The Radical American Revolution

1521 Words7 Pages
For centuries, historians have described the French Revolution, filled with aggression, terror and human injustice, as a radical revolution. The oppression and disparity of France’s social classes caused the French Revolution to turn violent and remain mired in a monarchy ruled by despots. In contrast, the American Revolution fostered the transformation of thirteen independent colonies and their different socio-economic classes into a single unified nation. As the different people of the thirteen colonies rallied around a common goal of liberty and freedom from tyranny, the American Revolution became more and more radical. The American Revolution was more radical and had much more significance than the French Revolution because the American Revolution was a catalyst for real, historic and permanent change. The American Revolution created a new egalitarian government that was truly based on the ideals of the philosophes of the Enlightenment and would have a lasting impact on Western Civilization. The Declaration of Independence states that its citizens would fight for their “inalienable rights” of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” and “it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish” a government that deprives them of these rights and “institute a new Government”. This was radical for its time because the Founding Fathers took principles and ideas and put them into a declaration of action against the state. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” were far more than conceptual ideas during the period leading up to the American Revolution as well. In colonial times, public houses were taverns where travelers and ordinary townspeople would meet and freely discuss topics of the time. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, the topics discussed in these public houses focused on freedom from Britain and how revolution was necessary to
Open Document