Answer to Question #237026 in History for Kedi

Question

Do you think the rights of “equality, liberty and fraternity" in the American Revolution (c1765-1784) and the French Revolution (1789-1799) included everyone, or did it exclude some people? Discuss in relation to gender and race.

Answer 1

No. The American Revolution and the French Revolution excluded some people in the rights of equality, liberty and fraternity. This is because certain individuals were thought unfit for the New France. As a result, liberty, equality, and fraternity were to be denied to them. The Revolution also failed to live up to its own principles in foreign affairs. The peasants, who had been the most oppressed prior to the Revolution, were the Jacobins. The Jacobins were members of an influential political club during the French Revolution. They were radical revolutionaries who plotted the downfall of the king and the rise of the French Republic. They are often associated with a period of violence during the French Revolution called "the Terror."

Women were also forced to march from Paris to Versailles and stormed the palace to beg for food. They resented the excessive influence of the Paris mob on the Revolution. Their ill-advised economic policies increased hardship and suffering and created widespread opposition which threatened the survival of the revolution. One such policy was The Law of the Maximum passed in 1793 to control food prices. The Revolutions supported Robespierre in his attacks on the enemies of the Revolution and helped him resist the growing demands of the discontented workers for a controlled economy instead of advocating for equality and liberty which was their initial objective.

The French Revolution led to French government facing internal civil war and was being attacked by foreign countries meaning that the rights equality, liberty and fraternity were not observed.