Relationship between American Revolution and French Revolution Essay

Relationship between American Revolution and French Revolution - Essay Example No other revolution that occurred either in Europe or in Americas during that period could be compared to the French Revolution in terms of violence (Doyle 2002). The American Revolution that began in 1776 and pursued the same principles of the natural human rights the French Revolution later did was over in 1787 without leaving any disgraceful legacy of terror that might be used by the participants of the French Revolution as an example to follow. Perhaps the major reason for this was that the American Revolution took place in an absolutely new country without almost any history, while the French Revolution occurred in one of the eldest European states. Consequently, the participants of the American Revolution did not have to overthrow the established aristocratic society and absolute monarchy in order to proclaim either equality of people (because they were equal) or sovereignty of their new state (the British monarch was geographically too far from them). In other words, the birth of the new society in the United States occurred without major tension. The French Revolution began in an absolutely different situation. It was a daring attempt to establish the principle of equality in the traditionally aristocratic society and cultivate political freedom in the most powerful European monarch (Doyle 2002). Economic factors played equally important role in the onset of both revolutions. The American Revolution was largely caused by the economic pressure of Britain, which was economically dependent on the colonies, but often failed to adequately justify the increasingly burden heavy burden of taxes. This problem – often termed ‘taxation without representation’ – is reported to be one of the most essential factors that eventually led to the revolutionary situation (Wood 1998). A similar situation was observed in the pre-revolutionary France where the absolute monarch kept increasing the