ABSTRACT
The French Revolution is one of the defining events in the emergence of what we call the modern world. The French Revolution as an essential step in the development of the modern state, introducing a remarkable array of new ideologies, forms of political organization, and types of government power. The French Revolution encouraged people to believe that they no longer had to patiently accept the hand that they had been dealt at birth, as the idea emerged that people could-and even must-control their own destinies. The most notable uprising took place in the Vendee region of western France, where Catholic peasants, aided by dissident nobles, fought a guerrilla war that was ultimately crushed by the Revolutionary Army. Social change inevitably creates new realities and new ideas, which themselves promote more change, and the French Revolution opened up entirely new possibilities, both for France and for societies everywhere.
