During the 18th century, Great Britain was becoming increasingly more dependent on taxes gathered in the American colonies. Colonists didn't actually oppose taxation, but opposed taxes irrelevant to their own lives. The British Parliament had no interest in entertaining American complaints about the laws. Colonists, in turn, concluded that they were caught up in a corrupt, unresponsive system and that their individual liberties were under threat. The Seven Years' War had resulted in an economic recession and British merchants began demanding colonists' payments for British imports. In 1764, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed resolutions to deny Parliament's authority to tax the colonies.
A number of complex factors contributed to the French Revolution. A feudal system was in place and aristocrats still held power over peasants as they had during the Middle Ages. The young king, Louis the XVI, was a weak ruler and the government was bankrupt. In 1789, Louis charged the "Estates General," which was a type of French Parliament, with raising taxes. Adding to the frustration of the French public was the fact that the 1780s had been a period of failing harvests. The Enlightenment writer Rousseau popularized the idea that kings didn't necessarily have a divine or absolute right to rule.
Both revolutions resulted from economic hardships and from the desire to achieve independence. Images of hungry, desperate French peasants still appear frequently in Western pop culture. Centuries of French class division were called into question by Rousseau's popular pamphlets and articles, which emphasized human rights. The American Revolution, on the other hand, can be described as a byproduct of the colonists' quest for more fair taxes. The success of the American revolution and the colonists' revolt against British rule inspired and influenced the revolution in France. The French "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" appears to have borrowed from the American Bill of Rights.
Maximilian Robespierre, a member of the National Assembly and leader of the French Revolution, rose to prominence. He was ruthless in his determination to create an ideal society and a state religion. In the process, he executed both nobles and revolutionaries. His leadership, known as the "Reign of Terror," finally ended in 1794 when he was arrested and guillotined himself. The treaty signed in Paris in 1783 concluded the American Revolution successfully. Ben Franklin and John Adams brokered favorable terms for the new nation, and the entire rich region west to the Mississippi and north to the Great Lakes was added for westward expansion.