Conclusion

Growing out of aspirations for freedom that also inspired the Dutch, Belgians, and Poles, the revolution that shook France permanently altered the political landscape of the Western world. Between 1789 and 1799, monarchy as a form of government gave way in France to a republic whose leaders were elected. Aristocracy based on rank and birth was undermined in favor of civil equality and the promotion of merit. Thousands of men held elective office for the first time. A revolutionary government tried to teach new values with a refashioned calendar, state festivals, and a civic religion. Its example inspired would-be revolutionaries everywhere.

But the French Revolution also had its darker side. The divisions created by the Revolution within France endured in many cases until after World War II. Even now, when asked by public-opinion surveys if it was right to execute the king in 1793, most French respondents say they believe that Louis XVI was guilty of treason but should not have been executed. The revolutionaries proclaimed human rights and democratic government as universal goals, but they also explicitly excluded women, even though they admitted Protestant, Jewish, and eventually black men. They used the new spirit of national pride to inspire armies and then used those armies to conquer other peoples. Their ideals of universal education, religious toleration, and democratic participation could not prevent the institution of new forms of government terror to persecute, imprison, and kill dissidents. These paradoxes created an opening for Napoleon Bonaparte, who rushed in with his remarkable military and political skills to push France—and with it all of Europe—in new directions.