How Did The American Revolution Affect The French Revolution

The close of the 18th century was near tensions rose higher between the third estate comprised of peasants and very low income families (which Mullaney in “The French Revolution” n.p. claims accounted for about 98% of the country’s population) and the 2nd as well as the 1st estate built up of the middle and higher wage workers/families. Estates were rigid social classes that divided the country as stated before into lower, middle, and higher income families. The American revolution just taking place sparked an idea throughout the third estate and inspired daring and new minds like Jean-Pierre Brissot. The American revolution sort let them know that they do have a say and they are able to stand up for their rights and this idea slowly turned
At the time of the Revolution’s start in 1789 King Louis the 16th was leading, although this was an over statement as he was more blindly guiding the country with a social and economical system that drove them into the ground. The economic system heavily favored the 1st and 2nd estate by adding laws that prevented them from paying taxes while on the other hand making the poorest estate pay taxes annually. According to Mullaney in “The French Revolution” while the third estate worried about taxation they also had to worry about drought which harmed basically everything including their crops as well as cattle diseases. The social system that was popular at the time, feudalism, created a pyramid style of living that again favored the 1st and 2nd Estates . Feudalism itself is when the nobles take land from the king in exchange for military service the people pledging service hold on to the land, and peasants were obligated to share their crops, do labor for the vassals in exchange for military protection. The problem was the peasants wanted to attain full rights of a land owner among many other unfair things, such as the unfair taxation, social standards, and king leaving france in shambles from recent wars. This was the breeding ground for the revolution and this was amplified by the rise
The society’s structure doomed them from the start especially since revolution and liberty was still in the air from American revolution. If there are people on the bottom as a product of their government it will not take long for people to realize the flaws in that society and that they are able to speak up on them. Once the people have concluded there is some sort of problem is a different story because like in this case the one problem has multiple smaller ones so it is hard to zero down on just one and continue the movement as unit. This movement did very well at creating change, but that change wasn’t necessarily good at making an effort for a less flawed society, though it paved the way for this ideal society. Many of the revolutionaries in this era were artist. A couple names like Jacques Louis David and of course Jean-Pierre Brissot lead this revolution by inspiring people to do what they could not do by themselves which was take a stand against the government. The French revolution was an interesting time period that raised a few fundamental questions about the societal structure of monarchy, but overall it was a great growth period for France as a