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Comparing The American Revolutionary War and The French Revolution

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The Age of Enlightenment served as the concrete base for America. It also served the same purpose in France. The desire for a “utopia” was what each nation wanted, as any country would. The Enlightenment promoted the individual or the idea of humanism. Humanism, which spread across Europe after the creation of the printing press, was a philosophy that no longer focused on theism but human needs. Man was no longer depending on the church for thoughts to make decisions. The idea of fearing their God and church was no longer seen as necessary. People were trying to come up with solutions through their own rational thought uninfluenced by anyone else, but themselves. Both France and the American colonies were becoming secular, though France …show more content…

The French Revolution, however, was literally fought amongst the monarch and their homes and lower class. It was fought within their own country.
I think it is safe to say that the French Revolution was significantly bloodier than the American Revolution. The guillotine had become the French’s new best friend. They executed their monarchs, the monarch’s friends, and any supporters of the crown via beheading and what they did with the bodies after was horrific. Some were trampled on. Their heads were placed on sticks and paraded about the city. They mutilated some of the bodies. It was barbaric, for lack of a better word. In the colonies, the colonists, for the most part, were not extremely violent towards the British and supporters of the British crown outside of warfare.
I mentioned earlier how the ideas or motives of the French Revolution began to change over time and became more and more radical. The hopes for the American Revolutionary War, on the other hand, stayed pretty consistent for the most part.
In the end, this and the results of the two wars were what really separated these two turning points in history. The American colonists were able to achieve freedom form the crown and were able to achieve democracy. The French people were able to rid themselves of the monarchy and power of the church, but as a result of their radical anarchism they ended with a dictatorship

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