ABSTRACT
It is impossible to understand the French Revolution if its domestic aspects and developments are considered by themselves. The more its course is examined the clearer does it become that the whole of its later phase was conditioned by the great war which broke out and continued with no real period of peace for twenty-three years. We shall examine in a moment the causes of the war and the steps by which it came upon France. We must first consider the condition of the country at the time of its outbreak.
