Specifically, what caused the American and French revolutions to occur?

Vy_lette

American: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution While there were many causes of the American Revolution, it was a series of specific events crises that finally triggered the outbreak of war.[9] In June 1772, in what became known as the Gaspée Affair, a British warship that had been vigorously enforcing unpopular trade regulations was burned by American patriots. Soon afterwards, Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts reported that he and the royal judges would be paid directly from London, thus bypassing the colonial legislature. In late 1772, Samuel Adams set about creating new Committees of Correspondence that would link together patriots in all thirteen colonies and eventually provide the framework for a rebel government. In early 1773, Virginia, the largest colony, set up its Committee of Correspondence, on which Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson served.[10] The "Intolerable Acts", as they were termed by the colonists, consisted of four laws enacted by the British parliament. [11] The first was the Massachusetts Government Act, which altered the Massachusetts charter and restricted town meetings. The second act, the Administration of Justice Act, ordered that all British soldiers to be tried were to be arraigned in Britain, not in the colonies. The third act was the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until the British had been compensated for the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party (the British never received such a payment). The fourth act was the Quartering Act of 1774, which compelled the residents of Boston to house British regulars sent in to control the area. The First Continental Congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, which declared the Intolerable Acts to be unconstitutional, called for the people to form militias, and called for Massachusetts to form a Patriot government. In response, primarily to the Massachusetts Government Act, the people of Worcester set up an armed picket line in front of the local courthouse and refused to allow British magistrates to enter. Similar events soon occurred all across the colony. British troops were sent from England, but by the time they arrived, the entire colony of Massachusetts, with the exception of the heavily garrisoned city of Boston, had thrown off British control of local affairs. Jul 17 07, 8:25 PM

Vy_lette

French: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_French_Revolution The causes of the French Revolution, the uprising that brought the regime of King Louis XVI to an end, were manifold. France in 1789, although facing some economic (and especially fiscal) difficulties, was one of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe;[1][2] only in Great Britain and the Netherlands did the common people have more freedom and less chance of arbitrary punishment. At the time Louis XVI called the Estates-General of 1789, he himself was generally popular, even if the nobility and many of the king's ministers were not.[3] Nevertheless, the ancien régime was brought down, partly by its own rigidity in the face of a changing world, partly by the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the revolution proceeded and as power devolved from the monarchy to legislative bodies, the conflicting interests of these initially allied groups would become the source of conflict and bloodshed. Jul 17 07, 8:27 PM