What is French Revolution? What are its Main Effects of it?

The French Revolution of 1789 was a culmination of disastrous events of the rule of Louis the Beloved, who ruled from 1710 to 1774 (Harris & Bernier, 1987), more commonly known as Louis the Xv of France and the American Revolution of 1775, which put France on the path to revolution.

The French Revolution was also caused by Louis the Xv, grandson of Louis Xvi’s intervention in the American Revolution (Hill & Perkins, 1911). The Kingdom of France cumulated debts fighting the British during the American Revolution from 1775 to 1882.

The French Revolution was caused due to the build-up of discontent in France Since the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 (Sosin, 1957), which the French monarchy will never truly be resolved due to the popular opinion that the peace treaty was a stupid piece and the French monarchy never truly recovered.

The French Revolution was a reformist and only became genuinely violent after the execution of Louis Xvi in 1793. The legacy of the French Revolution was that it left Europe fighting over 23 years of war in the revolutionary wars and Napoleonic wars between 1792 and 1815 (Valladares, 2018).

The more damaging and main effect of the French Revolution was that it left France having five republics and two empires (“A History of Modern France. Vol. III. France of the Republics,” 1965).

Within 150 years, the French revolution stripped France of its cultural and historic legacy because the revolution was not just about governmental reform but about separating revolutionary France from the legacy of its kings that made France from a kingdom of territorial Princes into the Kingdom of France (Hallam & West, 2019).

France has never truly recovered from 1789, with the leaders who ruled France always finding the country hard to control and reform.

There is also the fact that the legacy and aftermath of the revolution pathed the way to the first world war at the begging of the 20^th century, and the British emerged from the war of the revolution the most powerful power in the international world order until the late 19^th century (Finlay, 2002).   

Bibliography

A History of Modern France. Vol. III. France of the Republics. (1965). International Affairs, 41(4), 693. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/41.4.693a

Finlay, R. J. (2002). Porter (ed.), Oxford History of the British Empire III: 19th Century; Brown and Louis (eds.), Oxford History of the British Empire IV: 20th Century; Winks (ed.), Oxford History of the British Empire V: Historiography. The Scottish Historical Review, 81(1), 157–160. https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2002.81.1.157

Harris, R. D., & Bernier, O. (1987). Louis the Beloved: The Life of Louis XV. The American Historical Review, 92(2), 426. https://doi.org/10.2307/1866692

Hill, D. J., & Perkins, J. B. (1911). France in the American Revolution. The American Historical Review, 17(1), 160. https://doi.org/10.2307/1832869

Hallam, E. M., & West, C. (2019). Capetian France 987–1328 (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Sosin, J. M. (1957). Louisburg and the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748. The William and Mary Quarterly, 14(4), 516. https://doi.org/10.2307/1918519

Valladares, K. (2018). The Great French War Book I of “The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.” Independently published.

Blog link on China Belt and Road Initiative