Rethinking the Origins of the French Revolution

The American Origin of the French Revolution

“…For example, Israel (2017) documents ample historical evidence that the American Revolution and the ideals propagated were very salient to French revolutionaries. Also, it has been recognized that, rather than being implausible, it is just very difficult to causally establish with the historical method through which channels the ideas diffused from America to France (Campbell, 2013). Regarding other measures of support for revolution and agitation against the Old Regime-such as the establishment of political society, the enlistment of volunteers for the army, and the incidence of emigration-, the present paper is (to the best of our knowledge) the first to propose a causal influence of American combatants on these outcomes.…”