ABSTRACT
The French Revolution of 1789 was one of those cosmic events thatreshaped the history of Europe and, beyond it, of the entire world. We might compare it in scope and consequences with fundamental technological innovations, such as the invention of agriculture in the so-called ‘Neolithic revolution’, or the industrial revolution – both processes historians have named by analogy to the events of 1789. Other developments of parallel significance might be great religious movements, such as the founding of Christianity or Islam, or the Reformation. At the beginning of the twentyfirst century, we can also see that the influence of the events of 1789 has worn well, outlasting competing revolutions, such as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Certainly, in the more limited time frame covered by this book, it would be fair to say that the French Revolution and the conflicts it brought forth set the stage for all subsequent political developments: redefining basic political concepts, formulating the fundamental issues of political life, originating the forms of political organization and representation, setting anew the scope of political participation, and, finally, via a quarter-century of warfare, violently imposing this new world on the entire European continent, in doing so changing international boundaries and the very nature of sovereign states. The effects of the revolution, however, went far beyond just the narrowly political, impinging on intellectual, social, economic, and cultural developments.
