What do you think about American and French revolutions?

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The era of enlightenment has always been one of my favorite eras cover in particular American War of Independence, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars

Now I play Assassin's Creed 3, which is set during the American Revolution, I remember once I played Sid Meier's Colonization, and I wondered why the hell programmers incorporation of the European flag in to the American Flag but i had 10 years old than

France lost their colony in eastern Canada to britain during what we call the 'French and Indian war'. When the American colonists revolted against the British a few years later, it was only natural for Louis XV to give material assistance to the Americans in order to snub the English for the loss of Quebec and Acadia. In doing so, he also bankrupted France.

In return the people of France decided that if Louis XV was going to support a new form of government that did away with kings, nobility and such, that this was a good thing, so they decided to remove him and the rest of their royalty. Vive le Guillotine!

The American Revolution was not a revolution. It was a successful bid to leave the British Empire through force of arms. Very similar to what happened in Rhodesia in the 60s in that it was led by settlers and descendants of settlers rather than "natives", but different in that the Rhodesian situation did not involve direct military encounters with the British (although my memory may be faulty on this score). In that regard, the "American Revolution" may be unique or nearly so, although lessons learned from it may have to some degree led to Canada, Australia, etc. (peacefully) achieving independence later on. In retrospect, I can't honestly say whether it should have happened or not, but those who committed to it were inarguably some of the bravest men in Western history (and they were almost all well-off, with much to lose!).

So having dismissed the American Revolution as such, I will say that otherwise that revolutions universally suck, there hasn't been a single one that justified the bloodshed, loss of property, and general economic ruin that always results. The French revolution was a good example of all revolutions that followed.

Although I find it amusing that the French to this day look to the revolution as some sort of patriotic event. In fact, they have held on to some legacy such as the division of France into exactly 100 "départements" plus of course the Marseillaise. OK, on second thought there has been some good - I would say that the modern French tendency to define their nation in terms of culture rather than ethnicity and the resulting unification of French culture should be admired (but isn't) by the rest of Europe. In particular language. Throughout France, everybody seems to speak a standard form of French, including areas that traditionally spoke other languages such as Alsatian, Provençal, Breton etc. Regionalism is really very weak there (compare to Spain and Belgium!). To the extent this developed out of the revolution, then I could say the French Revolution did some good.

Two complex events, both are vast complex subjects. Both have a deep emotional meaning for the modern inhabitant of both respective countries. So its hard to respond to "what do you think about them?" (as if either was just a new pop song on the radio).

Will make a few random comments:

We Americans like to boast about how we succeeded in our Revolution, and how France got bathed in blood, and yet did not succeed in their Revolution.

But in the long run the French Revolution did succeed in producing democracy.

And in the long run we Americans had to face some unfinished business from our own revolution. The result was our Civil War which was easily comparable to the French Revolution in bloodshed and devastation ( in the first couple of battles of the Civil War more people died than died in the entire American Revolution).

The American revolutionaries were devious traitors to Britain.

I think we forgive them, though, after all this time.