american and french revolution essays

american and french revolution essays The American and French Revolutions were largely based on the same ideals and principals. With further investigation into the purpose and outcome of these two late eighteenth century revolutions many more comparisons and contrasts become apparent. These include how both revolutions were based on financial crisis as a result of prior wars and the philosophies of the period of enlightenment. Another, what was the real goal of each revolution? They differed quite substantially. After the respective revolutions ended the new state of the countries quite differed, one became a dictatorship while the other a democracy. These facts help give insight to how these two revolutions were related to one another. To understand these two revolutions in greater detail it is important to firstly understand their origins. During the eighteenth century philosophers such as John Locke (d. 1704), Jean-Jacque Rousseau (d.1778), Voltaire (d.1778), and Montesquieu (d.1755) perpetuated a period of enlightenment. This period is commonly noted for the intellectual movement in Western Europe that emphasized reason and science in philosophy and in the study of human culture and the natural world. Financial burden became one of the foundations for both of the revolutions. The thirteen colonies had been dealt responsibility for portions of the financial debt incurred by the British government during the French and Indian Wars (1754-1763), which merged with the Seven Years War (1756-1763). As a result of this large accumulation of debt the British Parliament introduced legislation to collect taxes in order to repay the debts. Acts such as the Tea Act, Stamp Act, and Sugar Act were introduced with great opposition from the colonies. Similarly, in 1774 King Louis XVI took the throne of France. With the assistance of his new controller general of finance he instituted a lassiez faire approach to economic growth. After much displease of Turgot ...