Beginning in the 18th century, Europe began to go through a series of movements which

led to drastic change throughout the continent. The majority of people were living in terrible

conditions and had finally had enough of the unfair systems in which they were forced to live.

However, it was difficult to change how society functioned because of how institutionalized and

structured it was. Revolutions began taking place around the globe, and some of these, like the

American and Haitian Revolutions served as inspiration for what was to come. This also meant

that the ideology of democracy, equality, and enlightenment theory began to spread as well. The

rigidity of life shifted greatly during this period as new ideas and people became dominant in

different places. Overall though, it was through the everyday people that the old regime was

overthrown and transformed into the new order.

One of the main causes of the French Revolution was the distinction of classes. In

France, the three estates were broken up into the clergy, nobility, and then everyone else. Under

this system, the top three percent of the population owned nearly all of the land and assets and

gained all of the privileges given to the upper echelon of society while paying no taxes. This left

the burden of work and taxes on the poor people who had virtually no ability to improve their

status in society. This meant that a vast majority of people were stuck in poverty and horrible

conditions. On the other hand, the government of France was spending money they did not have.

They had entered into multiple wars, such as the Seven Years War, which they lost, and the

American Revolutionary War, and ended up in debt. Under the reign of Louis XVI and the

Bourbon Dynasty, they went completely bankrupt and had to call a meeting of the Estates

General, the parliament of France, for the first time in nearly two centuries. However, this only

brought to light how unfair the government was for the majority of the population. Even though

the Estates General had 300 representatives for the clergy, 300 for the nobility, and 600 for the
third estate, each estate was given only one vote. This meant that the bottom 97 percent were

given less power than the top 3 percent together. Abbe Sieyes called attention to this in his

writing of “What is the Third Estate?” He blatantly criticized the first two estates because they

enjoyed all of the French privileges without doing any of the real work. They are able to gain

high titles, pay no taxes, own land, and get prestigious jobs just because of their wealth, while

the third estate struggles to survive. In his text, Sieyes demands that the third estate is able to

elect their own representatives from their class, have at least the same number of representatives

as the first two estates, and have votes counted by head (number of representatives) instead of

one vote per estate. He says that each individual’s will should be worth the same as all others

which can only happen if the third estate, which is a majority of the population, receives better

representation. His work serves as a call to action for the lower and middle classes to gain the

freedoms that they should be entitled to.

This, along with the growing dissatisfaction of the bourgeoisie, city workers, and

peasants led to the creation of a new legislative body called the National Assembly, and this

entire period was known as the awakening of the third estate. The body was created in June 1789

by members of the Third Estate in France because they felt that the unfair and unequal

representation in the Estates General was oppressive to the middle and lower class. However, the

monarch and other members of the upper class did not like this, so the National Assembly was

blocked from entering the Palace of Versailles by King Louis XVI. Instead, they met in a tennis

court with the hopes of creating a new constitution for France. This was significant because this

body actually did have some power over the country and furthered the French Revolution by

giving non-nobles some ability to have a say in drafting the new French Constitution. As these

Tennis Court Meetings were taking place, the new National Assembly attempted to work and
negotiate with King Louis XVI to create a new constitution that would satisfy everyone, but this

failed and he eventually dispatched 18,000 troops on the group and fired those who sympathized

with the third estate. Previous to and during this time, France was experiencing disaster in many

other areas of life as well. There were natural disasters, such as terrible hail storms, and

economic disasters, such as heavy inflation which left around 160,000 people without jobs and

starving because of bad crops. These worsening living conditions, including the insane bread

prices and military presence, caused the french National Guard to storm Bastille in July 1789.

They wanted to gather weapons to supply their revolt. This, in turn caused the Great Fear during

the summer of 1789 in which people destroyed monarchical symbols, contracts, and records to

rid France of the oppressive system of serfdom. Fortunately, these peasant revolts mostly

damaged property, but some people were left dead after this violent period.

In response to this, the National Assembly abolished tax exemption for the nobles and

clergymen on August 4, 1789. They also published The Declaration of Rights of Men, which is a

document constructed during the revolution that lays out the rights and freedoms of French men.

It is clearly inspired by Enlightenment ideology and states freedoms of speech, religion, property,

print, and more. It is somewhat revolutionary in that it calls for rule of law, separation of powers,

and unalienable natural rights, however it fails to do so for women. Because these rights were

still exclusionary for a huge portion of the population, this shows that it truly only followed the

current thinking of the time, and was limited in how revolutionary it was because it did not

extend these rights to all people. According to Olympe de Gouges, who wrote the Declaration of

Rights of Woman, women achieved very little during the revolution. She critiqued society by

stating that humans are the only species to subordinate women, and that we should instead

mingle and work together equally as animals do in nature. At the end of the Declaration of
Rights of Woman, she says that women should take advantage of all of the changes happening

during the revolution and push for equality. Despite this, her way of thinking did not catch on for

a very long time despite her great arguments. This is not to say that women did not try to be

politically active though. In October 1789, the Women's March on Versailles took place. This

happened because the French economic crisis was worsening and Third Estate attempts at reform

by these publications were not working as they had hoped. During this, over 70 thousand women

marched from Paris to Versailles and targeted the Queen, Marie Antoinette, because they felt her

opulence and lack of aid to the poor in these troubling times was detestable. However, Marie

Antoinette was evacuated from the palace before anything could happen to her or her husband.

This event was important though because it shows the discontentment people had with the

monarchs and women beginning to participate more in political affairs. Ultimately though, men

were the only ones who made any true strides forward during the French Revolution

When the French Constitution was finished in 1790, it made major changes to the

government. It caused the king’s role to become symbolic under the system of a constitutional

monarchy, and it officially gave legislative power to the National Assembly. People could now

vote for their representatives, although this only included male property owners. On a positive

note, a policy of religious toleration for Jews and Protestants was instated. Also, the Civil

Constitution of the Clergy created a national church with elected priests. This was significant

because it helped to dismantle the system of feudalism and the ancien regime in France.

However, it did not stabilize the nation-state or fix many of the problems it had hoped to which

led to more future upheaval. Some people were not in favor of these changes, and one famous

critic, Edmund Burke, published his “Reflections on the Revolution in France” as a response. He

had an elitist view on the French Revolution and saw it as unnecessary social upheaval. He
critiqued the revolutionaries that created the National Assembly by saying that their bad

decisions were not shocking due to their lack of experience. He thought that people with

hereditary wealth were better suited for government positions than philosophers or thinkers

because they grew up in a world of politics and knew how to make better decisions. He also

thought that the revolution was a bad thing because it created anarchy and destroyed the

monarchy and the church without actually helping the economy or the poor people. He thought

that the government should not represent the will of the people because they were too passionate

and not wise or experienced enough to make their own decisions. His ideas are similar to modern

conservative ideology in that they focus on traditionalism, fundamentalism, and religion as

important aspects of life as well as chivalry and antiquity.

As people were still not satisfied with life in France, King Louis XVI attempted to escape

to Austria and Prussia in 1792 and get their aid against the revolutionaries. Because of this, the

National Assembly arrested the king and declared war against Austria and Prussia which led to

the fall of the constitutional monarchy and the start of the Radical Revolution. As a result, a

political party known as the Jacobins came to and retained power for much of 1792-1794. During

this time, they had a majority in the National Assembly and were made up mostly of young,

educated, middle class men. They were considered to have radical ideology, and were headed by

Robespierre. Under their control, France was declared a republic, and policies of universal male

suffrage and food price regulation were instated. This was significant because it showed how

enlightenment thinking was being put into practice and influencing the world, but it also showed

how this did not always work out. Under Maximilian Robespierre, the Reign of Terror began. To

start, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded by guillotine, which became the

primary form of execution. This was supposed to be humane, but it was actually an extremely
cruel public spectacle watched by the public, especially tricoteuses. He also created a

government institution known as the Committee of Public Safety in 1793. Their purpose was to

“deal with” foreign and domestic threats to the revolution. They constructed a united France

under the slogan of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, which is still used today. This also set the stage

for nationalism in France and around the world. Secular religion and the idea of a government

for the people were becoming extremely popular due to this propaganda, which helped to unite

France. In fact, they went as far as to create their own French republican calendar to show their

new, non-monarchical culture. However, this committee also arrested over 300 thousand people

and guillotined at least 40 thousand just for speaking out against the revolution. This is important

because it shows how fear ruled the people during the reign of terror, but it also helped to create

a French identity, even if it was artificially constructed.

By the end of 1794, opposition to Robespierre and his reign of terror arose in the form of

a coalition, and he and many of his allies were guillotined. After this, the Directory, a group of

conservative oligarchs, came to power between 1794 and 1799. Many of these people wanted to

return to a system of monarchy, and they reversed many reforms such as universal male suffrage

and bread price control. All the while this was happening, a poor Corsican named Napoleon

Bonaparte was working his way up in the military making territorial and scientific discoveries as

a commander in the army. Because France was warring with so many parts of Europe,

Napoleon’s military feats were extremely impressive, and he became a French hero. In 1799, he

staged a coup d’etat and became the emperor of France. One of his first moves was to establish

the Napoleonic code, in which men were considered equal, property was protected under the law,

and Catholicism was reinstated in France. In 1814 though, Napoleon was finally defeated by an

Austrian, Prussian, Russian alliance and forced to abdicate his title, and Louis XVIII took over.
He established the Charter of 1814 in which he declared all Frenchmen equal, fair trials by jury,

and government positions based on ability and not social status. This was surprisingly liberal,

and helped to appease the peasants in France. Yet, this time of relative peace began to crumble

under the differing political ideologies that were taking hold in parts of Europe. Charles X came

to power after the death of Louis XVIII in 1824. He believed in many imperialist policies, and

was extremely conservative. He put in place restrictions on voting rights and the press after

retracting the Charter of 1814. He also led colonization efforts in Algeria, and his widely

unpopular policies led to the Revolution of 1830. This revolution consisted of a coalition group

occupying the streets of Paris for three days in July of 1830. However, this was quelled rather

quickly and elections were held. Unfortunately, only upper class men could vote, and they

elected Louis Philippe who had only the interests of the wealthy in mind.

Because of the continued widespread unhappiness and instability within France, another

revolution took place in 1848. In February of that year, the national guard joined with a coalition

to force Philippe to abdicate and form the Second French Republic. Under this system, all men,

not just landowners, had the right to vote, and they abolished slavery and the death penalty.

However, the coalition now had major ideological divisions within their parliament. The June

Day Uprising took place over a few days starting on June 22 of 1848. This was a working class

revolt in France based in communist ideology. Based in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx,

these people were after a classless society where the workers owned the means of production.

These revolutionaries fought against the French army in the streets of Paris due to a lack of

military support. Ultimately, the revolution did not really succeed, but it was still important

because it proved that Marx’s political thought was spreading throughout Europe, and the idea of

more proletariat rights and equality were gaining popularity. Around 3 thousand people died and
4 thousand people were exiled as a result of the Junes Day Uprising, and new elections took

place. This was a conservative victory in the Second French Empire as seen by the fact that

Napoleon III was elected. All of the revolutions in France followed a similar path in that they

started with discontentment of the masses. The lower class typically became infuriated with the

terrible conditions they were forced to live in and the suppression of rights that they faced. So,

they would storm the streets or a major city to push for a revolution and reform. In some cases

this worked, but in others they were defeated rapidly. Usually, their success was determined by

the amount of military support they had, but ultimately any change that occurred was typically

short-lived. Some type of reform would be put in place, but it would then be reversed or not

followed through on which started the cycle all over again. This meant that France was jumping

back and forth between vastly different systems of government for a long period of time which

only added to the instability.

The greatest consequences of Revolutions in Europe were by far the constant warring,

instability, and fear. While upheaval was taking place in the highest forms of government, the

lives of the lower classes were still remaining the same. They were consistently revolting and

fighting for basic human rights while still being in no position to gain any agency in society.

They lived through many huge changes and reforms theoretically, but in reality they were never

truly given the chance to improve their conditions before they were stripped of opportunities

time and time again. In Germany, laws were created so that people, and especially student

members of Burschenschaft, could not speak out against conservatism for a time. They lived in

fear of policies from people like Otto von Bismarck who wanted to rule “by iron and blood.” In

other places, such as Italy, Austria, and Prussia, people were being discriminated against,

shunned, or forced out due to rising nationalism. Since so many rising nations, confederacies, or
empires were focused on unification and homogeneity, they wanted only members of “their”

culture. I think that the rise of nationalism may have been one of the greatest consequences of the

revolutionary period in Europe, not because of its immediate effects, but because of its

implications down the road. If nationalist ideology were not spread so much in the 19th century,

then it would not have caused the atrocities that it did in the 20th century.

In my opinion, political revolutions are not a good first choice to introduce changes in

society, but they are an acceptable last resort. I do not think people should immediately push for

revolution because they are often deadly, and can cause extreme instability within any given

society. The French were a perfect example of this because their efforts just caused them to jump

from one revolution to the next. Also, even if revolutions do result in change, it is not always the

change that is wanted. For example, the people who participated in the June Day Uprising

wanted communist ideology to be spread throughout France, but instead their revolt led to the

election of an extremely conservative man. Revolutions should only take place after all other

peaceful and democratic means have been pursued. For this reason, I think that Edouard

Bernstein was partially correct in his theory of evolutionary socialism. Although I do not agree

that socialist changes were already permeating the sectors of Europe when his work was

published, I do believe that slower reform has a better chance of lasting much longer in society

compared to radical change. When revolution is necessary though, it is important to have both

military support and a plan. In my opinion the only way to successfully introduce permanent

changes in society through revolution comes when swift action is taken, and an immediate, well

thought out system is put in place allowing for a smooth transition of power. In conclusion, many

of the French revolutions were not the best choice to create change, but some were definitely

needed to transform the ancien regime into a system they would benefit the whole.