In your opinion would you say the French Revolution was influenced by the American Revolution?
The causes of the French Revolution are varied and complex, they include the bourgeoisie's growing awareness of social inequality, the rise of Enlightenment philosophy, crippling national debt, failed reforms and the increasing fear of a national famine as crop failure became rife.
The American Revolution played its most profound role economically, France had entered the war in 1778, sensing her old rival's, Britain, weakness. However, while French intervention played a major part in ensuring American victory it also placed France in massive debt. By 1783, the French national debt had ballooned to 3.3 billion Francs. This compounded the huge debt France had already amassed while fighting the Seven Years War, what had effectively amounted to a global war. The French First (clergy) and Second (nobility) Estates were reluctant to take the burden of debt in the form of taxation and instead relied on the Third Estate (the French people) to foot the bill. This would eventually be a major cause of the revolution.
There is also a school of thought that argues that the French officers and men which fought in American Revolution were politicised by the example set by the rebelling Americans with the values and aims of Enlightenment being proven and eventually coming full circle in 1789. The American's were rebelling in a distant king whose government was seen to impose unjust taxation, a situation broadly similar to the one in France in the 1780s.
I hope that's helpful, I didn't want to go into too much detail just outline the major causes. Thanks for the question.
