The French Revolution (1789-99) violently transformed France. What began the year 1789 as a monarchical state with a rigid social hierarchy had transformed itself ten years later into a modern entity; a nation in which the social structure was loosened and power passed increasingly to the middle classes. This was a radical transformation, akin to the changes wrought by the Russian Revolution of 1917, but it was by no means planned out to be so extreme -- or so drawn out and, ultimately, blood-drenched. This paper will seek to recount the events of the French Revolution and examine briefly the stages of its evolution from popular uprising to socio-political earthquake with implications for all of Europe.
There is considerable controversy over the causes of the Revolution. Some scholars emphasize material factors. With one out of every five Europeans being French in the year 1789, as the country's population increased, its food supplies grew short. Agricultural reform was long overdue: land had become divided into such small parcels that most non-urban Frenchmen lived close to the subsistence level. The year 1776 saw a devastating agricultural recession, which forced the landlord property owners to exploit their sources of revenue at the expense of the human condition.
Meanwhile, the past century's commercial prosperity had stimulated the growth of a monied middle class, the bourgeoisie. By the 1780s, the upper-tiers of these nouveau riche were challenging with real threat the position of the established landed aristocracy.
There was a growing discrepancy between reality and the legally-defined social structure. Under the laws of the old regime, the French distinguished men by hereditary or acquired rank -- and recognized the corporate rights of Church and Title far before considering the rights of individuals.
The weakness of the monarchy was a crucial factor behind the actual instigation of revolution. N...