Historians agree unanimously that the French
Revolution was a watershed event that changed Europe irrevocably, following
in the footsteps of the American Revolution, which had occurred
just a decade earlier. The causes of the French Revolution, though,
are difficult to pin down: based on the historical evidence that
exists, a fairly compelling argument could be made regarding any
number of factors. Internationally speaking, a number of major wars
had taken place in the forty years leading up to the Revolution,
and France had participated, to some degree, in most of them. The
Seven Years’ War in Europe and the American Revolution across the
ocean had a profound effect on the French psyche and made the Western
world a volatile one. In addition to charging up the French public,
this wartime environment took quite a toll on the French treasury.
The costs of waging war, supporting allies, and maintaining the
French army quickly depleted a French bank that was already weakened
from royal extravagance. Finally, in a time of highly secularized
Enlightenment, the idea that King Louis XVI had absolute power due
to divine right—the idea that he had been handpicked by God—didn’t hold
nearly as much water as in the past few decades.
Ultimately, these various problems within late-1700s
France weren’t so much the immediate causes of the Revolution as
they were the final catalyst. The strict French class system had
long placed the clergy and nobility far above the rest of the French
citizens, despite the fact that many of those citizens far exceeded
nobles in wealth and reputation. Moreover, these exclusive titles—most
of which had been purchased and passed down through families—essentially
placed their bearers above the law and exempted them from taxes.
In 1789,
when France’s ancient legislative body, the Estates-General, reconvened
and it became apparent that the higher-ranking classes refused to
forfeit their privileges in the interest of saving the country,
the frustration of the French bourgeoisie reached its boiling point.
The French Revolution was thus a battle to achieve equality and
remove oppression—concerns far more deep-seated and universal than
the immediate economic turbulence France was experiencing at the
time.
It may seem on the surface that the immediate results
of the French Revolution were negligible, for the next leader after
the Revolution was Napoleon, who imposed a dictatorship
of sorts, voiding the sovereign democracy of the Revolution. Nonetheless,
the Revolution won the public a number of other victories, both
tangible and intangible. No French ruler after the Revolution
dared to reverse the property and rights acquisitions gained during
the Revolution, so citizens who had purchased church land were allowed
to keep it. The new tax system remained devoid of the influence
of privilege, so that every man paid his share according to personal
wealth. Moreover, the breakdown of church and feudal contracts freed
people from tithes and other incurred fees. That’s not to say that
all was well: French industry struggled for years after the Revolution
to regain a foothold in such a drastically different environment.
On the whole, however, the French people had seen the impact they
could have over their government, and that liberating, inspiring
spirit was unlikely ever again to be suppressed.
Other European governments and rulers, however,
were not too happy with the French after the Revolution. They knew
that their own citizens had seen the power that the French public
wielded, and as a result, those governments were never again able
to feel secure in their rule after 1799.
Though there had been other internal revolutions in European countries,
few were as massive and convoluted as the French Revolution, which empowered
citizens everywhere and resulted in a considerable leap toward
the end of oppression throughout Europe.
