If we are reminded of a revolution of profound influence, which was so extensive and thorough, so thorough as to destroy the absolute monarchy in France, on a huge scale, involving the bourgeoisie and the broad masses of the people with far-reaching influence and remarkable results, then we will think of the French Revolution for the first time.
French Revolution
After all, the outbreak of the French Revolution had a profound impact on France, on European countries, and even on the world. Today, let's explore the causes and developments of the French Revolution and its enormous impact.
<h1>I. The causes of the French Revolution:</h1>
1. The economy deteriorates and natural disasters strike
The development of industry and commerce in France was hindered by various levels of the feudal system. After King Louis XVI of France came to power, he levied many taxes on the financial capitalists and industrialists in order to meet the needs of the state finances.
King Louis XVI of France
Under the influence of the feudal system, handicraft workshops could not form specialized handicraft workshops. Limited by the feudal guild system, the number of craftsmen in the factory, the number of technical apprentices, and the scale of the development of handicraft industry were strictly limited, which in turn made it impossible for the handicraft industry to develop more deeply, which hindered the development of handicraft industry in China.
Under the feudal system at that time, due to the division of feudal forces in different regions, there will be different laws and monetary systems in different administrative governance areas, which leads to commerce in different administrative regions, without a balanced and equal weight and measure, which makes it impossible for commerce between different regions to be easily linked, and it is difficult to form a common commercial network system.
Church and feudal aristocracy
Moreover, the agricultural development of France has also been squeezed layer by layer. The Catholic Church and the feudal aristocracy in the country owned a large amount of land, and in order to seek their own interests, they collected a large amount of land rent from the commoner class and frantically exploited and squeezed the wage peasants, which made the peasant class's life very poor.
Often the income of the peasant class itself is small, but they also have to pay high rent, plus they also need to pay personal income tax and poll tax to the king every year, pay a tithe tax to the church, also need to pay harsh taxes to the landlords, etc. These taxes make the peasants even in the harvest year, the peasants can get a lot of profits through hard work with crops, but the seemingly rich profits, after paying all the necessary taxes, finally there is little money left in the hands of the peasants. Long years of oppression have made the life of the peasants miserable.
The extravagant life of the aristocratic class
The luxurious and hedonistic life of the aristocratic class placed a serious burden on the financial system, and these burdens were indirectly placed on the common people. France's previous wars had consumed a great deal of military spending, which in itself had left the treasury empty. Coupled with France's participation in the American Revolutionary War, after the victory of the American Revolutionary War, France needed to pay a large amount of reparations, which added more pressure to the already very bad financial situation at home. These factors made France's financial situation at that time very bad, and the external financial debt was very serious.
In the spring of 1788, France experienced a severe drought that made French society worse. On July 13, 1788, another very severe hailstorm occurred in France, which caused the crops to be very widely traumatized, and the harvest was very dismal that year. Coupled with the severe cold of the winter of 1788 that ravaged the whole of France, when the price of grain rose rapidly, forming a large-scale famine, the government was on the verge of a deficit in the national treasury, there was simply no capacity for disaster relief, a large number of people were displaced, begging in the streets was the most common thing, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the people, and began to oppose the government, directly affecting the emergence of the French Revolution.
2. The development of the Enlightenment, the awakening of people's minds
The Enlightenment, which developed in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, directly influenced the ideological changes of the French at that time. The Enlightenment, which pointed sharp spearheads at the corrupt feudal system and the repressive Catholic Church, resonated with the French at the time. The French people at that time were eager to overthrow the corrupt feudal system, eager to get rid of the oppression of the feudal system, and hated the Relentless exploitation of the People by the Catholic Church and the shackles on people's thinking. At this time, the rational thought brought about by the Enlightenment made people see a beautiful reverie for the future, and people longed to live in a society where everyone was equal.
Enlightenment
Progressive Enlightenment thinkers, who opposed religious theism, who advocated political democracy and economic freedom. They preached freedom, equality and democracy; they opposed ignorance and authoritarianism; they inspired people to rebel against today's cannibalistic feudal system and the oppression of the Catholic Church; they preached reason, they had a strong impact on ideas, and they formed and disseminated a whole new set of ideas and ideas.
Thinker Jean Jacques. Rousseau
The progressive thinker of the time Jean Jacques. Rousseau proposed that everyone is essentially equal. He demanded a balance between rich and poor, hoping to protect the interests of those small producers. Voltaire, the main leader of the French Enlightenment, put forward political ideas against feudal absolutism and the materialist viewpoint of deism, he opposed superstition in religion and feudal despotism, he preached freedom and equality, and he strongly attacked the doctrines of those foolish people. He enlightened the minds of the people, made their minds progressive, and freed them from the shackles of the Church, which had a wide impact on French society.
Inspired by many Enlightenment thinkers, the people have made new progress. They began to realize that the hardships of their lives were caused by backward feudalism and oppressive Catholicism. Under the enlightenment of enlightenment thinkers, they gradually have the consciousness of resistance, the awakening of rebellion against their own low identity, and the awareness of safeguarding the infringement of their own interests and rights.
3. The class hierarchy is severe and the class conflict is serious.
There have always been serious class differences in France, and in terms of society as a whole, but excluding the king, there are three classes: the first is the catholic high teachers, the second is the nobility in the feudal system, and the third class is the citizens and the lower classes.
Class aristocracy
In France, although the third class can become aristocrats by buying with money, the amount is huge, the average person can hardly afford it, even if they buy the title of nobility, but in the aristocratic class is still at the end, or in a state of oppression, so fundamentally, the third class has almost no chance to turn over, the first and second classes belong to the privileged class, they have a major influence on the whole country, in a dominant position in the country.
The long-term oppression of the third class by the first and second classes has made it difficult for the economy of the third class to develop rapidly, and the living conditions of the third class are far inferior to those of the first and second classes. Faced with the country's financial crisis, Louis XVI tried to save the country's economy by getting the third class to pay more taxes.
At the national meeting, King Louis XVI tried to decide the tax increase of the third class by voting, however, the third class won the advantage of voting by a slight advantage, but King Louis XVI rebelled, using his supreme power to force the third class to pay more taxes through various means, and louis XVI later tried to mobilize the army to dissolve the parliament, which aroused the strong dissatisfaction of the people of Paris.
Thus, the people of Paris, under the leadership of the bourgeoisie, united with the masses in an armed uprising, followed by the seizure of the Bastille by the people of Paris, the success of which marked the real declaration of war on the absolute monarchy and the declaration of war on the feudal society of France, representing the determination to eradicate the feudal dictatorship.
The development of the French Revolution.
1. The people of Paris capture the Bastille.
After Louis XVI demanded a constitution to limit the king's power in the National Assembly, he realized that his political rule was in a very great crisis, so he urgently mobilized his hired army and wanted to dissolve the parliament by force. After receiving this news, the discontent reached the top, and the anger in their hearts could no longer be tolerated, and a demonstration was held.
After the bells rang in the churches of Paris the next day, the citizens and the army engaged in a scuffle, the Parisians seized a large number of weapons, and the Parisians took control of a large part of Paris that night. The Bastille, as a prison for political prisoners, is a certain commanding height in controlling Paris. After seizing many positions, the people of Paris gradually rushed to the Bastille and carried out the capture of the Bastille. After more and more people joined the Battle of the Bastille, the people of Paris finally succeeded in capturing the Bastille.
2. There was a constitutional monarchy, a Girondist ruling over the country.
After the people seized power from the government and established the National Guard, the king recognized the powers of the Constituent Assembly and its legitimate status. The constitutional monarchists, who played a major role in the Constituent Assembly, adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man. On October 1, 1791, Parliament declared France a constitutional monarchy, but this caused panic among many of the surrounding monarchies and began to form a coalition to attack France. France was defeated and invaded by the Allies, and the Jacobins launched an anti-monarchical movement that subsequently overthrew the Bourbon dynasty and overthrew the constitutionalists.
An anti-monarchical movement initiated by the Jacobins
After the people's uprising of 10 August, the Girondins gained political dominance and immediately began to suppress the Jacobins. The growing ranks of the foreign allies to the anti-French alliance made the Girondins incapable of resisting foreign invading forces. The people then launched a third uprising, which was established, under the dictatorship of the Jacobins.
After the Jacobins quelled their external troubles, they fell into civil strife, and the Thermidorian coup d'état took place. After the Thermidorians came to power, Napoleon began to carry out expeditions, and france appeared at the beginning of military power. In 1799, the Second Coalition of The British organized the Anti-French Alliance, the strength of the Anti-French Alliance gradually became stronger, and the domestic demand for the use of military power to control the development of the country, on November 9 of that year Napoleon began to appoint himself as the ruler of the ruling career.
Jacobin dictatorship
6. The revolution is finally coming to an end.
Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, and the massacre of revolutionaries by Charles X forced the people of Paris to launch the famous July Campaign and establish the July Dynasty.
<h1>Iii. The influence of the French Revolution</h1>
1. The French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy of France
The French Revolution, with the unremitting efforts of the French people, finally overthrew the feudal absolute monarchy that had long suppressed the development of the people and hindered the development of capitalism, and the people changed the absolute rule of the monarch over the country through their own strength, as well as the hierarchical distinction that the feudal system had made to the people for a long time, as well as the injustice, unequal oppression and exploitation of the people at the bottom. The people gradually and completely broke away from the feudal monarchy on the people and the development of society in the process of resistance.
2. The French Revolution spread the progressive ideas of freedom, equality and democracy
The French Revolution put into practice the freedom and equality advocated by the Enlightenment and the propagation of democracy, so that the progressive ideas of freedom, equality, and democracy were no longer limited to the advocacy of advanced Enlightenment thinkers, but truly became a normal social value. This led to the gradual ideological freedom of the feudal system from the stratification of the people, and people began to re-examine their rights.
3. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Napoleonic Code have had a profound impact on the world
The Declaration of the Rights of Man, which represents the release of a democratic consciousness, represents the awakening of the political consciousness of the French bourgeoisie and the determination to participate in politics, and has a major role to play a major role in the bourgeois consciousness of the fantasy world.
Napoleonic Code
The Napoleonic Code, which consolidated the results of the Revolution in the form of legislation, affirmed the legitimacy of bourgeois private property, broke the restrictions on class assets in feudalism, and also covered and clearly stipulated the marriage and inheritance of economic life, and later played a good exemplary role in the formulation of laws for the bourgeoisie in other European and American countries.
4. Many excellent cultural works, with this as the background, are created
As a historical event with a complex development process and a grim background, the French Revolution played a great role in the development of literature. For example, the excellent literary and artistic works that we are familiar with, such as "Les Misérables", "The Wrongdoers of the Troubled World" and "The Absolute Queen", they were all created with the French Revolution as the historical background.
《Miserable World》
(5) The French Revolution set an example for the development of the revolution in other countries
The political relations of European countries are affected by blood relations, the interaction is mixed, the French royal family has been the center of the various royal families in Europe since King Louis XIV of France ascended to the throne, the development of the French Revolution has undoubtedly caused panic to the feudal forces in other countries, and the development of the French Revolution has also set a good precedent for other countries to carry out revolutions in later generations, so that other countries have experience to learn from. The French Revolution set a good example for the revolutions of other countries.
6. The French Revolution created the conditions for the development of the French Industrial Revolution
The development of the French Revolution cleared the feudal forces from the obstacles to economic development, it promoted the awakening of the French people's thinking, and also promoted the development of education. Thus, the French Revolution created economic, cultural and political conditions for the industrial revolution. Therefore, it can be said that the French Revolution also laid the foundation for the development of the industrial revolution in the future.
The French Revolution was carried out vigorously with the active participation of the people of Paris. It broke the long-standing feudal system, established a series of theoretical systems conducive to the development of the bourgeoisie, eliminated the control of the feudal forces in France, and made people's minds have a leap-forward awakening. Its scale and influence are even more incomparable to the revolutions of other countries and regions.
The French Revolution also proved that absolute monarchy was not unshakable, and it also shaken the dictatorship of other European countries to a certain extent, inspiring the anti-feudal movement in various countries. Therefore, it can be said that the French Revolution had a very far-reaching impact on the whole world and had a very important significance.
bibliography:
The French Revolution
The Capture of the Bastille