Mubarek and Louis XVI, French Revolution and Egyptian Revolution

Similarities

Louis: Absolute ruler
Mubarak: dictator

Louis: Came to power because Louis XV died
Mubarak: came to power because Anwar el-Sadat was killed

Louis: forced out of office and executed because of French revolution
Mubarak: forced out of office because of Egyptian revolution

Louis: In 1789, the National Assembly goes against the king and his people, riots start to break out around the country.
Mubarak: In 1986, riots break out against Mubarak and his government; this is the most serious riot yet.

Louis: He keeps his friends that are nobles in places of power, and never assigns someone from a lower class to a position of power.
Mubarak: Mubarak assigns is friends positions in his cabinet, like Atef Obeid.

Louis: The National Assembly is formed and begins to go against King Louis XVI.
Mubarak: The Muslim Brotherhood fights to gain more seats in the Egyptian parliament so that they can rise against Mubarak.

Louis: When he found out that the National Assembly refused to be a part of his Estates General, he said the Third Estate was no longer welcome in his Estates General.
Mubarak: When he found out his people were revolting against him, he shut down all means of communication

Differences

Louis: made peace treaties with countries far away like the United States
Mubarak: made peace treaties with neighboring countries and areas like Israel

Louis: the economy of France was deteriorating but he did nothing to change that, he only continued to tax the poor
Mubarak: in the beginning of his regime, he tried to better the economy of Egypt

Louis: He avoids meeting with leaders of countries that France normally has problems with, like England.
Mubarak: He meets with the leader of Israel in 1986, despite having previous problems with
Israel.

Louis: He was an absolute ruler and therefore did not allow for any laws to be made that could kick him out of his position as king.
Mubarak: Egypt has a parliament so the constitution was amended so that people could run against Mubarak. (2005)

2. In the French Revolution people were protesting because their government was in huge debt and instead of taxing the rich most of the taxes were being forced on the poor. The poor were forced to pay the most taxes while the top 2% were paying very little or no taxes. This caused the people of France to protest because they were being treated unfairly by the King.

In the Egyptian revolution the people were protesting because Mubarek had been ruling for 30 years and over this period of time he had become a dictator. He made it impossible for anyone else to become president and he was thinking of handing the leadership of Egypt to his son. When the people protested against Mubarek he used the police and military against them and shut down communications. The people were protesting because their rights were being taken away.

3.
French Revolution
- Marched on Versailles

- Olympe de Gouges writes a pamphlet called the Rights of Women which helps spread the word during the revolution that they deserve equal rights with men.

- Women weren’t officially allowed to take part in the revolution but they conducted most of the marches against the monarchy and because of this woman were banned from gathering in groups.

Egyptian Revolution

- Egyptian women march and protest in Tahrir square and outside the presidential palace.

- Women take part in many peaceful marches in Cairo and Alexandria despite the curfue posted by Mubarek.

- Women volunteer in Tahrir square and help by setting up makeshift utility stations and hand out food and water.

4. Many are concerned that even though Mubarek has resigned the government of Egypt will return to being ruled by a dictatorship. Right now the army has taken control of the country and set up a supreme council to rule Egypt. What the people do not want is a situation like what happened to France after it's revolution in which the Committee of public safety headed by Robespierre began executing thousands of potential "threats" to the new republic. The army says it will control the country for 6 months or until elections can be held. Hopefully Egypt will have a smooth transition into a democratic country.

5. People in the French Revolution did not have the internet so they expressed their views mostly through protesting, the printing of pamphlets and public speeches. Eventually they became violent and used guns and other weapons to revolt against Louis XVI.

The people of Egypt originally expressed their views through the internet and then they began to protest against Mubarek openly in the street. They set fire to government buildings and in some cases fought with police sent by Mubarek to stop the protests. When the internet and communications were cut off for them they gathered in Tahrir Square and refused to leave until Mubarek stepped down from power.

6. The protests are now over because Mubarek has resigned however some days were violent and protesters often clashed with riot police in the early days of the protests. Some Egyptians were killed accidentally during the protests aswell. In many cases the protesters surged through police to set fire to government buildings or to get to Tahrir square. Now that Mubarek has stepped down people are leaving the square and starting to return to normal life.

7. People are optimistic that Egypt is now heading in the right direction and that hopefully fair elections will be held and that the military will not over use it's power. After Mubarek stepped down people rejoiced in the square and the protests became like a party. Posts on twitter were saying to rejoice that Mubarek has fallen and that freedom had prevailed. In short, the people are optimistic that Egypt has been improved with the fall of Mubarek. People are celebrating on twitter with tweets in arabic that basically say, "Yay Mubarek has fallen" or tweets saying that the square is a party. Egypt is celebrating.

8. The possible outcomes that I can see for Egypt based on our study of the French Revolution are that the country has many possible paths it can go. It could end up like France, controlled by revolutionaries turned tyrants or the opposite could happen. Egypt could become a true democracy and set an example for the rest of the Arab world. The new balance of power in the Middle east could be a building block for democracy in the Arab world. Right now we can only speculate and see how events play out.