Analyzing the American Revolution and the French Revolution Essay

Analyzing the American Revolution and the French Revolution - Essay Example At face value, it might not appear as if the American Revolution in the French Revolution shares much in common. However, as a function of analyzing the commonalities and dissimilarities that these two historical occurrences share, the focus of this brief analysis will be to highlight the core commonalities that prompted both the American and French populations to actively resist the level of control that it been placed upon them by the authorities at that time; the British Empire and the French monarchy respectively. Through such an understanding and interpretation,  it is the hope of this author that the reader will gain a more informed level of appreciation for the causal factors that ultimately precipitated the rise of modern democracy within the Western world. Firstly, it must be understood that both the American Revolution and the French Revolution were partially predicated upon the economic hardships that both of these stakeholders were experiencing. In the case of the American colonies, the seven years war/French Indian war had created an economic hardship that the British Empire sought to escape from (Sherman, 2001). The most logical means through which the British Empire could pay off the massive amount of debt that it had accrued during this conflict was to raise taxes upon the colonies that it administered (Brunkhorst, nd). Naturally, unaccustomed to additional duties, tariffs, and taxes, the American population became frustrated with the hardship that living a frontier life, in addition to being expected to pay for the King’s most recent war, was too much; lending these individuals to rise up against the British overlords in the hopes that the economic situation and the overall quality/liberty that an individual could have w ithin the 13 colonies could be maximized.

Influence of Global Economics at Micro and Macro Levels Assignment

Influence of Global Economics at Micro and Macro Levels - Assignment Example The researcher states that Adam Smith’s was the idea that free trade should prevail as well as the notions that were backing nation-building policies in the support of national defense is more important than opulence. The act of navigation and the wisest of commercial regulations also made concessions to the mercantilistic policy of regulation of foreign trade. In the 1770s, Smith wrote the wealth of nations in the widespread of mercantilism and his advocacy of free trade was supported by the comparative cost theory and the cloth/wine arguments served as the foundation for what later came to be called the pure theory of trade. This theory has then made a turn to support the free trade theory and both Britain and the United States embarked upon policies allowing the extreme of one way or unilateral free trade. According to Dunkey, free trade economists often describe the goal of globalization as deep integration or the convergence of nations’ fundamental economic structu res and policy systems, extending far beyond trade or strictly economic criteria. At the start of the twenty-first century, Americans deviated from living in a national market that was depending on its own resources. The American economy was isolated from the rest of the world by border restrictions and natural barriers, such as time, distance and lack of information. Decades of trade liberalization along with innovations in telecommunication and transportation had integrated global markets – and exposed workers in high-income countries to the pressures of global competition. The superiority of an international trading system characterized by greater multilateralism and international specialization over a trading system based on protectionism, bilateralism and a division of the world into major trading blocs is by no means as clear cut today as it was a decade ago.