The French Revolution: The Aristocratic Resurgence

This chapter examines the conflict which developed in France between a reforming monarchy and a resurgent aristocracy, and traces the beginnings of the French Revolution. The French Revolution had points of resemblance to movements of the time in other countries is the central theme of this book. Like them, it arose out of circumstances characteristic of Western Civilization, and it was to merge with them, especially with the war that began in 1792, into a great struggle that no political borders could contain. From the beginning, however, there was much that was unique about the revolution in France. The French Revolution remained primarily political, but in its effects on society and social and moral attitudes it went far beyond the merely political. It changed the very nature and definition of property, and to some extent its distribution; it transformed, or attempted to transform, the church, the army, the educational system, institutions of public relief, the legal system, the market economy, and the relationship of employers and employees.