American, French, and Russian Revolutions

Philosophers such as Voltaire , Montesquieu , and Locke which trumpeted the revolutionary ideas of the French Revolution were also influential to the authors of the American Revolution . Karl Marx was Russia 's chief influence . These thinkers wrote about ideal states based on the injustice of the class system and the heavy concentration of power in the hands of incapable and unjust monarchs . The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was the basis upon which the French (short-lived ) Constitutional Monarchy was to rest , and it was influenced by the preceding American Declaration of

Independence and subsequent formation of the Bill of Rights . The French and American revolutions occurred contemporaneously , while the Russian occurred over a century later

In Russia and France , the class conditions were very similar . The French had three classes : the first estate belonged to the clergy - the higher clergy enjoyed wealth and deference while the lower clergy lived almost like peasants the second estate consisted of the nobility , who owned land and were very prosperous . The third estate consisted of the bourgeoisie , the artisans , and the peasants . The bourgeoisie were learned and prosperous , but had no representation in the French Assembly . The peasants were tied to the land owned by the nobles , much like the serfs in Russia . In common with the French , the Russian nobles prosperity rested upon near enslavement of the peasants . Taxation for the poor classes had become unbearable . The French third estate and the Russian serfs raged against their injustices and incited a Revolution to overthrow the oppressive government . The ideas of the French rested upon the Assembly 's Rights of Man as well as on the separation of powers advocated by Montesquieu and Locke . The Russian revolution came to be one that followed the socialist ideas of Karl Marx

The American Revolution preceded the French and influenced it , although the ideas of the French philosophers gave ideological strength to the movement . Like the French bourgeoisie , the lack of American representation in the English government led to the cry no taxation without representation ' and the outraged American forefathers declared independence from the British monarchy in to create a Republic . It is notable that all three revolutions led to the creation of a Republic although it was the constitutions of the French and American government that most resembled each other . The French and Russian Revolutions led to the execution of their monarchs

Work Cited

Spielvogel , Jackson J . Glencoe World History Book . New York McGraw-Hill , 2003

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