Was The French Revolution Radical Or Radical

← Doyle, William. The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. 2001

Both the American and French revolutions were focused on liberty and equality. America was trying to gain freedom from the rules, unfair taxation, War debt, and lack of representation from the British. The French Revolution on the other hand wanted to abolish the French monarchy and create a better government in which people could have more of a say in society, and also had similar causes as the American Revolution. They were similar in their causes because both of them were caused because of unfair taxation, war debt, and lack of representation. However, “The American Revolution involved a colonial uprising against an

What would start as an act to protect people from the abuses of the government, would turn into one of the most oppressive periods of French History, giving it the name: Reign of Terror. King Louis XIV’s expensive and unnecessary war debts and lavish expenditures left his citizens starving and without a platform. In order to solve this, Louis XIV raised taxes, making the very mistake of King George III that led to the American Revolution. The social classes were called to reach a solution, but as always reached a stalemate. Delegates of the Estates General then took for themselves their natural right to dissention, and created the National Assembly. Regarding the right to dissent, the right to one’s own religious views,

I really enjoyed reading your post. I agree with you. When revolution takes place usually there are always people who look at radical changes and compare it to how their country used to be. During the French Revolution, radical changes occurred, for example: the government was changed so that the power was no longer entirely in hands of the nobility, the power of the monarchy was reduced, changes to the divorce laws (women could divorce abusive husbands) etc.

Citizens were not permitted to vote as individuals. Instead one vote was given to each of the three estates, the clergy (first), aristocrats (second), and everyone else excluded from the first two, who were most commonly peasants and the working class (third) (Roberts et al. 646). Unsurprisingly, the Third Estate was outvoted and citizens within became furious. They, “…insisted that those who worked [for low wages] and pay taxes were the nation…” (Roberts et al. 646) Shortly afterward, the National Assembly was born and was determined to take France’s future into its own (Belloc, 93).

The published letter of the king’s reasoning for departure also served the public with rage, and, “equally significant for the future of the Revolution was the dramatic change in attitude toward the king…everything was transformed by the king’s flight.” (Tackett, 101) People in the streets of Paris were throwing out their portraits of the royal family and were seeing the king, the one they praised a week ago, as a deserter and conspirator to their newly-formed and praised government. The use of rumor and newspapers by members of The Cordelier Club also helped spread certain radical ideals in which prompted the idea of turning France into a republic, and of dissembling the monarchy and the king altogether. It was this power in the streets of Paris that would soon grow with every day after the king fled, as, “Outside the Legislative Assembly, however, the more radical revolutionaries had managed to hold the loyalty of most of the provincial club network, giving them a powerful propaganda tool.” (Popkin, 58) The National Assembly was still strong in its number of members favorable of this new constitutional monarchy, but it was in the streets and with the people that the actual aspect of the Revolution was shifting. Members of the National Assembly were getting restless

A revolution is not an event that comes around every few years. In fact, for an event to be considered a revolution that event must bring about significant political, social, ideological, religious or even technological change. Throughout history there have been some very noteworthy revolutions such as the Agricultural Revolution, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution. Of all the revolutions in history, it is perhaps the French Revolution that remains the most romanticized in the minds of the people. The French Revolution was, at its core, a revolution of the masses, for the masses. It was a long, violent affair, lasting from 1787 to 1799. Like most periods of historical importance, the French Revolution was not caused by a single, specific event in history. It was rather the result of the accumulation of many events spread all through the 18th century. Some of the most important causes of the French Revolution were the economic crisis, the rising tensions between the social classes, the shortcoming of the rule of Louis XVI, and the Age of Enlightenment.

Both French and American Revolutions occurred in the eighteenth century. The French and American Revolutions had some similar origins. However, some factors of two revolutions and the consequences of these two revolutions were totally different.

The French and American Revolutions were the first of the modern era. Both the events were starkly different from each other, both in their beginnings, culminations and aftermath. Following the American Revolution, which occurred first, subsequent revolutions have been compared and related to it. While the American Revolution may appear to be a textbook revolution, looking at it from a different perspective leads us to question this notion. A deeper analysis of the event shows us that the American Revolution was in fact, a revolution prevented.

France was under extreme turmoil because of its structure and King Louis XVI, there were many growing tensions throughout France that needed to be dealt with before the revolution was to take over. The three estates in France were under a very unequal system where the majority vote and majority of wealth came from less than 10 percent of the country; many privileges were the given to them like minimal taxes and all authority. The other 90 percent of the country was living in extremely poor conditions and were spending 90 percent of their wages on bread. King Louis XVI continued to charge the third-estate excessive amounts of taxes to pay for his contribution to the American war. Moderates believed they could change these issues through minor reforms, but when that failed the radicals realized it would take a revolution to change the problems that persisted in France. Because strict government control during the Radical stage of the revolution (1792-1794) was placed in society, a dictator of the Radical stage, Maximilien Robespierre was able to achieve more than the moderate stage (1789-1792). There were many great ideas in the moderate stage but they were pursued with the dedication of the leaders in the radical stage, while they were already achieving many of their own goals.

Since the beginning of history itself, several and numerous people, inventions, ideologies or behaviours were immediately attached to a particular and self-explanatory concept such as revolutionary. As the time goes by its outreaching characteristics and meaning remains the same.

The French Revolution and The American Revolution are similar in many that people call them the Twin Wars. We will explore how they are similar by talking about the role that women played and the documents that emerged from each war. We will also explore how they are different by talking about the causes for the wars and the goals for each.

The French Revolution was a time of great social, political and economic tumult in the closing years of the Eighteenth Century. The motivators pushing French citizenry toward revolution are varied in scope and origin. They range from immediate economic woes to an antiquarian class structure. Modern historians still debate the value of the changes that the revolution brought to modern society. The middle class made gains that would never be rescinded, but do revolutions always end in tyranny? In the years before the revolution citizens were rigidly constrained by the estates of the realm. These social strata had been in place since the medieval ages. The people were divided into three groups; clergy, nobility and everyone else. The clergy

Our country emerged triumphant from the Thirty Years War while our enemies fell defeated into the blood of their comrades. In that year of 1643 we defeated the Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi. But if France erupts with riots and chaos, we will not be so lucky. Each and every one of you should run from the French Revolution. Rebelling against our leaders will only lead to bloodshed, quarrelling, and a worse condition than before. I saw the American Revolution as well as you, and how they gained their freedom. But, these people gained independence at the cost of close to 25,000 lives. Risking that many lives for a cause that will ultimately fail is ridiculous.

Both the American and French revolutions happened in the later eighteenth century. Both escaped an existing, monarchical government. Both Revolutions happened because of hard economic conditions. Both countries faced money related issues. The american kept getting taxed by the British, and the french could not pay their debts, and to make up for it the king imposed taxes, on everyone, but mostly on peasants. Both revolutions happened with the goal of independence in mind. The American revolution did not originally start because of independence, it started because of the insane taxes the british were imposing. The french on other hand were tired of being split up into different classes, and they wanted to live a more independent way of living.