The American and French Revolution Which is More Revolutionary - Free Essay Example

Revolutions have changed the world as we know it today. In order for a revolution to occur, you need to unite a group of people around a common purpose for which you are trying to achieve. Seeing as a revolution is defined as a period or instance of significant change or radical alteration and revolutionary being defined as involving or constituting radical change according to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (6th. Ed.), this leads us to ask, what so called revolutions are actually considered to be revolutions? The two revolutions I will be discussing are the American and French revolutions. From this information, I will be providing my opinion on whether the American or French revolution is more revolutionary. To start off, lets discuss the American revolution. This revolution took place between 1765 and 1783. The patriots of America, living in the Thirteen Colonies, fought against the British for their independence. In the end, the colonies gained their independence, signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776 on July 4th, thus serving their political connections to the British. The benefits shown from this revolution were mainly the improvement of property and more equality. For the French revolution, this event took place in 1789 until 1799, lasting 10 years. The people residing in France overthrew the monarchy to take control of the government and abolish monarchy all together. They wanted to establish something other than a monarchy such as the First Republic of France. This republic was established in 1792 on September 22. Later, an emperor named Napoleon Bonaparte established not a revival of the monarchy, instead he established himself as the leader or an authoritarian, autocratic, and centralized republican government. The benefits shown from this revolution was an overthrow of an absolute monarchy, an emergence of the middle class, and rights to vote. There some similarities and dif ferences that Id like to point out between these two wars, there are far more difference than similarities Ill say. The main similarity between these two revolutions were that they both wanted a change from being ruled by an absolute ruler. America was attempting to gain freedom the rules and taxes put on them by Great Britain. Whereas the French wanted an abolishment of the French monarchy and wanted to establish a government in which the people could have more of a say in society. The differences between these two, where that all in all, the American revolution was seen as a more positive revolution while the French revolution was seen as a bad one. It was also seen that the American revolution ultimately never had an aristocracy and never attempted to change the polarization of wealth, while the French revolution was aimed at the universality of its ideals. The French were establishing laws made by citizens for the citizens and not by the king or gods and that those laws where to be applied to all citizens equally. After consulting my two choices, I have deemed that the French revolution is considered to be more revolutionary. Although this revolution was not as organized and far more brutal, this does not change the fact that this revolution provided and encouraged a more radical thought of revolution. When you compare the two, American and French, the American revolution didnt inspire as much of a radical thought of change as the French. You could even go as far as to say that the American revolution was just a secession and not really a revolution seeing as the 13 Colonies wanted to break away from the British rule. The French revolution caused a total upheaval in religion, government, the position and treatment of classes, and more. It was a complete revolution in my opinion, making it more revolutionary.