Today I have been watching the latest Ken Burns extravaganza called The American Revolution, another PBS documentary, this one about the most important revolution in the history of mankind. We all tend to think that it was the French Revolution which was the most impactful, but I think it might be debatable based on how we define “impact”. Most people would be surprised to learn that before heading to Wall Street some fifty years ago, I almost went on to do graduate work in the field of modern revolutions…something a particular professor at Cornell encouraged me to do. That has caused me to have an ongoing interest in the overall topic and a belief in the earth-shaking aspects of how people bring about social change through upheaval.
The French Revolution (1789-1799) was, without a doubt, one of the most transformative events in world history, with impacts that still resonate today. The Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, executed King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, abolished feudalism, and ended the power of the Catholic Church over the state. It created massive social upheaval, including the Reign of Terror where thousands were executed. Eventually Napoleon emerged from the chaos, crowning himself Emperor in 1804. The Revolution’s core principles – liberty, equality, and fraternity – inspired revolutionary movements worldwide for the next two centuries. It demonstrated that ordinary people could overthrow an established order and that government legitimacy came from the people, not divine right. These ideas directly influenced independence movements in Latin America, the 1848 revolutions across Europe, and democratic movements globally. The Revolution established many foundations of modern democracy: written constitutions, separation of church and state, universal male suffrage (though inconsistently applied), nationalism as a political force, and the concept of human rights codified in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. But it also introduced darker legacies – political terror, mob violence, and the use of ideology to justify mass killing. It destroyed the old aristocratic order and created a more merit-based society. The metric system, secular education, and modern bureaucracy all emerged from Revolutionary reforms. The Revolution also unleashed nationalism (an interesting two-edged sword) and the concept of “the people” as the source of sovereignty. The Revolution inspired subsequent revolutions and reform movements for over two centuries. It established templates for political change – both democratic reform and violent upheaval. The tension between its liberating ideals and its violent excesses continues to shape political debates about revolution versus reform. The French Revolution essentially created the modern political world, establishing that governments needed popular legitimacy and that social hierarchies weren’t fixed by God or tradition but could be reimagined.
The American Revolution predated the French Revolution by a little more than a decade. It was fundamentally a war for independence from Britain, not a complete overturning of society. The colonial social structure largely remained intact afterward – same elites, same economic system, even many of the same local officials, but with decidedly more involvement of the general population. The French Revolution, by contrast, violently dismantled the entire ancien régime… the monarchy, aristocracy, church power, the feudal system. It was far more radical in reimagining society from the ground up and thereby, far less practical. In some ways, it was the American Revolution that inspired the French (Lafayette fought in both), but its impact was more limited initially. It showed a colony could successfully break from an empire, which mattered for places like Latin America later on. But the French Revolution became the template for revolutionary movements worldwide – its ideas of universal rights, popular sovereignty, and radical social transformation spread far more aggressively. When people in the 19th and 20th centuries talked about “revolution,” they usually meant the French model, not the American.
The American Revolution, while bloody as a war, didn’t produce internal mass violence or terror. The transition to the new government was relatively orderly. France descended into the Terror, civil war, and eventually Napoleonic dictatorship. This showed both the power and dangers of radical revolution – it could inspire but also horrify. America’s revolution didn’t fundamentally change daily life for most people. Property qualifications for voting remained, slavery continued (and expanded), women’s status was unchanged, and the wealthy merchant and planter classes retained power. France abolished feudalism, attacked the church, redistributed land, eliminated hereditary nobility, and at least theoretically embraced more universal ideals of equality. The reality was messier, but the intent was far more transformative. But then, many of those French ideals were, indeed, imbedded in the founding documents of the American Revolution. The U.S. Constitution became a model for stable, written constitutions with checks and balances. France went through multiple constitutions in rapid succession, but its Declaration of the Rights of Man became perhaps the most influential human rights document in history, inspiring the UN Universal Declaration.
The French Revolution created modern nationalism – the idea of “the nation” as sovereign, composed of citizens rather than subjects. This was explosive and spread rapidly. American identity was more about independence than nationalism initially, and American-style nationalism developed more gradually and can certainly be said to be emergent in today’s environment. The American Revolution stayed relatively contained (there was plenty to keep us busy on our vast and yet untapped continent)… it was about American independence specifically. The French Revolution, and especially Napoleon, actively tried to export revolution across Europe. French armies overthrew monarchies, abolished feudalism, and spread revolutionary institutions. This made it far more threatening to established powers and sparked decades of war. The American model was one of greater self-interest as the forces of commerce and expansion over indigenous lands was the focus rather than neighboring hostilities (other than those pesky Mexicans…)
Both advanced democratic ideas, but differently. America showed democracy could work in practice as a stable system of government – this was powerful but gradual in influence. France demonstrated that old orders could be completely overthrown and that popular sovereignty was a universal principle, not just for colonists seeking independence. This was more immediately explosive but also more unstable. The American model influenced constitutional republics, federalism, and gradual democratic reform. The French model became the template for revolutionary upheaval, radical social transformation, and ideological politics. Most 19th-century revolutionaries looked to France, not America.
Perhaps the key distinction was that the American Revolution was conservative in many ways – Americans fought to preserve what they saw as their traditional rights as Englishmen. The French Revolution was radical – it sought to create an entirely new social order based on reason and universal principles. America inspired other independence movements; France inspired people to completely reimagine their societies. The American Revolution created a stable democratic republic that became the world’s largest economy and a model for market-driven prosperity. The U.S. Constitution established property rights, rule of law, and limited government that enabled extraordinary economic growth. America became the center of technological innovation, from electricity and telecommunications to computers and the internet. The “American system” of capitalism, democratic institutions, and individual liberty has been widely emulated. Post-WWII, American-led institutions (IMF, World Bank, NATO, free trade agreements) created unprecedented global prosperity. The “Pax Americana” facilitated the greatest reduction in global poverty in human history, particularly in Asia. The American Revolution’s greatest contribution might be proving that a large-scale republican democracy could be stable and prosperous over time. However, American prosperity also depended on vast natural resources, geographic advantages (protected by oceans), timing (industrialization), immigration drawing global talent, and yes, the constitutional framework.
When I think of the American Revolution, I think about Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” (published January 1776), which was a revolutionary pamphlet that made the case for American independence in plain, forceful language that ordinary people could understand. It was against monarchy, against dominant connection to Britain, in favor of independence and the urgency to act, and advocated for a representative republic rather than monarchy, arguing this was the natural and just form of government where power came from the people. Paine essentially made independence seem like common sense rather than a radical, dangerous idea – which is exactly what the title promised.
That, is what the American Revolution really stands for.