Two Revolutions: Two Motives, Two Outcomes - Essay Example

Two Revolutions: Two Motives, Two Outcomes For much of the Western world, society and the politics of governance can be broken down into the periods of pre-revolutionary and post revolutionary. For centuries through the Dark Ages and until the age of the Reformation, the civilizations of Europe were under the strict control of the Church. By the middle of the 17th century, the ongoing conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism had been checked and had resulted in the unlimited power of the monarchy. The monarchy required the support of the aristocracy for survival and the aristocrats needed to placate the masses of commoners and peasants. Through the 17th and 18th centuries an uneasy peace was maintained between the monarchy state and the freedom of the masses in both France and the American colonies (Finley). In the late 18th century the tentative peace between the people and the ruling monarchy was broken in America and France. Though each revolution was an outward denouncement of the ruling authority, Americas revolution had a motive of individual freedom while France had as its goal social justice and equality for all. The French Revolution and the American Revolution were both based in the belief that man had an ultimate and inalienable right to possess freedom of thought. The Age of Enlightenment had exemplified mans ability to reason and invent. However, the interpretation of this concept was vastly different in America than in France. America had been founded by people escaping religious persecution and was largely a Christian nation. They had a diverse religious population that had a deep belief in the Christian faith. In contrast, the French had been subjected to a reign where religion had been a battleground with hundreds of thousands of its citizens slaughtered in the name of Catholicism. Whereas the American colonists saw religion as a fundamental guidance for everyday life, the French viewed religion with suspicion and disdain. This difference would alter the respective views of freedom for each nation. Both France and America were seeking to break the chains of a tyrannical monarchy that was not serving their best interests. Each country had its own set of leaders and guiding writers and thinkers of the time. It is here that the paths of France and America become even more divergent. Political thinkers, that had for all practical purposes been ruling the colonies for a generation, were engineering Americas revolution. They had a local system of laws and courts. They had political experience dealing with the parliament in Britain and were able to understand the realities of bringing freedom to America. Americas founders had at their roots the belief in the God given rights of man. France on the other hand had as its revolutionary leaders philosophers that had little political experience and had as their central tenet the component of reason. The French Revolution was symbolized by social anarchy and threatened the European order that Americas security and trade were based on (Nash & Jeffrey 2004, 265). Unlike Americas Revolution, this would leave Frances revolution isolated and alienated from meaningful outside assistance. According to Rummel leading French philosophers of the time such as Jean Jacques Rousseau contended that, "Government is a machine, fueled by coercive power, and driven by reason; and its destination is Social Justice. [...] Those in charge of the State would therefore use reason to apply government to further and create Social Justice". While in America, the revolution was to protect the inalienable rights of all the citizens, in France the philosophical drive of reason was to create a collective social equality. America protected freedom, but did not guarantee equality. France guaranteed equality at the expense of individual freedom. These philosophical and motivational differences were also accentuated by the geographic and demographic variances in the populations. Americas tyrannical rulers were an ocean away and in fact America was a confluence of British, French, Spanish and a host of other European dominant groups. America did not have the centuries of a ruling monarch and did not have the history of a ruling church. Though there were areas in the colonies that were ruled by a single religion, the extent and diversity of religion necessitated a tolerance of all faiths. France had a homogeneous history that had centuries of ruling, and often brutal religion, as well as a monarchy that did not serve the interests of the people. Unlike America, these institutions were firmly embedded into the fabric of the French psyche. America was overthrowing what they had come to perceive as an occupying force. The French were shattering the very foundations of their society. America was preserving religion, while the French were replacing religion with reason. On the road to each revolutions ultimate goal, there were vastly different approaches. While both were bloody conflicts and riddled with hostile actions, the French Revolution was most notable for its extreme brutality. Anarchy and mass executions marked the French Revolution while Revolutionary soldiers and Loyalists were largely killed on the field of battle. This is reflective of the mass hysteria that the search for social equality ignited. The theologian Gavin Finley theorizes, There can be no big expansions of individual freedom for citizens without the attendant personal integrity of those people to govern themselves in righteousness. Freedom calls not for violence but for the peaceful and constructive involvement of a helpful and virtuous citizenry who are at peace with God and with their fellow man. This comes from a sense of personal accountability and responsibility of individuals before God and country. The French revolution was guided by reason without a spiritual foundation. The American Revolution was a spiritual movement guided by political necessity. The results of the revolutions have had a lasting effect on world history. The French Revolution gave way to collective thought that promoted the theory of public good. Individual freedom was placed at the mercy of the collective welfare of the state. Statism was born and would manifest itself in the writings of Karl Marx and the Russian Revolution in 1917. Recent decades have seen the discrediting of this thinking as collectivist nations have seen failure and defeat. The American Revolution has lived on and continues to be a beacon of hope for nations around the world. Individual freedom guided by a spiritual belief in the sanctity of respect for all mankind continues to bring hope to oppressed nations and serves as a model for equality that is unattainable by collectivism. References Finley, Gavin. "The French Revolution vs The American Revolution." http://endtimepilgrim.org/puritans12.htm (20 June 2007). Nash, Gary B., and Julie R. Jeffrey, eds. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. 6th ed. New York: Pearson Education, 2004. Rummel, R J. "The American Vs. French Revolutions: A Freedomist Interpretation." Freedom, Democracy, Peace. University of Hawaii. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.5.1.05.HTM (20 June 2007). Read More