French Revolution is one of the significant event in history. Not only it affect Europe, but also the world. The beginning of French Revolution was on 1789. Inequalities in society, financial crisis, and Enlightenment ideas are one of the main of the spark of the revolution.
Many people think that the French Revolution was a failure. Well, French Revolution wasn't a failure. In fact it changed a lot of things. It made people realize that they can make a change and it will also inspired and influence people in the future.
French society was divided in three states. First state was made up of clergy. They don't need to pay tax and they owned 10 percent of France land. Second state was made up of nobility. Even though they controlled much of France's wealth and were vary reach the only paid few taxes. On the other hand, the Third state was largest group, but they were up of poor people and yet they are the ones who paid the 98 percent of the country's tax.
Another reason for the French Revolution to occur was huge dept that the French had and yet the king and his court still spend lavishly. Also the king's wife Marie Antoinette had a very expensive habit. This lead France into deeply debt. King Louis XVI tried to made a solution and taxed the Second state, but because of his poor leadership the nobles refused to pay the taxed.
The Reign of Terror was created to fight the enemies of the Revolution. It's to prevent the counter-revolution and anyone who were accused to resist the Revolution were executed and put at the guillotine, it symbolizes the Reign of Terror. They believed that guillotine was less painful than the other execution method.
Many people lost their lives, even the king and queen of France were put in the guillotine which create wave of fear not only to the people of France, but also to the other country. Maximilian Robespierre was the head of the Committee of Safety during the peak of Reign of Terror. He was also executed and put into the guillotine. Reign of Terror was suppose to strengthen the Revolution, but instead it weakened it.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military leader that became French emperor and conquered much of Europe. He gained power in 1799 and crowned himself in as an emperor of France in 1804.
Napoleon was a hero. He established orders and reforms the benefited the citizen of French. For example, he built a network of high schools, universities, and technical schools to educate young men and he made the Concordat agreement with the Pope. This agreement says that most of the French citizen were Roman Catholic, but it didn't require that they have to be. He also helped spread nationalism to the people that he conquered.
Other Country's View
Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria wants to restore the balance of power and make the Europe peaceful again. Like Metternich the other diplomats also wants to make sure that the French would never become so powerful so they rewrite the map. They were worried that the people might revolt again so they wanted to erase all the traces of the Revolution and Napoleon's rule.