Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Prior to the revolution, France was a de jure absolute monarchy, a system that became known as the Ancien Régime.In practice, the power of the monarchy was typically checked by the nobility, the Roman Catholic Church, institutions such as the judicial parlements, national and local customs and, above all, the threat of insurrection.
The French Revolution (French: Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate.
Tocqueville's contributions to the historiography of the Revolution included his extensive use of the recently opened French archives and his stress that the Revolution had multiple causes, including the King's attempts at reform: [25] "The social order destroyed by a revolution is almost always better than that which immediately precedes it ...
An eyewitness painting of the siege of the Bastille by Claude Cholat A plan of the Bastille and surrounding buildings made immediately after 1789; the red dot marks the perspective of Claude Cholat's painting of the siege. Flag of the regiment defending the Bastille. On the morning of 14 July 1789, the city of Paris was in a state of alarm.
The revolt had both economic and political causes, predating the events of the summer of 1789. As Lefebvre commented, "To get the peasant to rise and revolt, there was no need of the French Revolution, as so many historians have suggested: when the panic came he was already up and away". [2]
Storming of the Bastille on July 14 (Bastille Day), 1789. The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France from 1789 to 1799 that profoundly affected French and modern history, marking the decline of powerful monarchies and churches and the rise of democracy and nationalism. [11]
The Oxford History of the French Revolution (3rd ed. 2018) excerpt; Mignet, François, Member of the Institute of France, History of the French Revolution, from 1789 to 1814, Bell & Daldy, London, 1873. Popkin, Jeremy. A Short History of the French Revolution (2014) excerpt
The National Convention (French: Convention nationale) was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly.