8.1.3

Analyze how the American Revolution affected other nations, especially France.
             American Revolution, the war between the American colonies and Great Britain from 1775 to 1783, led to the formation of the independent United States and impacted many of the world’s nations in various ways. There were many events that had led up to the American Revolution. These events include the Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, and The Stamp Act. In the Boston Massacre, eight soldiers killed five men who were throwing items with a mob towards them. The Boston Tea Party was where irritated Boston citizens threw tea overboard a ship to protest against tax on tea, and the Stamp Act is where the British had taxed all legal documents, licenses, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards. These two acts were put upon the colonists by Britain, for the British wanted revenue from the Americans.
             The American Revolution had led to the start of other revolutions such as the French Revolution because it had encouraged other nations to rebel against their own government. The French Revolution had approached a while after the American Revolution, which was when the colonists were trying to gain freedom from the British. The French soldiers returned from fighting in the American Revolution, bringing with them ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity after being influenced by the American Revolution. Furthermore the cause of this French Revolution was absolute monarchy and denied basic rights to people. The consequences of the French Revolution are that dominant power was emerged between bourgeois and landowning classes; in addition another effect was that the democratic ideas “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” had spread across Europe, and the nationalist ideas that spread with the democratic ideas had led to the amalgamation of Italy and Germany. During the Russian Revolution, Russian Liberals had called for a reform and because of this Czar Nicholas II became an unsympathetic and oppressive person. Another cause of the Russian Revolution would be that social classes would contradict basic rights to a large amount of the peasant class populace. Almost all of these peasants were very poor which would direct them to support liberal ideas because it would guarantee them shelter or at least healthier living conditions. After many defeats in World War I, Russia had come upon a shortage of food, fuel, and housing which made people revolt. Later on a group called the Bolsheviks took over calling themselves Communists. The effect of this Revolution is that many were killed and executed like every other revolution as an outraged Lenin said, “How can you make a revolution without executions?” An additional effect is that Russia’s government was the first to be based on the writings of Karl Marx. Also, when Lenin and Communists took over a majority of the Old Russian Empire, they named it the Soviet Union. Finally, the Communists had improved basic living conditions like they promised, but miserably failed to acquire a government of equal rights and participation.


More Information:

   1.    http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0819666.html
          This site tells you almost everything about the French Revolution along with a bibliography.

   2.    http://www.infoplease.com/spot/russianrev1.html
          This site tells you a little summary of how the Russian Revolution started and some events that had happened.

   3.    http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/StandardDetails.cfm?StandardID=8.1
          This site tells you the listings of two professors who are experts in different parts of history and books on this question.

   4.    http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/russ/rusrev.html
          This site tells you many different links for the Russian Revolution and some quotes from the Revolution too.


Recommended Books:

   1.    Reflections on the Revolution in France
          by Edmund Burke

   2.    Six Red Months in Russia
          by Louise Bryant

   3.    Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution
          by Benson Bobrick

   4.    The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas
          by John Buchanan

   5.    The King's Trial: Louis XVI Vs. the French Revolution
          by David P Jordan

   6.    Concise History of the Russian Revolution
          by Richard Pipes