RSS

French Revolution

Thu, Jul 24, 2008

France

Beginning of the French Revolution

In the year 1789, the French Revolution began with a private meeting of the States Generals. On 14th of July 1789, Bastille was under attack and in October, the Royal Family and Louis XVI were transferred to Paris from Versailles. On October 1791 till September 1792, a Legislative Assembly met in the face of the progress of the allied armies of Sardinia, Prussia, Holland and Austria. It was then substituted by the National Convention that announced the Republic. Later on December 1792, the King who had fled to Varennes was brought back to trail and on 21st January 1793 was executed.

In the same year, the revolutionary regime announced war on Britain for world dominance that had been passed on with the short intervals since the commencement of the reign of Mary and William. This reign continued for another 22 years. The Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee of Public Security were introduced immediately after the king’s execution. The sovereignty of Terror during which the ruling party cruelly eliminated all the impending enemies, whatever condition, age or sex, began on September 1973 and went on to last till 27th July 1794. In fact, during the last 6 weeks of Red Terror almost 1,400 people were executed in Paris itself.

On October 1795, a convention with the directory was changed in turn on 1799 it was once again changed by the Consulate. And, on May 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte went on to become the Emperor. French Revolution was not just an important incident considered in the framework of Western history, however was even likely the lone most important authority on British political, philosophical and intellectual life in the 19th century. In its earlier stage this revolution represented itself as an achievement of armed forces of explanation over those of privilege and superstition.

And, as such it was literally greeted not only by the English fundamentalists such as William Blake, William Godwin and Thomas Paine, who routinely saw it as a representative act that signified the return of humankind to the state of excellence from which it had descended. However, most of the liberals and some of the others who saw it also announced importance on Fraternity, Equality and Liberty as being equivalent to the glorious French Revolution. Moreover, some of the people like Coleridge and Wordsworth, who greeted it with eagerness has second thoughts.

On the other hand, the ancient regime of English had from the beginning allied itself strongly with Newton and Locke, the great advocates of order and reason and even Edmund Burke. However, Burke preserved that the fundamentalists who had started this French Revolution by liberating the huge unexpressed quasi-religious forces of common people in France. These people were initially interested in the downfall of their own realm and then the downfall of Europe along with the rest of the world that would be released whether it wished to be liberated or not. The great response by Thomas Paine to Burke’s work “the rights of man” emerged in the year 1791 and the dispute between fundamentalists and the conservatives raged on for several year.

This post was written by:

france - who has written 69 posts on destination-france.co.uk | French Travel News.


Contact the author

Leave a Reply