated all church property. That being the case- after several years of increasing strife and discord, including open combat between colonial militias and British regular troops, and no relief in site from friendly faces in Parliament, the Continental Congress decided to fire the King and Parliament and create a new nation. These two reasons along with other factors caused both of these revolutions. In the 1780's, Benjamin Franklin andThomas Jefferson came to France as diplomats, and their presence inParis greatly impressed the French people. They sought to foster a way to achieve their independence without having to shed blood. To different parties, the French Revolution might refer to specific events, like the capture of the Bastille, or to a vast personified force, or to an abstract cause for which the French or others might be fighting.
Causes Both the French and American revolutions were started by common people who wanted to participate in government and were subject to unfair laws and taxes. The common people of France wanted to get rid of the French monarchy, the lower classes wanted to enforce equality rather than having the nobles and the king overpower them. All these laws are passed without consultation of the colonists. The French Revolution was also a bit of a civil war, with the peasants fighting against the aristocracy and the church. The upper and lower houses of congress, also, being based on the Westminster system of Lords and Commons.
Overall, the French Revolution offered the world something totally novel: an ideology that allowed and encouraged the questioning of historic power structures. Although they still had money and a fair amount of control over local politics, they were almost figureheads instead of people with actual power. The French broke the Estates General and formed the National Assembly, charged with writing a new constitution; then uner pressure from the king, stormed the Bastille. These wars sucked the wealth of the country in providing for the costs of war. In addition to this, the privileged church became richer and richer while the poor and impoverished had less and less. Other similarities include violence and a Napoleonic influence.
Little did the King know that he had helped bring about his own downfall. First of all, the Americans pursuit and struggle for independence was done through the guidance of moral values and influence of God. However, it certainly was not a peaceful taking of votes for independence as in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. A farmer could have his entire crop ruined if the local lord rode a hunting party over it, and there would be nothing he could do about it, though his taxes would be due nonetheless. Also, each country revolted against a higher power, as mentioned in the previous post. Still, the similarity of the rest of the population sponsoring the revolts was strong in both France an America.
The French were not subjugated or conquered people unlike the American colonists who were considered as such. Most did not even believe in God, which if you look in the American revolution everyone of the founders believed God, and a high percentage of the American people also believed in God. The French Revolution officially began with an action, the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. The sans-culottes demanded that the revolutionary government immediately increase wages, fix prices, end food shortages, punish hoarders and most important, deal with the existence of counter-revolutionaries. The French Revolution was a true revolution.
This statement would also apply to America during its revolutionary period and acts of rebellion could be anything such as boycotting goods from Britain to violently attacking loyalist and British enterprises. The reaction against the British monarchy in America only served to further weaken it and although it may have been strong in other parts of the world, the continued resistance exemplified by events such as the Boston Tea party and other revolutionary acts against the crown were taking their toll. French aid would be crucial during the remainder of the American Revolution. France elected Napoleon, who wanted to obtain land and power for France. Whereas Americans struggled for tangible goals, the French took on the Sisyphean task of striving for abstractions. Kennedy observed in his presidential inaugural address on January 20, 1961, And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbearers fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. That is the most distinguishabledifference.