The French Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

The French Revolution - Essay Example Lasting from 1789 to 1799, the French Revolution was an era of profound social and political turbulence that not only shaped the French, but also the entire trajectory of modern history. That is, the French Revolution was marked by great and revolutionary events that left a permanent mark on the history of the French and modern history; the most outstanding events of the French Revolution are the fall of powerful monarchies and churches as well as the rise of both democracy as well as nationalism. Successive years of poor harvest coupled by a serious economic crisis following a two years long war lead to the rise of deep resentment for the advantaged position of the clergy and the Aristocracy, thereby fuelling the demands for change (Eye witness to history, 2007). Enlightenment ideals were held in high esteem in this period, leading to the meeting of the Estates-General in 1989 and the announcement of the Tennis Court Oath by members of the Third Estate in the same year. These events were later followed by the assault on Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, as well as the march on Versailles, eventualities which many contemporaries consider to have set the revolution in motion. In the following years, after the rise of the revolution, different liberal assemblies were in constant struggles with right-wing supporters of the Monarch whose intent was to frustrate the reform movement; following the declaration of a republic in 1892, King Louis XVI was put to death a year later. The trajectory of the revolution was greatly influenced by a series of external threats as marked by the numerous conquests featured in the revolutionary wars including the conquest of the Italian Peninsula as well as other low lying countries and territories on the west of Rhine. Popular agitations in France eventually climaxed with the rise of