English Revolution Dbq Analysis

Admiration for the policies instituted by the English Revolution was noted by the French as early as 1782 when the French foreign minister noted that England “in its constitution and in the establishments which it has permitted her to form, resources which are lacking to us.” (B. Stone, p. 14). The French minister further laments about English “advantages which our monarchical forms do not accord us (B. Stone, p. 14). Louis XVI’s reign of France from 1774 to 1792 was characterized by financial instability; however, the lack of wealth was not depicted in the lifestyle of Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette. Similar to English Revolution of the 1640s, France was facing the issue of taxation. In France, similar to 1640s England, the royals and the nobility were living in wealth due to an unfair tax system where only the poor paid taxes. Furthermore, two decades of poor grain …show more content…
Stone, p. 8). Until the end of their reign, both monarchs attempted to maintain their power but lost to the revolutionaries wanting a reformed government. At the end of both revolutions, the political landscape changed for each country. After a decade of Republicanism instituted by Oliver Cromwell, England returned to having a monarch but with limited powers. The Glorious Revolution led to the formation of a constitutional monarchy in England. Similarly in France, after a tumultuous decade of their own with the Reign of Terror under Maximilian Robespierre and the incompetent Directory a new leader rose in the form of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French empire. Perhaps the most glaring difference is the fact that while the monarchy still continues in a constitutional form in England, France eventually became a