ReddFeed.com

Why is the French revolution so famous and studied compared to other revolutions?

r/

Why is the French revolution the textbook example of monarchical tyranny being replaced by a republican form of government (or at least one that claims to be)?

There have been many other examples of countries replacing their old monarchic regimes with democracy…for example Prussia in 1919, and even countries like Nepal in the East. Why is the French revolution considered the most significant? Was it because of the social and cultural changes that followed the collapse of the Kingdom of France?

Comments

  1. AutoModerator Avatar
    AutoModerator

    Welcome to /r/AskHistorians. Please Read Our Rules before you comment in this community. Understand that rule breaking comments get removed.

    Please consider Clicking Here for RemindMeBot as it takes time for an answer to be written. Additionally, for weekly content summaries, Click Here to Subscribe to our Weekly Roundup.

    We thank you for your interest in this question, and your patience in waiting for an in-depth and comprehensive answer to show up. In addition to the Weekly Roundup and RemindMeBot, consider using our Browser Extension. In the meantime our Bluesky, and Sunday Digest feature excellent content that has already been written!

    I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

  2. JohnWilsonWSWS Avatar
    JohnWilsonWSWS

    Good question.

    • Because the capitalist class has a material interest in the destruction of the feudal aristocracy.
    • Because all the remaining monarchies wanted to stop it spreading.
    • Because it showed the old order would not let go of power without losing its head, literally.
    • Because the British capitalist class wanted to censor the history of their own violent civil war (1842-1853) in order to claim they offered peaceful reform as they attempted to placate the demands of the emerging mass working class. They wanted propaganda against all revolutions, especially after those damned colonials in America had just had one against (1776-1783) them!
    • Because it was the first enunciation of universal rights in Europe. The limitation of the implementation of these rights and the hypocrisy of the regime that emerged does not invalidate it.
    • Because Marx and Engels demonstrated that the French Revolution expressed the dialectical connection between the development of the productive forces and how the social relations that had previously engendered can become a barrier, but a revolution is required to remove them.
    • Because Lenin and Trotsky looked to the history of the Jacobins as a model, changing what needed to be changed, in order to oppose the counter-revolution.

    MORE …