User:Naren Kolli/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The French Revolution (French: Révolution française) was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France from 1789 to 1799 that profoundly affected French and modern history, marking the decline of powerful monarchies and churches and the rise of democracy and nationalism.
This is the user sandbox of Naren Kolli. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot and page development space for the user and is not an encyclopedia article. Create or edit your own sandbox here. Other sandboxes: Main sandbox | Template sandbox Finished writing a draft article? Are you ready to request review of it by an experienced editor for possible inclusion in Wikipedia? Submit your draft for review! |
Date | 1789–1799 |
---|---|
Location | France |
Participants | French society |
Outcome |
|
Popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and aristocracy grew during a financial crisis following two expensive wars and years of bad harvests. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and caused the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789. The first year of the Revolution saw members of the Third Estate taking control, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August, and a women's march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October. A central event of the first stage was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules, taxes, courts and privileges left over from the age of feudalism on 4 August 1789. The next stage was dominated by struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. A republic was proclaimed in September 1792. In a momentous event that led to international condemnation, King Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793.
External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution. The Revolutionary Wars beginning in 1792 ultimately featured French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and most territories west of the Rhine – achievements that had eluded previous French governments for centuries. Internally, popular agitation radicalized the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. The dictatorship imposed by the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror, from 1793 until 1794, caused up to 40,000 deaths inside France,[1] abolished slavery in the colonies, and secured the borders of the new republic from its enemies. The Reign of Terror ended with the overthrow and execution of Robespierre and the other leading Jacobins in the Thermidorian Reaction. An executive council known as the Directory then assumed control of the French state in 1795 and held power until 1799. Dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, widely seen as the final year of the Revolution. Napoleon went on to establish the Consulate and later the First Empire, setting the stage for a wider array of global conflicts in the Napoleonic Wars.
The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution. French society itself underwent a transformation as feudal, aristocratic, and religious privileges disappeared and old ideas about tradition and hierarchy were abruptly overthrown under the mantra of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité". Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies, the spread of liberalism, nationalism, socialism and secularism, the development of modern political ideologies, and the practice of total war.[2] Some of its central documents, like the Declaration of the Rights of Man, expanded the arena of human rights to include women and slaves.[3]