The Social Aspect Of American And French Revolutions

The Social Aspect of American and French RevolutionsNameInstitutional AffiliationDateThe American and the French Revolutions took place at the same time. The American Revolution is the one that took place during the last half of the 18th century when 13 states gained independence from the British and they, therefore, became the United States of America. On the other side, the French Revolution took place in 1789 to around 1799 CITATION Goo76 \l 1033 (Goodwin, 1976). The revolutions are significant in the history of the world since they brought so many changes in the society. In history, there are different revolutions that have taken place and the revolutions have helped to shape our current society. Both revolutions were initiated by the people even though they had different resolutions. As such, they were founded by the society who wanted to experience a change in the social aspect of their communities. There was a growing number of immigrants in America who led to an increase in the population of the middle and lower class. An increase in the population caused poor living conditions. On its side, after the government recognized a growth in the number of cities due to an increase in population, they increased their taxation and introduced high taxes without improving the living conditions of the people. The American people were also against the idea of being ruled by people who were a far way that is the British. They wanted independence and they began looking for new forms of authority amongst themselves. On the part of the French Revolution, it was caused by an unequal social structure that existed in the society where the lower class would do any type of work and they would also be forced to pay their taxes. One of the greatest impacts of the revolutions on the society was enlightenment. Enlightenment provided a new belief about the role of the government in promoting the lives of its people and the concept of authority. John Locke argued that the role of the government was to promote natural rights such as the right to life, right to liberty and the right to property. He also went ahead to state that the relationship between the government and the people is like a social contract which can be canceled at any period of time if one of the party violates the terms of the agreement(Pocock, 1989). He used the analogy to state that if the government fails to protect the rights of the citizens in the above filed that is life, property, and liberty, then the citizens can overthrow the government. On the French Revolution, the ideas of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire were the foundation for the creation of a limited government where citizens are the ones who chose people from amongst themselves so that they can represent them in the decision-making process in the government. The French were divided into three main social classes that are the clergy, nobles, and common people. The clergy occupied the top place and they are the ones who were running the churches, monasteries and the educational institutions in the society. They obtained large salaries from the taxes on that they obtained from the people. Even though they occupie...