French Vs American Revolution

The French and American revolutions are both very significant in the world’s history. The American Revolution happened first, around the last half of the 18th century where the Thirteen Colonies became the United States of America, and gained independence from the British Empire. The French revolution on the other hand, was from 1789 until the turn of the century 1799. For the French people this was a period of political and social turmoil. The idea of Enlightenment stuck a large population of the French people and led to many changes in society. These two individual revolutions have many comparisons and although they are not identical they become intertwined with separate philosophies on politics and economic expansion.

The revolutions had a large quantity of ideas in common; however, they were two different countries, in two unlike geographical locations, with total dissimilar types of culture. The Americans planned out their revolution for many years until capturing the right moment to spark it. A significant fact is that the French played a key role in aiding America in its struggle against the British Empire. They supplied the Americans with money and munitions, they helped organize the American military, and even sent their own fleet to help end the revolutionary war. After the war ended the French upon returning to France, came to the conclusion that they did not have the freedom that they just helped America receive. This led to the French planning a revolution of their own.

The American Revolution was about the independence of the country. The people who planned this revolution were among the Capitalist middle class of society. The higher class consisted of the British loyalists and the lowest class was the slaves and workers. The capitalists wanted a different government where the people could run a great nation on their own without being governed from a country thousands of miles away. They wanted to create a democracy. The French revolution became more about human rights. The bourgeoisie who were considered capitalist people realized they had little to no rights. They acquired large sums of money but with this led to more taxation from the king. They French government was so far into debt from wars the king kept raising the taxes on these people. The bourgeoisie wondered how they just helped America with freedom and now they have to find a way to achieve their own success.

An interesting fact is that both countries, America and France, fought their wars on their homeland. The Americans faced a small amount of British troops established in the colonies already, and they also had the Redcoats crossing and ocean from Great Britain. This gave the Americans an advantage that the French did not have. The Americans were blessed with more time to organize and more time for warning. The French did not have this advantage because they were fighting their own government on their own soil. Another significant part of each war is that the Americans did not have any neighbors whereas the French had to worry about invasion from other countries in their time of weakness. The best advantage the Americans had was the fact that the British Empire was the most hated country of the time. Many countries sent