Both revolutions are fundamentally based on the Enlightenment ideas of John Locke. The Declaration of Independence contains many of Lockes ideas; it is a document that states all Americans are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, in Mark S. Micale, The Western Experience: 1750 to Present Reader, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 9-12). Similarly, the French document, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, states that the French have rights to liberty, property, security, and the resistance of oppression (The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, in Mark S. Micale, The Western Experience: 1750 to Present Reader, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 13-14). Both of these documents emphasize the idea that liberty is something to which all men should be allowed. The French document was based off of The Declaration of Independence. Rather than a constitution it was a statement of principles. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was much more understated and less extensive (HIS 142 discussion,01-28-2008).
These Revolutions were fueled and instigated by the inefficiency of their governments and the oppression they placed on their people. Americans were unhappy with the Taxation from the British government. Unfair taxes were placed on the colonists for things that did not involve them. They had
Cited: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, in Mark S. Micale, The Western Experience: 1750 to Present Reader, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 13-14The Declaration of the Rights of Man and CitizenThomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence