compare and contrast causes of the French and Russian Revoltuions
Anna Kitamura
March 15, 2014
World History A2
938
Compare and Contrast Causes
After the scientific revolution, Enlightenment arose stressing reason, thought and power individuals had to solve problems. While Enlightenment philosophes such as Voltaire and Rousseau influenced the ideas developed during the French Revolution, Karl Marx and his book the Communist Manifesto spurred revolutionary ideas during the Russian Revolutions. Although both revolutions ended differently (France becoming a dictatorship under Napoleon and Russia becoming communist under Stalin) they had similarities as well as differences in their causes. These similar and different events leading to each revolution can be categorized in three groups; the economic group includes factors like debt and industrialization, the social group includes the workers and ideas that influenced them to revolutionize, and the political group includes how each country’s monarchy as well as wars led to revolutionary ideas. Although all these points are significant and helped cause the revolution, the most important would be the political group because the choices made by the King and Czar were the ones that influenced the revolts led by society.
France and Russia experienced similar and different economic matters that helped lead to the revolution. First of all, money was a problem in both countries because of debt. Since France helped fund the American Revolution in 1775, they were in large debt. The significance of the French helping America in their revolution came into play later on because according to the Patterns textbook on page 651, “Members of the Third Estate were inspired by the success of the American Revolution”, which showed that France’s funding for America was also a cause for the revolution. Russia was also in debt but for a different reason, with Russia, money was spent on war since they were involved in the Russo-Japanese War (1904) as well as WWI (1914) later on. Both countries’ debt
March 15, 2014
World History A2
938
Compare and Contrast Causes
After the scientific revolution, Enlightenment arose stressing reason, thought and power individuals had to solve problems. While Enlightenment philosophes such as Voltaire and Rousseau influenced the ideas developed during the French Revolution, Karl Marx and his book the Communist Manifesto spurred revolutionary ideas during the Russian Revolutions. Although both revolutions ended differently (France becoming a dictatorship under Napoleon and Russia becoming communist under Stalin) they had similarities as well as differences in their causes. These similar and different events leading to each revolution can be categorized in three groups; the economic group includes factors like debt and industrialization, the social group includes the workers and ideas that influenced them to revolutionize, and the political group includes how each country’s monarchy as well as wars led to revolutionary ideas. Although all these points are significant and helped cause the revolution, the most important would be the political group because the choices made by the King and Czar were the ones that influenced the revolts led by society.
France and Russia experienced similar and different economic matters that helped lead to the revolution. First of all, money was a problem in both countries because of debt. Since France helped fund the American Revolution in 1775, they were in large debt. The significance of the French helping America in their revolution came into play later on because according to the Patterns textbook on page 651, “Members of the Third Estate were inspired by the success of the American Revolution”, which showed that France’s funding for America was also a cause for the revolution. Russia was also in debt but for a different reason, with Russia, money was spent on war since they were involved in the Russo-Japanese War (1904) as well as WWI (1914) later on. Both countries’ debt