The American, French, and Haitian Revolutions all achieved their initial political goals with varying degrees of success, although victory sometimes meant great loss to the nations. Since the Americans faced as less opposition and social inequality than their French and Haitian counterparts, the patriots went on to defeat Great Britain and establish independence without overturning the colonial social order. Despite terrible human, monetary, and social costs, the French and Haitian revolutions were able to propel the idea of democracy and the ideal of equality far beyond the boundaries established by the American Revolution.