Wake up McFly!

The French Revolution took place AFTER the American Revolution. Asking whether it influenced the American Revolution is like asking whether Duran Duran influenced the Beatles. A proper question might be: Did the French Revolution influence the early American Republic? (The answer is a very big yes by the way.)

I must assume that you're trying to illustrate how many people are ignorant of basic history by asking a trick question.

This reminds me of an experiment in which a small group of university students went around asking women to sign a petition to do away with women's suffrage. The received many signatures before someone finally balked at being asked to sign a petition to deny women the right to vote. Worst of all, those who signed the petition most likely have fully functioning reproductive organs.

Lee - you may well be interested in our previous poll too, and especially in its results.

Quickly, I answered in ingnorance and was dead wrong. I don't feel this was a trick question at all (simply right or wrong, yes or no), but many, as did myself remembered not what we had be taught during our school days. How wrong of me-after only being taught Euro-historical lessons throughout school. I did however, become reinformed and so now I can answer correctly that the French Revolution did not influence the American Revolution.

From this I have also learned that is doesn't hurt to go back and research if necessary before answering aimlessly. Nothing forced me to answer prematurely without knowing. I just chose to guess. Why guess when we have resources all about us that KNOW? This leads me back to a statement I made earlier concerning a lack of leadership and that is; Those who know need to do more to show those who do not know. Even if it means taking our younger brothers and sisters by the hands and leading to show them the way. I personally care enough to do so.

The Man Show did a skit about that. I don't remember reading anything about university students doing that. If they did, they might have been influenced by the Man Show. It was a really funny episode.

However, you are very right about hoping this is a trick question. I can't believe 37% of the people that voted actually voted "yes". Sad really, and you really can't blame the people for being ignorant, you have to blame the education system.

I didn't learn the order of the two revolutions in school, but I do know it.

Some people go beyond their education, and others choose not to.

Worse, people ought to recognize when they don't know something. If you don't know, fine, no problem, just look it up or don't vote. Everyone voting yes *thinks they know* but doesn't, so there is an element of bad judgment.

- Elliot

What if one asks: "Did the American revolution influence the French revolution?" Given the order in time is right, the answer could be yes, but the extent of it is open to debate. If this extent is supposed to be implied by "influence" the answer could even be argued to be no.

Why? The two revolutions certainly had a different emphasis on the values they advanced (freedom vs. equality) and no one can argue they ran similar courses or had the same effect. So, the significance of the wrong answers is not simply that people don't know the history; that is not a big deal. It's not even that those respondents were confident in something they actually didn't know. It is that this confidence is due to and contributes to an intellectual environment that considers the French revolution, the great French revolution, as the bigger, even the biggest, event.

It is then not surprising that a big chunk thinks the "bigger event" influenced the "lesser event", despite the logical impossibility. The same goes for the other poll.

-- Cyrus Ferdowsi, http://libiran.blogspot.com

The American Revolution was in line with British values. That is why Burke supported it. For example it was not utopian.

The French Revolution was contrary to British values, and Burke wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France explaining that (it discusses, at length, a claim that the French Revolution was following some British traditions/values/ideas).

-- Elliot Temple
curicuri.us
Blog

Imagine my horror as seeing such an awkward question. I wondered if the question was really: did French revolutionary ideas influence the American Revolution? To which I think that answer is: Slightly. More so the other way around, I think. Although, Elliot rightly points out that the influence the other way was also quite limited. The interaction seems to have been mostly superficial.

the french revolution came after the american

Too Lee,

While it remains a logical impossibility, you must realize that that revolutions do not come about in a day--years and even decades does it take to gather support, furthermore, it requires the intellectuals of the time to put forth revolutionary ideas, which the philosphes later market to the public. Most of the revolutionary thinkers were French, the American slogan of "life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness" comes from Roussoues slogan, "life, liberty and pursuit of wealth," even the American constituion is a blue print of Montesquieus The Spirit of Laws. It is thus a mere conincidene that the French Revolution happened later, but all the the thought of the French revolution drove the American Revolution.

Did the American Civil War (1861-1865) influence Canada's becoming a country (1867)?

See how many people answer "yes" or "no" to that. XD