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French Revolution: Western Europe
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One direct result of the French Revolution was the abolition of the absolute monarchy in France. The Revolution was ... responsible for destroying the feudal privileges of the nobles. Serfdom was abolished, feudal dues and tithes were eliminated, the large feudal estates were broken up, and the principle of equal liability to taxation was introduced. With the sweeping redistribution of wealth and landholdings, France became the European nation with the largest proportion of small independent landowners. Other social and economic reforms initiated during this period included eliminating imprisonment for debt, introducing the metric system, and abolishing the rule of primogeniture in the inheritance of land.
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The French Revolution is one of the most important events in modern history. It was more radical than either the English or American Revolutions, and had a far greater impact on 19th century Europe. The unthinkable fall of the Bourbons resonated throughout Europe, sparking a series of revolutions which rallied behind liberalism and nationalism. The major socialist revolutions of the twentieth century in Russia, China and Cuba were inspired the French example.
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During the 15-month interval between Louis's acceptance of the initial draft of the constitution and completion of the final draft, important changes in the relationship of forces within the French Revolutionary movement took shape. These changes were dictated, first of all, by the mood of suspicion and discontent among the disenfranchised section of the population. Wanting the vote and ... relief from social and economic misery, the nonpropertied classes steadily gravitated towards radicalism. This process, largely accelerated throughout France by the highly organized Jacobins and, in Paris, by the Cordeliers, acquired further impetus as reports circulated that Marie Antoinette was in constant communication with her brother Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor. Like most other monarchs of Europe, Leopold had afforded sanctuary to the émigrés and made no secret of his hostility to the Revolutionary occurrences in France. Popular suspicion regarding the activities of the queen and the complicity of the king were confirmed when, on June 21, the royal family was apprehended in a coach at Varennes while attempting to escape from France.
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The French Revolution was supposed to bring Western Civilization into a new era of great progress and human happiness. The modern humanistic planning committees of "the revolution" promised to use reason, (and by that they meant man-centered, humanistic reason), to bring in a new Utopia. The French Revolution was supposed to engineer human society in the same way that reasonable men engineered machines. "The machine" was now the model for human society. And the universe was a clockwork ticking along with an absent creator. This was the new glory being celebrated and lifted up in the emerging Industrial Revolution.
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During the 15-month interval between Louis’s acceptance of the initial draft of the constitution and completion of the final draft, important changes in the relationship of forces within the French revolutionary movement took shape. These changes were dictated, first of all, by the mood of suspicion and discontent among the disfranchised section of the population. Wanting the vote and relief from social and economic misery, the nonpropertied classes steadily gravitated toward radicalism. This process, largely accelerated throughout France by the highly organized Jacobins and, in Paris, by the Cordeliers, acquired further impetus as reports circulated that Marie Antoinette was in constant communication with her brother Leopold II, Holy Roman emperor. Like most other monarchs of Europe, Leopold had afforded sanctuary to the émigrés and had otherwise revealed his hostility to the revolutionary occurrences in France. Popular suspicions regarding the activities of the queen and the complicity of the king were confirmed when, on June 21, the royal family was apprehended at Varennes while attempting to escape from France.
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The French and American revolutions were the most important political events of the eighteenth century. They were ... a dramatic conclusion to the Enlightenment, and both revolutions, taken together, form a major turning point in human history. This chapter explains what these great revolutions were all The chapter begins by describing classical liberalism, the fundamental ideology of the revolution in politics. Liberalism,which had deep roots, called for freedom and equality at a cause of the American Revolution, the British effort to solve the problem of war debts, was turned into a political struggle by the American colonists, who already had achieved considerable economic and personal freedom. The American Revolution stimulated reform efforts throughout Europe. It was in France that the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism were put to their fullest test.
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