What Was Revolutionary About the French Revolution
What was revolutionary about the French Revolution?
Since the beginning of history itself, several and numerous people, inventions, ideologies or behaviours were immediately attached to a particular and self-explanatory concept such as revolutionary. As the time goes by its outreaching characteristics and meaning remains the same. A revolutionary is an individual who either actively participates in or advocates revolution. When used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, abrupt impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavour. The tern – both as a noun and adjective – is usually applied to the field of politics and is occasionally used in the context of science, invention or art. [1] One of the themes in modern European history which can be directly linked with this concept is the French Revolution. The main interrogation remains in “What was revolutionary about the French Revolution?” In order to answer to this question it is necessary to acknowledge the reasons or origins of the revolution, which initiated or motivated this event and finally, which was the impact and importance of it. The French Revolution is considered one of the greatest social and political upheavals in European History and its tremors can still occasionally be felt. In the popular imagination, the magical figure 1789 conjures up conflicting images of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity alongside the “tricoteuse” and the “guillotine”, of a revolution that offered individual choice and freedom, but that was transformed first into terror and subsequently the caesarism of napoleon.[2] These events continue to fascinate historians and the causes and consequences of the French Revolution continue to be a rich source of debate. The revolution started in 1789 and the exact date of its end it is still uncertain but studies believe it lasted almost ten years. [3]A series of political and social crises led up to it: widespread of popular
Since the beginning of history itself, several and numerous people, inventions, ideologies or behaviours were immediately attached to a particular and self-explanatory concept such as revolutionary. As the time goes by its outreaching characteristics and meaning remains the same. A revolutionary is an individual who either actively participates in or advocates revolution. When used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, abrupt impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavour. The tern – both as a noun and adjective – is usually applied to the field of politics and is occasionally used in the context of science, invention or art. [1] One of the themes in modern European history which can be directly linked with this concept is the French Revolution. The main interrogation remains in “What was revolutionary about the French Revolution?” In order to answer to this question it is necessary to acknowledge the reasons or origins of the revolution, which initiated or motivated this event and finally, which was the impact and importance of it. The French Revolution is considered one of the greatest social and political upheavals in European History and its tremors can still occasionally be felt. In the popular imagination, the magical figure 1789 conjures up conflicting images of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity alongside the “tricoteuse” and the “guillotine”, of a revolution that offered individual choice and freedom, but that was transformed first into terror and subsequently the caesarism of napoleon.[2] These events continue to fascinate historians and the causes and consequences of the French Revolution continue to be a rich source of debate. The revolution started in 1789 and the exact date of its end it is still uncertain but studies believe it lasted almost ten years. [3]A series of political and social crises led up to it: widespread of popular
Bibliography: • Soanes, Catherine, Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English, Oxford University Press, 2008 • Hillis, William, A metrical history of the life and times of Napoleon Bonaparte, G.P • Blanc, Louis, History of the French Revolution of 1789 – Volume 1, 1848 • Pilbeam, Pamela, Themes in modern European History 1780 – 1830, Routledge, 1995 • Baker, Keith, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, University of Chicago Press, 1987 • Gardiner, Bertha, The French revolution 1789-1795, Longmans, Green, 1893 • Lough, Muriel, An introduction to nineteenth century France, Longman, 1978 • Salvemini, Gaetano, The French Revolution, 1788- 1792, Holt, 1954 ----------------------- [1] Soanes, Catherine, Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English, Oxford University Press, 2008 [2] Hillis, William, A metrical history of the life and times of Napoleon Bonaparte, G.P. Putnam 's sons, 1896, page 48 [3] Blanc, Louis, History of the French Revolution of 1789 – Volume 1, 1848, page 480 [4] Pilbeam, Pamela, Themes in modern European History 1780 – 1830, Routledge, 1995, page 19 [5] Baker, Keith, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, University of Chicago Press, 1987, page 148 [6] Gardiner, Bertha, The French revolution 1789-1795, Longmans, Green, 1893, page 46 [7] Pilbeam, Pamela, Themes in modern European history 1780-1830, Routledge, 1995, page 22 [8] Lough, Muriel, An introduction to nineteenth century France, Longman, 1978, page 55 [9] Pilbeam, Pamela, Themes in Modern European History, New York, 1995, page 24 [10] Salvemini, Gaetano, The French Revolution, 1788- 1792, Holt, 1954, page 186