1776 Vs 1789 Essay Research Paper
1776 Vs 1789 Essay, Research PaperThe American and Gallic Revolutions both occurred in the 18th century ; overthrowing the bing authorities and opening the manner for capitalist economy andconstitutionalism. Because of these similarities, the two revolutions are frequently assumed to beessentially eastern and western versions of each other.
However, the two are fundamentallydifferent in their ground, their rise, advancement, expiration, and in the events that followed, even to the present. The American Revolution was non chiefly fought for independency. Independencewas an about inadvertent byproduct of the Americans? effort to arise against and removeunfair revenue enhancements levied on them by British Parliament. Through propaganda ; discourses, addresss, newspaper articles, and booklets ; public sentiment was manipulated to convert the colonistsand the universe that they had legal and moral right to be separate from Great Britain. The American settlements, because of the nature of settlements, had a strained, equivocalrelationship with Britain to get down with.
Britain saw the settlements as a agency to an terminal ; tostrengthen their ain power, enrich their ain state, and supply extra revenue enhancement revenue.The settlers hence did non experience as treasonists in arising against England. They were adistant settlement dividing from the female parent state. The American settlers were chiefly seeking freedom of trade and, because theyfelt it unjust to pay revenue enhancements to Britain, were trying to make away with these revenue enhancements throughwhatever means they thought necessary, including rebellion. The Americans were contending non to make their freedom, but to keep it. At thetime the Revolution occurred, the American society was freer and less controlled bymonarchy and nobility than any state on Earth. They were contending a fear ofsuppression, instead than existent suppression.
They were defying the force of tyranny beforeit could be applied. The rebellion occurred non because of agony, but out of rule. The Gallic Revolution was fought chiefly for the ground of subverting theexisting authorities, and set uping a new one to replace it. It was an selfless revolutionthat was fought to emancipate persons from oppressing imperialism and supply basic humanfreedom. It was a rebellion against absolute feudal and monarchial restraint. The spirit of thisrevolution was much more extremist. The full state was in upheaval, and the purpose wasto wholly destroy the opinion category. It was fought out of existent subjugation and non merely thefear that it might happen.
At the clip of the Gallic Revolution, society was still based on a system offeudalism dating back centuries. The citizens of France did non see equality. Thenobility were highly affluent and going wealthier. The provincials were reduced toextreme poorness in an effort by the sovereign and Lords to construct up greater wealth forthemselves. There was no in-between category or working category in France. The suppressed farmerswere overwhelmed with higher and higher revenue enhancements and were ready for a revolution withouthaving to be propagandized into it.
1 The Gallic Revolution occurred out of a basic demand tooverthrow dictatorship. The American Revolutionists found it comparatively easier to contend against the Englishgovernment because they did non experience an utmost trueness to their? female parent state? . First, they were on an wholly different continent and separated by the Atlantic Ocean from theirempire.
Second, the American settlers were comprised of immigrants non merely from GreatBritain, but from all European states every bit good. The settlers of other nationalities, quiteobviously, felt no trueness whatsoever to King George the Third, Parliament, or Britain.Therefore the settlers did non hold to get the better of faithless feelings in their battle forindependence. The Gallic Revolution, conversely, was a affair of the immediate topics rebellingagainst their authorities. The laden and the oppressors were of one state, livingtogether on one dirt. The Gallic Revolution had to cover with feelings of being traitoroustoward their state while arising against it. The American and Gallic Revolutions differed in the government of the? new? state during and after their revolutions. The Americans were much better equipped tohandle the job faced in regulating a freshly organizing democracy.
The settlements hadpractically been autonomous before the war, with their ain political functionaries. It wasrelatively easy, hence, for them to form 13 settlements into one incorporate state toachieve national ends. The Continental Congress had been in being since 1774 and waslater to go a precursor of the new federal authorities. Each settlement besides had their owncolonial authorities, which were adopted into the new province authoritiess. Thispre-existence of authorities prevented the freshly organizing democracy from being left unfastened to arevolutionary absolutism in America.2 The Gallic Revolution did go forth the state vulnerable to dictator control.
Therevolution overthrew the full existing authorities and left the state disorganized, withno existent leading ; in a province of pandemonium. France did non hold even the pseudo-self-governmentof the American settlements to fall back on. They had to get down from nil and construct agovernment strong plenty to regulate a volatile, altering state.
They did non win. Thenew authorities set up in Paris was weak and was overthrown within four months bycounter revolution and the Revolutionary Commune was formed.3 The American and French Revolutions both resulted in Declarations ofIndependence and Bills of Rights. The American version primarily dealt with the creation ofnew government power once the authority of England was abolished.
It was a constitutionof political freedom. It was based on the Protestant belief that men need government in orderto control their badness. The French Bill of Rights proclaimed that every man, by birth, was entitled to certainrights independent of the government; it then reiterates these rights to all French citizens.The French constitution encompasses the theory that men are good outside society, which isbasically a Catholic belief. Their constitution dealt with human rights. This wasn?t strongenough to govern by; for by definition the government wrote itself to be unconstitutional andleft itself no authority. They were trying to found their new government on principles and tohave the government as an agent and not as a master. Both the French and American revolutions opened the way for capitalism in thesecountries.
Prior to the American Revolution, England had handled all colonial trade; theirtrading patterns were subject to British controls. Most American merchants grewaccustomed to this system and depended on it. During and following the revolution, theAmerican merchants had to pursue new trading opportunities to replace the ones they hadlost. Asiatic trade was opened up, new demands were created, and business grew andprospered. The war itself encouraged growth of production in America, and brought inforeign investors.4 The American Revolution provided freedom of trade and shaped thefuture for a capitalistic America. In France, capitalism?s growth was apparent in the development of middle,mercantile, class. Factories were built and industry expanded; and as a result cities becamemuch larger and more numerous.
Manufacturing provided jobs and caused rural farmworkers to move to the cities. Because there were few pre-revolution factories, all commerceand trade as a result of the expanding capitalism was also new. The French merchants hadto not only develop new products, but also methods of distribution. They were not nearly asambitious in this regard as the post-revolutionary Americans; an attitude that is still apparentin commerce today.
The American and French revolutions both quite obviously created a need for a newform of governing and law making and enforcement. The first step the French took was for each village to arm itself. This was forconfederation against unlawful tax collection as well as to provide safety for the villages.The second thing they did was to hold an election by which they elected twelve hundredthousand municipal magistrates and one hundred thousand judges.5 This new municipalpower inherited all the ruins of authority. It was what held France together in the stages offorming a new government, through the counter-revolution, and the stabilization of the newgovernment. The revolution and the chaos following it caused many differences of opinion as tohow France?s future as a nation should progress.
Three political parties were formed. Thelargest party, the Marsh party, were moderates and didn?t want any extreme actions to betaken. The Girondins party was composed of the overthrown feudalists and wealthy landowners.
The Jacobins, or Montagnards, represented Paris and its members were professionalmen put into power by lower class support. They were a form of low level communists. Theparty that finally prevailed was the Marsh party and this is still apparent in France?smoderate attitude toward government today.6 The American people did not have the same problems to face following theirrevolutionary war. Their enemy had been on foreign soil and was therefore eradicated bythe wars end; there were not two opposing sides living together. Therefore there was noanimosity to overcome and the Americans were not nearly so concerned with their personalsafety and unlawful tax collection as the French citizens.
The Americans also hadthroughout the war been governed by the continental congress and therefore did not need tohold elections to select a governing body. They just incorporated the existing system into thenew federal government. The Americans did have political parties, but these had been in existence prior to therevolution.
The two predominant parties were the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. TheFederalists stood for extreme nationalism and a strong central government. TheAnti-Federalists were opposed to the establishment of a strong national government.
7However, the Americans, in contrast to the French, did not elect just one political party topower. They elected government officials from both parties, and this practice is stillfollowed today, allowing for a more equal representation of the people by the government. The American and French revolutions were both unavoidable and necessary at thetimes when they occurred. The American Revolution was unavoidable and necessarybecause of greed and fear; and the French revolution was unavoidable and necessary becauseof unfairness and suppression and a need to make life better. The reasons each revolutionwas fought are still obvious in the each nation is today.
