Most of us know a bit about the French Revolution – Napoleon was short and wore a hat, right? Instead of providing a detailed description of what and when it was, I'd like to keep it brief and focus instead on the impacts it has on contemporary society.
Many historians today look back on the Age of Enlightenment (1685-1815) as being a major cause of the French Revolution (1789-1799).
The French Revolution was centred around the goal of overthrowing the absolute Monarchy of Louis XVI and replacing it with a republic concerning the individual rights of the citizens (think, Les Misérables). These ideas of liberty and equality arose from the thinkers and philosophers of the Enlightenment (like Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu, some of whom we have discussed in the past few weeks) and some scholars view the Revolution as these ideas put into action.
The impacts of the French Revolution have been widespread, not only in France, but in Europe and beyond. Although some of France receded to previous counter-revolutionary ideals after Napoleon's downfall, these ideas had already spread across the the continent. In France, the long-term impacts of the Revolution on religion, politics, and society were profound and throughout the continent, it may be partly attributed for the spread of liberalism, the rise of Nationalism, the decline of feudalism and religious monarchies, and the rise of the principle of legal equality.
Of course, it took centuries for these ideas to be widely accepted and many surrounding countries met them with much antagonism at first, but these ideas still have profound impacts on the changing structures of many societies around the world today.
I'll leave it at that for this week and allow you guys to discover the rest for yourself.
As always, there's a lot more than what I've touched on here, so dig in and happy researching!
