A Comparison and Contrast of The American and The French Revolution

The American and French Revolutions differ more than just location and language. The fundamentals of each revolution, why the citizens were fighting are completely different. The revolutions however also had some similarities but ultimately are overruled by their variances, The main alteration being the reason for the war, Americans fought to reserve their traditional rights as Englishmen rather than to upturn the established government like the French: the American Revolution was more about faimess instead of changing the whole society. The French Revolution was far bloodier than the American Revolution, in terms of civilian deaths and out-of-battle deaths.

The American Revolution was started because they thought their mother country Britain was treating them unfairly. “No taxation without representation” was a calling cry for the Americans, who were being taxed by the British without their consent. They thought it was unfair that the British Parliament, and royalty, was taxing the “American” people without them having a say or vote in the matter. Parliament consisted of members from Britain, so when the British people were taxed, they felt as if it was fair. When the Americans were taxed, they felt it was unfair, because they had no say in the matter: taxes were put on things like tea, sugar, and stamps (British Acts). Along with the taxes Britain established a rule that the colonies were to only trade with them. The Americans started their revolution because Britain was not giving them the freedoms they deserved.

The French Revolution was started because the French lower class was unhappy with how they were being treated, more specifically people in the street were starving and could not afford food. The starts of the war are both revolts against the old government, in that way the revolutions are similar. Differences come into affect when one digs deeper, the French revolution was started by the lower class, the American Revolution was every class. The American Revolution began not because they were starving, or didn’t have the rights they wanted, but because they were being unfairly treated. Another major difference is no one helped the French in the French Revolution; on the other hand, the Americans received relief from the French army who fought not because they believed in America, but because they hated Britain. Instead of people joining to help the French peasants, a primary difference, rather unfortunate in the eyes of the revolution, people joined to fight against them; such as Prussia and Austria. In the case of the French revolution, in my opinion, they were fighting for more than the Americans. They didn’t have the option of backing down, because their revolution wasn’t influenced by monetary desires, it was a matter of life and death.

The French revolution was bloodier and frankly more gruesome: in some cases it was noted the guillotines would be on two or three times before they would severe a man’s head because of all the use they had endured: they became dull. The revolutionaries in the French Revolution would kill anyone who heard they were in support of the crown. The American revolutionaries did not murder innocent British, unless they were in battle. The Reign of Terror is one of the scariest times in history. The Terror was designed to affirm that the revolution was fully affective and to counteract counter-revolutionary movements from growing, or even starting. Often common folk were brought to the guillotine just for saying something critical of the revolution. There were “Watch Committees” around the nation who arrested “suspected persons… those who either by their conduct or their relationships, by their remarks or by their writing, are shown to be partisans of tyranny and federalism and enemies of liberty” (History Wiz). The rights declared by the Declaration of the Rights of Man were overlooked. Terror was law and was rather effective: who would want to jeopardize their life by saying something counter-revolutionary? I can presume there was no American Terror because of Freedom of Speech, or perhaps a lot more people were supportive than in France where as the French revolution was mostly done by the lower class, the American Revolution was done by every class.

The American and French Revolutions are almost incomparable because just how unlike they really were. The Americans revolutionaries were angry the British were taking all their money, the French revolutionaries were angry because they had no money. Who fought on each side was dissimilar in cach revolution as well, where as the Americans had support, the French had opposition in Prussia and Austria. Both revolutions were successful, in a sense and both brought change, but the degree of change was vaster in terms of French daily life as compared of American daily life. In the end we see two revolutions, fought by different people for different reasons that had different outcomes.

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