Comparison of The American Revolution and the French Revolution

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ands of the Bastille's
former guardians were bobbing along the street on pikes. "In all," as
historian Otto Scott put it, "a glorious victory of unarmed citizens over
the forces of tyranny, or so the newspapers and history later said."11 The
French Revolution had begun.

Despite the bloodshed at the Bastille and the riots in Paris, there was
some clear-headed thinking. Mirabeau wanted to keep the Crown but restrain
it. "We need a government like England's," he said.4 The French would never
accept it though, for they hated anything to do with the English. On
October 5, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
the Citizen, a good document all right, but only if it were followed.

Twenty-eight days later, the Assembly showed they had no intention of doing
so: all church property in France was confiscated by the government. It was
the wrong way to go about creating a free society. Certainly the Church was
responsible for some abuses, but to seek to build a free society by
undermining property rights is like cut...