The American Origin of the French Revolution

Sebastian Ottinger and Lukas Rosenberger

CERGE-EI Working Papers from The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague

Abstract: We show that the French combatants’ exposure to the United States increased support for the French Revolution a decade later. French regions from which more American combatants originated had more revolts against feudal institutions, revolutionary societies, volunteers for the revolutionary army, and emigrants from the Old Regime’s elite. To establish causality, we exploit two historical coincidences: i) originally, a French army of seven and a half thousand was ready to sail, but one-third did not; ii) among those deployed, only some regiments were stationed in New England. Only combatants exposed to New England affected the French Revolution after their return.

Keywords: institutional change; French Revolution; American War of Independence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 H1 N4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro and nep-his
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