Revolutions Compare Similarities Differences Revolutions America, France, Essay

Revolutions

Compare similarities differences revolutions America, France, Latin America. Identify common themes present revolution. What fighting ? Who influenced revolutions? What outcome revolution? What effect revolutions world?.

Revolutions in America, France, and Latin America:

Causes, ideology, and consequences

Perhaps the most notable difference between the 18th century revolution in America vs. The 18th century revolution in France was one of class: America was not, primarily, a class-driven revolution. The Founding Fathers and supporters of the American Revolution came from the elites of American society. George Washington was an important British general during the French-Indian Wars and Benjamin Franklin was a prominent figure in American colonial politics before talk of revolution became common currency. The colonists' frustration at what they perceived as the British Crown's unreasonable taxation policy and their growing economic power that was not honored with political power within the Empire was at the heart of the American Revolution. The British felt justified in taxing the colonists, given that one of the reasons behind the Crown's financial woes was the fact that the French-Indian Wars had depleted British coffers while it benefited the colonists. Before the British began to raise taxes, the British had had a policy of 'benign neglect' regarding the colonies, and placed few administrative controls upon the Americans, so the sudden shift towards greater control and increased financial demands were particularly galling (Kelly 2012).

In contrast, the French Revolution was an internally-generated revolution within France. The French lower and middle classes known as the 'Third Estate' were frustrated at their lack of representation within the French government. The Estates General, "a three chambered assembly which hadn't met since the seventeenth century" had little power (Wilde, 2012, Causes). Like the American Revolution, taxation was a factor in the growing outrage amongst the French population. The nobles and clergy were exempt from taxes, and even after the Estates General was convened, the nobility resisted all attempts to create an equitable system of taxation. The French monarchy was suffering financially, and because of the resistance of the higher orders, the burden of taxation fell upon the Third Estate's shoulders: "the financial crisis which left the door open for revolution began during the American War of Independence, when France spent over a billion livres, the equivalent of the state's entire income for a year" (Wilde 2012).

The ideas that inspired the American and French Revolutions, however, were very similar. The American Declaration of Independence directly borrowed from the language of the English philosopher John Locke in its celebration of the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (or property, in…