French Revolution Dbq

The revolutions that swept the world from 1765 to 1815 was an era marked by both relatively peaceful enlightenment based overthrows of repressive governments, and extremely bloody uprisings based on violence and the repression of its own citizens. The United States revolution lasting from 1775 to 1783 and the French revolution lasting from 1789 to 1799 fit these descriptions perfectly; and although they both fall under the same time period, these revolutions could not differ more. When compared to each other, the ideas that the American and French revolutions were founded on were similar, but the outcomes and the ways in which each revolution were executed were vastly different.

The revolutions of the eighteenth century revealed a change

in the reasons that people were fighting: ideas based on the intrinsic rights of people. In the colonies, an over bearing taxation system meant to assert Britain’s superiority over the colonies coupled with the mercantile system which completely undermined the colonist’s efforts to grow the country, eventually led to the tipping point: the revolutionary war. In France however, it was a crippling national debt that affected nearly every aspect of life, most notably food shortages, and a political system that most heavily affected the poor that finally set off the French revolution (Walton). It should be noted that in the infancies of both of these revolutions, neither were truly that revolutionary. Between Lexington and concord and the signing of declaration, a period of fourteen months, there were hardly any real battles between the colonist and the British that weren’t on paper. In France, it wasn’t enlightenment ideas or a move for a republic that began the conflicts, but more a severe lack of food and a complete lack of deference to the third estate. But it did not take long before these revolutions lost any resemblance to one another.
After the signing of the declaration of independence, battles were becoming more frequent serious and more serious. Washington was proving himself as a true military leader through battles like the one at Trenton and other smaller conflicts were regularly occurring between militia and British forces. By 1779, the colonist had garnered the support of both the French and the Spanish, two countries that both had their own interests in seeing Britain lose the war. This proved itself to be pivotal in the last battle of the war at York town. Washington decided to surprise the British at their new headquarters in York town and created the plan to “transport French and American regiments from the Chesapeake bay to the James river. That operation was successful, after which…16,000 men in all, prevailed over the British. On October 17, 1782, Cornwallis…surrendered” (Klooster 36). Regardless of France’s hatred towards democracy, their even higher level of contempt towards anything British gave the colonist the extra edge that was eventually able to lead them towards a successful victory against the British.
Due to the highly impactful revolution that occurred in America and the many events that led up to it, it can be easy to forget the constant warfare that was occurring in Europe during the eighteenth century, more often than not involving France.

Unsurprisingly enough, the same problem that existed within Britain over the French and Indian war were now appearing in France: how were they going to pay for the wars. France’s answer to this problem was the implementation of a heavily flawed system of borrowing and taxation, with borrowing being the majority of the income (Klooster 45-46). Over the next five years, the economic policies of Jacques Necker pushed France’s economy into a state of disrepair, ruining any chance of France recovering their economy. This king came down to two options: default on their loans and declare bankruptcy, continuing the trend of this action, or calling the estates general, France’s closest institution to a parliament. He chose the latter, but this did little to resolve the animosity that was brewing due to the horrible financial state of the country. Anger over hunger, unemployment, and terrible economic conditions finally caused protest to become revolution. In 1789, an armed crowed stormed and captured the bastille, a prison meant to hold political prisoners. The storming of the bastille was much more than just an attack on a prison; it was an attack on a symbol of the oppressiveness and brutality of the French monarchy. Soon after the

revolution began, the monarchy was disbanded altogether under the authority of the National Assembly, and king louis the sixteenth was executed, starting a two year long period of killing en masse of over 16,000 enemies of the revolution called “The reign of terror”; although “enemies of the revolution” became such a nebulous term that the ironically named Comité de salut public (committee of public safety) began killing French citizens almost indiscriminately, eventually even going so far as to kill the founder of the committee, Maximilien Robespierre, in 1794. As all of this was occurring, France was still in a heated battle against Austria and Prussia; a war they won highly in part to the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1799, Bonaparte was established as the first consul of France, effectively becoming an absolute monarch over France.
Both revolutions were founded on one radical idea: that laws and power come from the people; that “All citizens have the right to take part” in law (Lafayette Article 6).

Interestingly enough, some people consider the idea of referring to the American Revolution as a revolution as a misnomer. Friedrich Gentz, a German conservative who was staunchly against revolutions or any use of political violence to achieve a social change, certainly agreed, writing “…the American Revolution was a legitimate revolution, since it was not really a revolution. Its goal was to establish a constitutional regime… [and it] did not unleash large-scale violence” (Gentz). And in most parts this was true. But what really made the American Revolution revolutionary was that it replaced the government that it overcame with one run not by a king, but by the people. If you only look at the outcome, it’s almost as if a revolution never happened. They went from having a king, nobility, and an established religion, to having a king, nobility and established religion

(Desan).
Both the American and French revolutions have been argued as two of the most impactful historical events of the last 250 years, due in large part to the ideas that they embodied: that revolution is not based on land or power, but on ideas. Although each revolution had vastly different degrees of success in achieving their original goals, it doesn’t mean that one was any less revolutionary than the other. It’s easy to look back on these revolutions and judge them solely based on their outcomes. But each section of the history of a revolution should be judged individually. Thomas Jefferson himself was an avid supporter of the revolution at its beginning, believing that the French were “exterminating the monster aristocracy, and pulling out the teeth & fangs of its associate monarchy” (Jefferson). Regardless, both revolutions made an attempt to put the power in the hands of the people; and that in itself is what distinguishes these events as truly revolutionary.