The French Revolution

The French Revolution Enlightenment ideals reflected in the French Revolution by creating Enlightenment canon of basic text, by selecting certain authors and identifying them with the Enlightenment in order to legitimize their republican political agenda. Enlightenment ideals were also reflected by Edmund Burke in which was one of the first to suggest that the philosopher of the French Enlightenment were somehow responsible for the French Revolution, and his argument was taken up, and elaborated on, by many historians, including Tocqueuille and Lord action. The philosophers undoubtedly provided the ideas. It may be that the collapse of the old regime was the consequence of other factors- economic problems, social unrest, conflicting ambitions of groups and individuals, but in the unfolding of the Revolution, what was thought, what was said, and what was advocated, was expressed in terms and categories that came from political theorists of the Enlightenment. During the Enlightenment process the French Revolution went through a series of phases, each of which almost amounted to a revolution in itself; and as the Revolutionists repudiated one policy to adopt another, more or less its antithesis, they were able to turn from one philosopher of the Enlightenment, to an alternative competing or rival theorist from the same stable. The Political impact of the French Revolution was the coming up of the two new political ideologies, Nationalism and Socialism. Nationalism rose during the French Revolution because the demands of the Bourgeois leaders of the revolution were framed as being demands that were in the interest of the people and nation. The idea of nationalism did spread and after the French revolution had the creation of a number of new modern republics or constitutional monarchies, the German states were united and the Italians states were united. Socialism was described as being in various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership. Social impacts were demonstrated through the Napoleonic code was implemented across Europe. Feudalism was dismantled by Napoleons Grande army across Europe. Germany unites and reforms its way to a modern capitalist states so as to avoid a revolution like Frances. Serfdom was also abolished across Europe. Feudal barriers to trade were removed. Cultural impacts were great writers and while doing some of the research on this assignment I learned that Balzac another writer whom writes about human comedy in which allows him to write in a realist style. His writing was known to touch the heart of the new French society and describes its dynamism. The French Revolution challenged political, social and cultural norms in European society. Politically, the governmental structure of the revolution moved from an absolute monarchy to a republic and finally to a republic and finally to an oligarchy. The Revolution also undercut the traditional society hierarchy of France, by reducing the privileges of the first (clergy) and second (nobility) estates. The Revolution had a dramatic cultural impact in terms of building nationalism. The role of the technological advancements in the French Revolution were known as the millennium clock, steam, machine boring and spinning Jenny. The millennium clock was a symbolic timekeeping invention of the mid 1700’s, the clock was able to keep track of the leap year through the addition of a special wheel. It was also used to complete the term of the century and changing of the millennium. The steam in which was a power source was carried through by James Watts, and he took the bull by the horns and developed a condenser, a double acting engine and governor to make the steam engine practical as a new energy source. The machine boring had an impact on the accuracy of many types of military armaments. An English iron worker by the name of John Wilkinson found a way to precision bore a smooth cylinder into cast iron to create a much improved cannon barrel. The spinning Jenny was found by an English spinner in which found a way to rotate eight spools of cotton at one time, instead of just one. This was an invention called the cotton gin and made American cotton available to European markets.

References
Getz, T.R. & Brooke, J.E. (2012). World history: The human experience from 1500. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

References: Getz, T.R. & Brooke, J.E. (2012). World history: The human experience from 1500. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.