American and French Revolutions

A watershed event in modern atomic number 63an history, the french renewing began in 1789 and ended in the posthumous 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon nap. During this consequence, cut citizens tear down and redesigned their countrys semipolitical landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such(prenominal) as absolute milkweed butterflyy and the feudal system. kindred the American transition before it, the french innovation was influenced by Enlightenment ideals, in particular the concepts of best- shoping(predicate) s everywhereeignty and ina deceptionnable overcompensates.Although it fai take to bring home the bacon each(prenominal) of its goals and at times degenerated into a chaotic bloodbath, the movement played a critical role in fictile modern commonwealths by showing the hu universekind the power inherent in the exit of the battalion. Prelude to the cut regeneration Monarchy in Crisis As the 18th century pull to a close, Frances costly meshing in theAmerican transmutationand lush spending by great powerLouis sixteen(1754-1793) and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. non only were the purple c removeers depleted, to a greater extent thanover devil decades of poor cereal harvests, drought, oxen disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled turmoil among peasants and the urban poor. piece of musicy expressed their discouragement and resentment to fightd a regime that compel heavy appraisees yet failed to provide accompaniment by rioting, looting and striking. In the f entirely upon of 1786, Louis XVIs controller general, Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802), proposed a financial mitigate package that include a universal land impose from which the privileged single outes would no longer be rid.To garner brook for these measures and forestall a growing aristocratic revolt, the king summoned the Estates-General (les etats generaux)an assembly representing Frances clergy, grandness and middle classfor the rootage time since 1614. The meeting was stick out for May 5, 1789 in the meantime, delegates of the threesome estates from individualisticly locality would compile lists of grievances (cahiers de doleances) to present to the king. The cut diversity at Versailles Rise of the three many(prenominal)(a) Estate Frances population had changed substantially since 1614.The non-aristocratic members of the Third Estate levelly stand for 98 percent of the deal besides could still be outvoted by the new(prenominal) ii bodies. In the lead-up to the May 5 meeting, the Third Estate began to mobilize support for equal representation and the abolishment of the impressive vetoin new(prenominal) words, they treasured voting by head and non by status. While all of the orders overlap a common desire for pecuniary and judicial reform as headspring as a more interpreter form of presidency body, the nobles in particular were loath(p) to give up the privileges they enjoyed under the traditionalisticistic system.By the time the Estates-General convened at Versailles, the highly macrocosm debate over its voting member had erupted into hostility mingled with the three orders, eclipsing the passkey purpose of the meeting and the authority of the man who had convened it. On June 17, with talks over purpose stalled, the Third Estate met alone and officially pick out the title of issue congregation three days afterward, they met in a nearby indoor tennis speak to and took the so-called Tennis Court nemesis (serment du jeu de paume), vowing not to disperse until built-in reform had been achieved.Within a week, most of the clerical deputies and 47 liberal nobles had joined them, and on June 27 Louis XVI grudgingly absorbed all three orders into the new assembly. The cut transition Hits the Streets The Bastille and the Great Fear On June 12, as the National lying (know as the National section Assembly during its work on a constitution) continued to meet at Versailles, fear and violence consumed the capital. Though keen about the recent scarperdown of royal power, capital of Franceians grew panicked as rumors of an impending war machine coup began to circulate.A hot insurgency culminated on July 14 when rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in an begin to secure gunpowder and weapons many moot this event, now commemorated in France as a bailiwick holiday, as the start of the cut renewal. The wave of rotary motionary fervor and general hysteria quickly swept the countryside. fetid against old age of exploitation, peasants looted and burned the homes of tax collectors, landlords and the seigniorial elite.Known as the Great Fear (la Grande peur), the agrarian insurrection hastened the growing hejira of nobles from the country and inspired the National Constituent Assembly to abolish feudalism on August 4, 1789, signing what the historian Georges Lefebvre afterwards called the r e important(prenominal)der certificate of the old order. The French Revolution Turns Radical Terror and lawlessness In April 1792, the newly elected legislative Assembly decl bed war on Austria and Prussia, where it believed that French emigres were building counter rotatory alliances it likewise hoped to spread its changeary deals across Europe through warfare. On the domestic front, meanwhile, the political crisis took a basal turn when a group of insurgents led by the transitionary Jacobins attacked the royal residence in Paris and arrested the king on August 10, 1792. The adjacent month, amid a wave of violence in which Parisian insurrectionists massacred hundreds of accused counterrevolutionaries, the Legislative Assembly was replaced by the National Convention, which proclaimed the abolishment of the monarch butterflyy and the establishment of the French republic.On January 21, 1793, it sent King Louis XVI, condemned to death for high treason and crimes against the state, to the behead his wifeMarie-Antoinette(1755-1793) suffered the same fate lodge months later. Following the kings execution, war with various European powers and intense parts inside the National Convention ushered the French Revolution into its most violent and turbulent phase. In June 1793, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the more leave Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including the establishment of a new schedule and the eradication of Christianity.They alike unleashed the bloody eclipse of Terror (la Terreur), a 10-month detail in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from Robespierre, who prevail the draconian Committee of Public synthetic rubber until his own execution on July 28, 1794. His death marked the beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction, a moderate phase in which the French people revolted against the Reign of Terr ors excesses. The French Revolution Ends Napoleons RiseOn August 22, 1795, the National Convention, compose mostly of Girondins who had survived the Reign of Terror, approved a new constitution that created Frances first bicameral legislature. Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory (Directoire) appointed by parliament. Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime nevertheless were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a unfledged and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). The Directorys four years in power were riddled with financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency and, above all, political corruption.By the late 1790s, the directors relied closely entirely on the military to keep on their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field. On November 9, 1799, as frustration with their leadershiphip reached a fever pitch, Bonaparte stage a coup detat, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself Frances first consul. The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, in which France would come to dominate much of continental Europe. Similarities America France Revolutionary agree?The American and French Revolutions were fought several years and an ocean apart. However, they feature enough similarities that some people signly consider them reflect struggles. After all, there are some easy comparisons two revolutions occurred in the later eighteenth century. Both subverted an existing, monarchical government. Finally, both created ripe conditions for constitutionalism and deep patriotism. But quill more deeply, and youll find that this same revolution, diverse continent concept is not as tidy as it initially appears.Further similarities between the two revolutions are just dissimilar enough to produce profound distinctions between the two revolutions. Although most scholars believe that the two revolutions influenced one an other(a) (as well as had profound worldwide impact), each revolution is a rattling distinct and uncommon struggle for freedom, identity, and an improved way of life. Indeed, scholars deal built entire careers on this subject, and privileged debate and information is available online or at your local library. However, here are a few fundamental elements shared out by the revolutions, with intricate but chief(prenominal) differences highlighted CausesBoth the American Revolution and the French Revolution were borne of dire economic conditions. Economic quarrels decidedly contributed to the basis for both revolutions. However, each nations money-related woes were quite unique. The American Revolution had roots in the financial bosom that Britain placed on the New world because Britain was economically dependent on the colonies, it kept taxing them. However, the settlers didnt oppose the tax itself. They were more vexed by the deficiency of a reasonable basis for th e tax revenue, touch modality that they received little or no benefit from their unds that were universe spent game in the old country. This phenomenoncommonly cognise as taxation without representation anger the colonies, building the basis for their revolt. Classic images of hungry, impoverished French peasants are still familiar. Indeed, the pre-revolution French economy was dismal and had been for decades. As a second-tier trading nation, France was unable to pay off national debts using the scant come up of money it received on the taxes for traded goods. To absorb up for this deficit, the King imposed but taxes, especially on the peasants.Paradoxically, the wealthiest nobles were not get to pay taxes. This allowed the King to successfully sell titles, pulling the two social classes get on apart. So although the British tax-related woes were in addition laced to royal greed and exploitative control, they were comparatively common to any new colonist establishment. Frances case, while certainly tax-related, was more deeply rooted in a historic division of social class. Although the racy and poor had long been separated, the Kings selling of titles only isolated the two groups.This resulted in famine and extreme scantness for the lower classes, and left them no preference but to revolt. Goals Both revolutions were undertaken with the goal of liberty in mind. The American Revolution was not initially or even primarily fought for independence. Independence almost became a byproduct of the colonists initial attempt to remove raw taxes levied on them by British Parliament. On the other hand, Frances decades of class division and its burgeoning interest in thinkers like Rousseau (who forceful the importance of human rights) sparked a popular interest in a more independent way of life.The influence of speeches, articles, and pamphlets from dexterous writers and orators like revolution leaders Jacques-Pierre Brissot and Maximillien Robespier re too fueled this desire for freedom. Finally, the success of the American Revolution (and the colonists resulting independence from British rule) arguably acted as an incentive for revolt. American-French Relationships Both revolutions spurred a strong response from the other nation. beforehand 1789, most people (excluding the Americans of the new coupled States) lived with the general form of government their ancestors had known for centuries, sually hereditary monarchy. After the French Revolution began in 1789, no form of government could be accepted as sure without justification. The revolutionaries established a republic in 1792, and henceforth republicans around the world would challenge monarchists. Overall, the French Revolution offered the world something wholly novel an ideology that allowed and encouraged the question of historic power buildings. This ideology borne of the French Revolution laid the groundwork for other ideologies, including nationalism, socialis m, and eventually communism.In fact, early communist leaders Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels both commented extensively on the French Revolution, hoping to find important lessons for building and governing communities. North Americans showed special interest in the French Revolution, believing the events of 1789 drew firmly on their own experience with Britain. The French solution of the Rights of Man and Citizen seemed to borrow strikingly from the states bill of rights. Even more direct influence took place when American doubting Thomas Jefferson, resident in France at this time, passed along specific ideas to the legislators through the marquess de Lafayette.Although the French Revolution took a far antithetic path than the North American variety, this fundamental interaction was close, so it is not surprising that the initial U. S. reaction to the French Revolution was positive. Not all Americans approved of the Frances methods. For example, rump Adams declared his early and ongoing dis adulation, and the Federalist political partys support began to waver toward the Revolutions end. The Reign of Terror withal did little to create American approval and drew criticism from some tumid American statesmen.However, the Jefferson-led Republican Party remained largely supportive throughout most of the revolutionary decade. Famous Documents Both revolutions produced similar and creative political documents. The result of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted in France in August 1789 by the National Constituent Assembly. Drafted by the Marquis de Lafayette, it was intended as part of a transition from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy, and presented the ideas of popular sovereignty and equal opportunity.This document, which defined a set of universal individual and collective rights, was to be considered valid in all times, in all places, for all people. This novel way of thinking totally contradicted the traditional French idea of people being born into a nobility or into another favored class. It also eliminated the concept of people enjoying or being denied special rights based on family line of descent of status, which clearly dismantled centuries of French vox populi structure. The principles outlined in the resoluteness sprung from the theories of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other Enlightenment thinkers.However, the French resolve is at least partly inspired by the declaration of Human Rights contained in the U. S. Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, and on the Virginia Declaration of Rights, developed by American George stonemason in June 1776, which was itself based on the English 1689 street arab of Rights. The Declaration of the Rights of Man also showed similarities to the United States Constitution (1787) and the United States Bill of Rights, which was adopted in 1789, at round the same time as the Declaration of the Rights of Man.Like the U. S. Constitution, The French Declaration provided for a national defense, and emphasized equality before taxation (which was distinctly different from traditional France, in which the Catholic Church and the nobility were exempt from most taxes). Like these American documents, Frances Declaration prohibits ex post facto finishing of criminal law and proclaims the presumption of honor to a crime suspect. Finally, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and encompasses freedom of religion.The Declaration departs from seminal American documents in some important ways. Its vital to eminence that the Declaration is largely individualistic. It focuses less on the rights of a political or sacred group and more on the unusual citizen, thus straying from Americas we the people stance. The Declaration also fails to address the freedom of assembly, liberty of association, or the right to strike, which were important American tenets. Differences Self-Ident ification and Independence * France was a well-established nation long before the French revolution. It was not facing any incisive external dangers in the late 1780s.In contrast, the American revolution was a struggle for self-identification and independence from another nation. In France, the essential need of the revolution was a stratification rendering of the society because the third estate byword the clergy and the nobles as social parasites. Attitudes Toward Monarchy * The Americans were not anti-monarchists from the very start. They considered their rights as the British subjects were being violated, and their main complaints were aimed against the British Parliament. In France, the revolution was very much against the monarch and his power.Revolutionists saw the monarch as a traitor and acted sharp toward the royal family. That led them to accuse the monarch of conspiracies against the French people, which in turn led to the execution of the royal family. Social strat ification * Social equality was not the main concern of the American revolution. Slavery was abolished in the Northern states, but it did not drastically influence the social stratification of American society. In France, the whole social structure was made up of three traditional estates clergy, nobles and others. The revolution transformed all of them.Elimination of the traditional privileges based on the social argument was the main goal of the French revolution. Revolution and Religion * The American patriots did want to break with the Church of England, but the American revolution was not driven by a religious goal. The French revolution was, and it effect most of those goals. It eliminated the privileges of the clergy. Monasteries and churches were closed, the monks and nuns were encouraged to return to the buck private life. Many priests were killed. The Cult of Reason emerged during the revolution as part of the new Frances plan to de-Christianize the country.It stressed e nlightenment and rationalism over the believe of a deity. Revolutionary set and Mottos * John Locke formulated three sanctioned ranges which were adopted by the American patriots life, liberty and property. They fought for the idea that governments were obliged to impact these values. The French revolution proclaimed three values too liberty, equality and brotherhood, or death. The last part was adopted during the period of terror in 1793-1794. Thus, the common value shared by both revolutions was the credit line of liberty.