The American and French Revolutions were profoundly motivated by economics. Prior to the Revolution, British colonies in America were thriving. Colonists paid fairly few taxes and were permitted to participate in domestic economic activity, granted they adhere to the Navigation Act, an act requiring, “that all trade within the empire be conducted on ships which were constructed, owned and largely manned by British citizens. Certain enumerated goods whether exported or imported by the colonies had to be shipped through England regardless of the final port of destination.” (Baack) Its mother country however, was not analogous. England’s debt had nearly doubled due to their victory over France during the 7 Year War and was frantically …show more content…
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 Revolutions became very different throughout the courses of each. Britain, no doubt was in a better position to fund the war. Firstly, Britain was an established country with a tax system that had proven to produce revenue. Secondly, it could afford to generate more debt to fund the war. America however, was only beginning to set up a government of its own. Although they had a Congress in place, the Articles of Confederation didn’t allow it to tax colonists and without income, it was difficult for Congress to borrow money or replace what they were spending on the war. Despite this, Congress did not receive any voluntary payments from the states. In fact, each state began producing their own currencies to make up for the lack of money; so many different forms of currency were competing with the true currency, the continental dollar. Britain
The American Revolution had many more causes than the French Revolution. Both Revolutions were generally caused by taxation without representation; meaning the colonist and the third estate did not have a voice of opinion in these new laws. The stamp act and smuggling passed parliament, and those laws were placed on the colonist. Everything was being taxed; that money paying off the debt of the French and Indian War, also being sent to England. King Louis XVI raised the third estates taxes to pay off the debt of wars and deficit spending. Both the third estates and the colonist didn't have a say in the new laws or work they were now having to follow. The French and the Americans had a rebellion that lead them into the revolution. The colonist had the Boston tea party where the colonist dressed as Native Americans to board ship that help the highly
“Despite the view of some historians that the conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen North American colonies was economic in origin, in fact the American Revolution had its roots in politics and other areas of American life.” Great Britain and the American colonies had a relationship impacted with many hardships. I believe that there was a political struggle between the two groups, but that Great Britain and the American colonies used economics as a chance to show how much control they had. Multiple Acts written by Parliament, the colonies' Committees of Correspondence and Continental Congress created political friction between Great Britain and the American colonies.
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
The American Revolution modeled the path taken by a social and economic movement in many more aspects than that of a political and intellectual movement. Even though political reasons existed for the cause the Revolution, the revolution should be considered an economic movement based on the idea of “no taxation without representation.” The colonists believed that the British rule in the colonies was extremely unfair, but these intellectual causes are greatly outnumbered by economic causes such as taxes and trade.
The American and the French revolutions had many similarities and differences. One similarity being is that they both wanted to escape the rule of their King. Second, they both started by an uprising of people against unfair taxation by the monarchy. The French peasants were not represented by the Parliament. It was mainly composed of middle and upper class people. Now, the American colonists were not represented in England because of their lack of presence. Both wanted to set up a Republic, which provided liberty and justice to all classes of citizens. Just like France, the American colonists were composed up mainly middle and lower class citizens. The American Revolution started out by not wanting bloodshed and violence. France started
The British tried to shoulder some of the financial responsibilities onto the Americas in the form of various taxes during 1763.
During the late 1700's, two great revolutions occurred, the American Revolution and the French Revolution. These two historical events happened at the same time, but had a great number of differences and very little similarity. When French Revolution occurred, it turned into a very violent and bloody event, while the American Revolution was almost nonviolent, aside from the war. In 1774, King Louis XVI made a decision that could have prevented the French Revolution by breathing new life into the French economy: he appointed Physiocrat Robert Turgot as Controller General of Finance.
Halfway through the 18th century The French and Indian War was fought between British America and New France in their attempts to colonize North America. In order to keep British colonists safe, King George III of Britain had to invest large amounts of money in supplies for his military and colonists which would led the British government to extreme debt. In order to recover from his debt, King George began taxing the colonies without consent. The American Revolution was a series of events in the 18th century caused by disagreements between the English Parliament and British citizens in America. Along with taxation without representation, the American revolution was triggered by acts of rebellion and unfair enforcement by the British government.
The American Revolution was an important time for the Americans who felt like they would achieve higher standards of success without The United Kingdom taking all of their money.” For
After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 the American people had taxes placed on them by the British. The British Parliament claimed that by placing the taxes they were defending the colonies for the Americans. During the twelve years following the war, the British enacted a numerous amount of taxes that allowed them to raise revenue from the American economy. This taxing of the American people hurt the American economy and started to push the American colonists toward an independence movement so they could have a free economy. Over the course of the twelve-year period there were six acts enacted to take money from the American economy.
The history leading up to the American Revolution is very interesting. The aftermath of the French and Indian war played a big role in what began the colonists dissent against Great Britain. At the start of the war the colonist were glad that the redcoats were there to protect them but after the fall of Washington at Fort Necessity they started to feel disappointed towards them. After the war, Great Britain, although they won, was left with huge amounts of debt. Because of the cost to train troops and the debt the British wanted the colonist to pay their fair share. The colonists were not happy with this, although the Great Britain paid most of the debt itself. Another factor was the Quartering Act(1765). It said that the colonists were responsible for finding or
The French Revolution was a time of turmoil in which an uprising for equality turned into a massacre. The poor became poorer, King Louis XVI lost power, and hundreds of thousands of people would end up losing their lives. Over the course of the revolution, there were two phases of the government that occurred that each had different causes. The economic and ideological cause of the liberal phase of the government was due to the disputes over inequality among the estates and dismantling of the old regime, while the cause of the radical phase of the government was based off of the belief that the revolution did not meet the original revolutionary beliefs.
During the 18th century, the Enlightenment ideas were flourishing in both the American and French Revolutions. The Enlightenment perspective consisted of people searching for their social prestige, questioning authorities and believing they could create a new republic. The Americans aimed for independence and the French desired to overthrow their monarchy. The objective in both revolutions were relatively the same, to overthrow and recreate in efforts to achieve national sovereignty. However, the outcomes of the two socials worlds were radically different. The French citizens emerged more enlightenment thinkers demanding their equal rights despite regressing back to a monarch. In contrast, the Americans formed a successful democratic republic but continued inequality within their society. Furthermore, the French were significantly more revolutionary, as opposed to reactionary, than the Americans.
to get all the power of France. It should also be said that not all the nobles
The Effects of Financial Problems on the French Revolution The French Revolution, which broke out in 1787, was perhaps the most violent upheaval in the western world due to the extensive participation of peasants and common people, not only the aristocracy. Even thought in other parts of Europe revolutionist movements were taking place, they were usually between aristocratic rulers and other privileged groups. Regarding the causes of the French Revolution, several versions are proposed and debated. Some versions say that the causes were basically social and economical; while others say it was the rise of one particular class, the bourgeoisie.