The French and American Revolutions

De Anne Toussaint

Thesis

The topic I chose to write about is the comparison between the French and

American Revolutionary Wars. We will take a look at what caused these

parallel events to take place and who were the key players of these wars. We

will then discuss the way people of this era handled the ruling government

and what they did to overthrow them and how they came together to create

a new government that was for the people. We will discuss the new

documents that was created to assure the equal rights of all citizens of that

time and how their actions affected the people of today.

The Key Players of the Revolutions

FranceNapoleon Bonaparte: A general in the French army and leader of the 1799 coup that overthrew the Directory.Louis XVI: The French king from 1774 to 1792 who was deposed during the French Revolution and Executed in 1793.Marie-Antoinette: The wife of King Louis XVI and in thee French commoner’s eyes, the primary symbol of the French royalty’s extravagance and excess.Maximilien Robespierre: A brilliant political tactician and leader of the radical Jacobins in the National Assembly.Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes: A liberal member of the clergy, supporter of the Third Estate, and author of the fiery 1789 pamphlet “What Is the Third Estate?”www.sparknotes.com/french-revolution

The Key Players of the Revolution

America• George Washington: Leader of the American army during the Revolutionary War.• Benjamin Franklin: Helped negotiate the end of the Revolutionary War• Thomas Paine: Wrote “Common Sense”- helped convince the colonist that

independence made common sense.• Thomas Jefferson: Principle writer of the Declaration of Independence; made a

deal with France called the Louisiana Purchase.• John Adams: A member of the Sons of Liberty; helped write the Declaration of

Independence; helped with the treaty to end the war.• Marquis de Lafayette: A Frenchman who helped the colonists win their

independence from England; served with George Washington • Paul Revere: Made a famous ride in the night to warn people in Massachusetts

that the British were coming.

• Ethan Allen: An American giant who led a troop of soldiers over a wall at Fort Ticonderoga.

• Georg William Frederick: King of Great Britain and King of Ireland during the American Revolution.

• Nathanael Greene: American General during the American Revolution.• Patrick Henry: Founding father of American Revolutionary War and

governor of Virginia. www.theamricanrevolution.orgwww.sparknotes.com/the-american-revolution

What sparked the Revolutions?

France

King Louis XVI inherited a debt left by his grandfather, King Louis XV, and added to the crisis himself through heavy spending during France’s involvement in the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783. Because this massive debt overwhelmed all of his financial consultants, Louis XVI was forced to give in to the demands of the Parliament of Paris and convene the Estates-General- an action that led directly to the outbreak of the Revolution.

www.history.com/topics/frenc-revolution

America

Conflict arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 kicked off the armed conflict, and by the following summer, the rebels were waging a full-scale war for their independence. Colonial resistance led to violence in 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre. After December 1773, when a band of Bostonians dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, an outraged Parliament passed a series of measures (the Intolerable Act) designed to reassert imperial authority in Massachusetts.

www.history.com/topics/american-revolution-history

Unfair Taxes

France

France’s costly involvement in the American Revolution and extravagant spending by King Louis XVI and his predecessor had left the country on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but two decades of poor cereal harvests, drought, cattle disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among peasants and the urban poor. Many expressed their desperation and resentment toward a regime that imposed heavy taxes yet failed to provide relief by rioting, looting and striking.

www.history.com/toics/french-revolution

America

In 1764 Parliament created the Sugar Act, which was a tax on sugar, coffee, cloth, molasses, and many other imported goods. In 1765 another Act was created called the Stamp Act. This was a tax on almost everything that was printed such as newspapers, playing cards, paper, a college diploma, and calendars. Colonist were extremely upset by these taxes because they could not voice their opinion.

The VoiceFrance

The Estates General stemmed from a meeting that reunited an equal number of representatives from each Estate to solve the serious political crisis. Everyone met at the Palace of Versailles to debate some major problems.The Third Estate, party for the low class, knew that they could be out voted by the First (aristocrats) and the Second Estate (clergy) so they decided to ask for double representation.On May 5th, 1789, Maximilien de Robespierre, a young lawyer from the North of France, represented the Third Estate to defend the rights of the poor and vulnerable.

http://bastille-day.com/history/French-Revolution

America

Patrick Henry, one of the members of the House of Burgesses made a speech on how Britain was using its power unfairly. He claimed that Britain should not be taxing the colonists when they did not have any say in if they should be taxed or not! Many colonists agreed with Henry. Groups formed to protest against British government. Two groups were the Sons and Daughters of Liberty.

https://sites.google.com/a/apps.edina.k12.mn.us/the-revolutionary-war/british-taxes?tmpl

Creating Their Own Government

FranceThe Third Estate was fed up with the King’s decisions and decided to constitute themselves as the National Assembly. It was aimed at representing the three Estates but without the supervision of the King. They called for the two other orders to join them.The Tennis Court OathThe newly created assembly led by Robespierre, Mirabeau and Sieves decided to meet in another part of the castle. During the Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789), they decided to write France a constitution. This was the second stage of the revolution.http://bastille-day.com/history/estates-general-1789

AmericaA group of colonial delegates (George Washington, John and Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry and John Jay) met in Philadelphia in September 1774 to give voice to their grievances against the British crown. The First Continental Congress did not go so far as to demand independence from Britain, but it denounced taxation without representation, as well as the maintenance of the British army in the colonies without their consent, and issued a declaration of rights due every citizen, including life, liberty, property, assembly an trial by jury.The Second Continental CongressWhen the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, delegates-including new additions Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson-voted to form a Continental Army, with Washington as its commander in chief.www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/american-revolution-history

Let the Battles Begin

FranceOn the morning of July 14th, 1789, a group formed of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to the Invalides to steal some weapons. The mob stole 28,000 riffles there, however no powder was to be found. The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King's absolute and arbitrary power. So they decided to attack it. The path of the revolt completely changed when the rescue team showed up and decided not to fight against but with the mob. With their canons and their professional soldier skills, they brought victory to the people of France against Louis XVI’s guards in a few hours.

http://bastille-day.com/history/Storming-Of-The-Bastille-July-14-1789

AmericaOn April 19, local militiamen clashed with British soldiers in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, marking the first shots fired in the Revolution (www.history.com).Lexington and ConcordBritain's General Gage had a secret plan.During the wee hours of April 19, 1775, he would send out regiments of British soldiers quartered in Boston. Their destinations were Lexington, where they would capture Colonial leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock, then Concord, where they would seize gunpowder.But spies and friends of the Americans leaked word of Gage's plan.Two lanterns hanging from Boston's North Church informed the countryside that the British were going to attack by sea. A series of horseback riders — men such as Paul Revere, William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott — galloped off to warn the countryside that the Regulars (British troops) were coming.

http://www.ushistory.org/us/11c.asp

Claiming Our Independence

FranceThe Declaration of the Rights of Man and CitizenOn August 26, 1789 the National Assembly voted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, defining a set of individual and collective rights for all the people, regardless of their estate.Many revolutionaries participated in the writing of this text, among them Robespierre, Mirabeau, Lafayette and Sieyes.The King had to sign this declaration which led to many further political and economic reforms that heavily diminished his own powers.

http://bastille-day.com/history/French-Revolution

America

Declaration of Independence

On July 4, the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, drafted by a five-man committee including Franklin and John Adams but written mainly by Jefferson.

Tensions RisingFrance

The tension was rising between the protectors of the king and the revolutionaries. In August 1792, Robespierre joined the “Commune de Paris”, a strong revolutionary government formed after the storming of the Bastille. He presented a petition where he demanded that La Fayette should be dismissed and declared a traitor. The “accuse” started an exile in Eastern Europe.On August 10, 1792 the “Sans-Culotte”, a group formed of Parisian rioters who wanted to protest against the aristocracy, helped by the newly formed “Commune insurrectionnelle de Paris”, stormed the Tuileries. After 800 years of reign, and in a bath of blood, the Capetian Monarchy was defeated.Three days later, Louis XVI was officially arrested and sent to prison. The King had a trial in front of the Convention which decided to send him to the Guillotine in January 1793. He was accused of High Treason and Crimes against the State.http://bastille-day.com/history/French-Revolution

AmericaSaratogaBritish strategy in 1777 involved two main prongs of attach, aimed at separating New England from the other colonies. To that end, General John Burgoyne’s army aimed to march south from Canada toward a planned meeting with Howe’s forces on the Hudson River. Burgoyne’s men dealt a devastating loss to the Americans in July by retaking Fort Ticonderoga, while Howe decided to move his troops southward from New York to confront Washington’s army near the Chesapeake Bay. The British defeated the Americans at Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania, on September 11 and entered Philadelphia on September 25. Washington rebounded to strike Germantown in early October before withdrawing to winter quarters near Valley Forge.At the Second Battle of Saratoga, Burgoyne surrendered his remaining forces on October 17. The American victory Saratoga would prove to be a turning point of the American Revolution.

In the EndFrance

On August 22, 1795, the National Convention, composed largely of Girondins who had survived the Reign of Terror, approved a new constitution that created France’s first bicameral legislature. Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory appointed by parliament.The Directory’s four years in power were riddled with financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency and, above all, political corruption. By the late 1790’s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field. On November 9, 1799, as frustration with their leadership reached a fever pitch, Bonaparte staged a coup d’etat, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s “first consul.” The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, in which France would come to dominate much of continental Europe.www.history.com/topics/french-revolution

AmericaBy the fall of 1781, Greene’s American forces had managed to force Cornwallis and his men to withdraw to Virginia’s Yorktown peninsula, near where the York River empties into Chesapeake Bay. Supported by a French army commanded by General Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau, Washington moved against Yorktown with a total of around 14,000 soldiers, while a fleet of 36 French warships offshore prevented British reinforcement or evacuation. Trapped and overpowered, Cornwallis was forced to surrender his entire army on October 19.Though neither side would take decisive action over the better part of the next two years, the British removal of their troops from Charleston and Savannah in late 1782 finally pointed to the end of the conflict. British and American negotiators in Paris signed preliminary peace terms in Paris late that November, and on September 3, 1783, Great Britain formally recognized the independence of the United States in the Treaty of Paris. At the same time, Britain signed separate peace treaties with France and Spain bringing the American Revolution a close after eight long years.

www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/american-revolution-history

ConclusionThe French and American Revolutions were two wars that were so parallel to one another that it was almost like one war. Monarchial rule was of the past and people left the era of the Medieval times and stood up and fought for the “little people”. Two Kings tried to rule countries that were tired of scraping the bottom of the barrel just to survive. High taxes and no representation of the government in which they support had come to an end. In France, King Louie XVI lost his head because he was too immature to truly understand the people who served him; either that or he was just a prick. In America, King George III, found out the hard way that ruling people of the new world was not an easy task. He lost his precious colony and the United States was formed and doubled in size at the same time. This era was the pre-industrial time of change. Reform was a must and a new era in world history had begun.

How did your topic fit into the daily life of world inhabitants or the inhabitants of the specific countries that you examined from the era that you are covering?

My topic fit quite well for the era I chose. The nineteenth century was a time

of change. The industrial revolution had not really picked up yet and

monarchical control was the norm. People of this era had decided to take

back their lives and take control of there government. The days of church

ruling state was coming to an end.

What was it about your topic that was unique to our study of world history from 1500 on?

What was unique about my topic was the weapons that was created during

war time. In Europe, the longbow was used to conquer their enemies. New

tactics on the battlefield was created to destroy the enemies of the new

country, the United States.

How would you have felt about your topic if you had been living during the era you are covering?

If I were living during the era that I chose to cover, I would not feel loyal to

the newly formed United States because I would have been a slave. Like other

slaves, I would have desired my freedom for my family and myself. If given the

opportunity of freedom to help fight against a country that kept me in

bondage, honestly, I would have chosen Britain. Any black placed in that

position would have chosen the same.

How has your topic changed over the years (describe its’ role in society today); or, how has the world viewed it differently since its’ occurrence?

Over the years, countries around the world has had some type of Civil war

against its government. Even today people are still developing coups to over-

throw an unjust government. New countries are still being formed because of

that society.

What new information did you learn about your topic that you didn’t already know?

Wow, I have learned so much about the French and American Revolutions. I

never new how close in similarities the two wars were. I learned about new

people of the American Revolution that I never know were so involved in the

fight for the freedom of America from the British rule. I definitely didn’t know

that King George III was legally insane. And finally, I really didn’t know how

deeply religion played in all activities of that time. Now I understand why

people of today still hold a grudge from the past.

Sourceswww.theamricanrevolution.orgwww.sparknotes.com/the-american-revolutionwww.history.com/topics/frenc-revolution www.sparknotes.com/french-revolution

https://sites.google.com/a/apps.edina.k12.mn.us/the-revolutionary-war/british-taxes?tmpl

http://bastille-day.com/history/French-Revolution

http://www.ushistory.org/us/11c.asp