French Failure and American Success During Revolutionary Times

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Both the American Revolution and French Revolution were started in order to fight against their respective political leaders in order to end monarchial rule and start republican governments. The need to set up a stable and balanced government that protected the natural rights of its citizens was the basis of these wars. Following the end of the American Revolution and the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the Americans wrote the modern Constitution of the United States, heavily based off of Montesquieu’s idea of a divided government. The French Revolution began similarly in that some members of its government believed that they were not equally represented. After the French Revolution though, the republic slowly began shifting to a totalitarian regime, first under the Committee of Public Safety and then completely under Napoleon Bonaparte .The facts show that the American Revolution was more successful in establishing a stable and long-lasting republican government that started a precedent for Europe, while the French Revolution’s republic failed to last, being turned into a totalitarian regime. Events leading up to the American and French Revolutions occurred for a similar reason: unfair representation. The people in the American colonies became progressively upset with Britain and its Parliament when they refused the colonists’ representation, while still imposing many different taxes on the colonists. Upset over this tax on one of their most valued imports, the colonists dumped all the tea into the Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party. This showed that the colonists were willing, and able, to live without depending on the British government. Also, it showed the colonists’ increasing determination for representation, even if they had to declare themselves a new nation in order to do so. In France, the Estates General was a legislative body that had

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