The Revolution was indeed momentous, for it overthrew the Old Regime and set or reaffirmed France (and eventually other parts of Europe) on a secular, culturally democratic, politically republican and liberal economic course. Because the persons who were its prime movers defined their actions in universal themes, the French Revolution has remained ever since an inspiration and sometimes a model for revolutionary movements across the world. 8 5
But because there was at the time no clear consensus in France or the rest of Europe for this foray into modernity, the Revolution was accompanied, as is well-known, by social and economic turmoil, civil and foreign war. The (First) French Republic created by the Revolution was established in 1792 and lasted until overthrown by Napoleon in 1799, though the Revolution really had climaxed with the end of the Terror in July 1794. Ever since, the events of the Terror and certainly the imagery associated with it攖he Paris crowd, the guillotine, the figures of Robespierre and St. Just, the desecration of N么tre-Dame cathedral攈ave loomed overlarge in the literature on the topic, obscuring the accomplishments of the period and dominating the historical imagination.
http://www.historycooperative.org/journa
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catal
The first modern revolution because it changed the structure of society, rather than simply replacing the existing ruler or even the political regime, and created new ideologies to explain its course when nothing suitable could be adopted from the past. It produced the modern doctrine of nationalism, and spread it directly throughout Western Europe, something that has had enormous indirect consequences up to the present. The European wars of 1792-1815, sparked off by the French Revolution, spread both revolutionary ideas and nationalism (although the only newly free state created by the French Revolution was Haiti). The French Revolution also provided the empirical origin of modern theories of revolution, including that of Marx, as well as an important model for subsequent revolutions. Part of the reason for this was that France was pre-industrial, just as many of the countries that underwent subsequent revolutions were to be. Interpretations of the French Revolution have varied enormously, depending upon the political position and historical views of the writer.
http://www.answers.com/topic/french-revoHow did the french Revolution change life for the people?
by taking their heads off in a basket, using a guillotine, a big crowd around. and lots of drums.
