(1789 -1799)
The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of radical social
and political upheaval in French and European history. The absolute monarchy
that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society
underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic and religious
privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from liberal political groups
and the masses on the streets. Old ideas about hierarchy and tradition succumbed
to new Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights.
The French Revolution began in 1789 with the convocation of the Estates-General
in May. The first year of the Revolution witnessed members of the Third Estate
proclaiming the Tennis Court Oath in June, the assault on the Bastille in July,
the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in
August, and an epic march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to
Paris in October. The next few years were dominated by tensions between various
liberal assemblies and a conservative monarchy intent on thwarting major
reforms. A republic was proclaimed in September 1792 and King Louis XVI was
executed the next year. External threats also played a dominant role in the
development of the Revolution. The French Revolutionary Wars started in 1792 and
ultimately featured spectacular French victories that facilitated the conquest
of the Italian peninsula, the Low Countries and most territories west of the
Rhine—achievements that had defied previous French governments for centuries.
Internally, popular sentiments radicalized the Revolution significantly,
culminating in the Reign of Terror from 1793 until 1794 during which between
16,000 and 40,000 people were killed. After the fall of Robespierre and the
Jacobins, the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795 and held
power until 1799, when it was replaced by the Consulate under Napoleon
Bonaparte.
The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution. The growth
of republics and liberal democracies, the spread of secularism, the development
of modern ideologies and the invention of total war all mark their birth during
the Revolution. Subsequent events that can be traced to the Revolution include
the Napoleonic Wars, two separate restorations of the monarchy and two
additional revolutions as modern France took shape. In the following century,
France would be governed at one point or another as a republic, constitutional
monarchy and two different empires.
