By
Calvin L. Robinson
I chose this topic because….
I was interested in trying to understand
why the American Revolution went so
smoothly in comparison to the French
Revolution.
It is well known that in the American Revolution we
fought for our freedom or our liberty against the British
to gain our independence as our own country, while on the
other hand the French Revolution was a lot different than
ours. The French Revolution was not against an outside
country, but against itself inside its own borders, mainly
against its own monarchy. Why though, one may ask, was
their revolution bloodier than the American Revolution, or
why did America not fall into a “Reign of Terror” like the
French? One said answer could be the simple fact that
the Americans were united in a common goal to drive out
an opposing force and had a type of preset government as
to be led by the people in certain terms while the French
were in a turmoil against themselves and therefore did
not really have any governing ruling and had no type of
enforcement to enforce the laws.
Thesis Statement
The French Revolution was bloodier
that the American Revolution,
because unlike the American
Revolution the French were in
turmoil against themselves and did
not have any governing ruling and
did not have any type of way to
enforce the laws that were
attempted to be passed.
What led to the French
Revolution anyways?
The French revolution was due to the unfair taxation
of the lower class French citizens; this was due to financial
crises that the French was dealing with at the time which
made them tax the lower class even heavier, than enforcing
taxation on the middle class and upper class citizens . These
financial crises were like military expenses and aristocracy,
while in comparison, America had a boasting economy due to
the selling and trading of slaves along with sugar and
tobacco.
Once the taxes kept coming and becoming heavier,
tensions began to run high among lower class French citizens
and a revolt was inevitable. This was soon realized by King
Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette and they tried to
make an escape and flee the country but were captured and
ultimately killed. During the time they were killed is about
when the French nation ran amuck and the so called “Reign
of Terror” began.
“Reign of Terror”
“The
"Reign of Terror" lasted from
September of 1793 to July of the following
year. Simply put, the Reign of Terror was a
dictatorship mainly by a group of leaders
called the Committee of Public Safety, and
at the head of them was a man by the name
of Maximilien Robespierre. They were known
for being responsible all of the executions of
counter revolutionaries and so called enemies
of the Republic. Over 40,000 people lost
their lives to the guillotine in these years
during this time. Despite all of the killings,
almost all of them were done without due
process.”
An End to the Reign of Terror and
the Rise of Napoleon
Both the end to the Reign of Terror and the end of
the French Revolution were brought on by the rise
in power of the general Napoleon Bonaparte. He
grew in power with the military and gradually began
to have the country in a full 180 degree turn and
set it to a republic, yet he still named himself
emperor, though not in the traditional sense of the
word.
What did I learn from my
research…?
In all I learned that the French in
general did not know what they
wanted once they were rid of the
monarchy and in consequence fell into
a nightmarish frenzy of lawlessness;
this in comparison to the Americans
who all in general had a common
thought and goal on what they wanted
even before they were completely
free of a monarchy rule.
Bibliography
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Littleton, MA: Tapestry Press, Ltd., 2010
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3rd 2011).
Kiser, Edgar and Linton, April. "The Hinges of History: StateMaking and Revolt in Early Modern France American Sociological Review".
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March 3, 2011).
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2005.
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