Was the French Revolution influenced by the American Revolution?

Question

Supergirl, I am afraid you are incorrect. The French Revolution started in 1789. The American Revolution started in 1775.

So the American Revolution is 14 years older.

Answer 1

I don't think so, people at that time didn't know or care about what what was going on out of their own village. All that they knew was that they had nothing to eat, and that they didn't have the same rights.

Answer 2

yes it was

Answer 3

French Revolution happened before the American Revolution so I can't see how they could have been influenced by the American Revolution!!

Answer 4

I doubt it.  The French were up to their ears with Louis the XVI and not all that interested in what was going on in a country they barely knew about...

Answer 5

no ! french people ignored what happened in foreign countries ! it was a revolution caused by misery and lack of human rights !

Answer 6

Yes, and the influence was considerable.

France was captivated by the American Revolution and intellectually influenced by American leaders. Men like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson spent time in France and were lionized by French society.

The Marquis de Lafayette was only one of many young Frenchmen who saw the American Revolution as the beginning of the political implementation of the Enligthenment. His experiences as an aide to General Washington made him famous when he returned to France and he helped spread a romantic view of the American revolutionaries.

Consider that at the time of the American Revolution there had not been for more than a millenium, a state of any great size. that was not governed by a Monarch . The American Revolution demonstrated that such a state was possible, something that was not generally believed at the time.

The notion that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed" and that individual rights are a function of natural law and not granted by the state are the two most enduring and most radical ideas promulgated in the history of man. They inform every modern liberal democracy, including France, and they are quintessentially American ideas.

Answer 7

Very much so.  It is one of the ironies in history.  The French Monarchy supported the American revolution because they wanted to get back at England for what had been done to them.  The french watched with interest what went on in America.  The American revolution was not the single most important thing that made the french rise up and overthrow the monarchy and church.  But impact of the American revolution definitely played a role in this.  And the very monarchy that aided the Americans got thrown out of power.

Answer 8

french didnt know what was america lol