French Revolution vs. American Revolution - Essay Example

Similarly, in France, the monarchy imposed heavy taxes on the ordinary people of France to pay off their trading debts. One important thing in this was that nobles and the rich of France were not obliged to pay these taxes. This angered the ordinary population of France which was toiled and poked hard by the monarchy, they were subject to.

Although the cause of the American Revolution is simple and very easily understandable, that is it was triggered due to Britain's greed, whereas the reason behind the French revolution is very deeply rooted. Their King had divided the people into two social classes and from there he gave luxuries to the rich class at the expense of the poor class. This left the poor class on the verge of Famine and this movement started which was aimed to depose the king. On the other hand, American Revolution also started to get rid of Britain from their homeland and to gain independence.

From the above disFrom the above discussion, we can clearly identify that both of these movements were started by the oppressed and abused classes of the respective countries and were able to get rid of the authority which was oppressing them, but the end results were quite different for both of these nations. Americans on one hand were able to get rid of the British and gained independence and constituted their law, but the French, on the other hand, were left only to see Napoleon Bonaparte's rise to the position of power.

(Mark Steel, 2003)One reason for the difference in the outcomes of the two movements was the lack of organization and planning in the French movement as compared to the American Revolution. In the American movement, Congress decided when to start the movement. They had a meeting and decided that they are ready to take over the government from the British, before rebelling against the foreign forces of oppression. The movement was entirely planned and once the Britishers left, Congress took over the government and gave Americans a gift of the constitution for their long struggle against oppression.

On the other hand, the French were fighting against the upper social class. In the other words, they were not fighting for self-rule, like the Americans, but they were rebelling against a tyranny that supported the rich and nobles at the cost of the ordinary people of France. Similarly, the French did not have any authority to take over the government once the monarchy is deposed, whereas Americans had Congress take over the government after the Britishers left. This gave the opportunity to Napoleon Bonaparte to seize the position of power and ultimately he ascended on the throne and once again, the French find themselves in the midst of monarchy.

The reason behind this was that Americans were fighting against foreign forces which meant that if they win, the Britishers could be forced out, whereas it was different in France's case.