The French Revolution, an Event of Epic Proportions
Discuss the significance of the French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic State on the formation of nation states in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The French revolution was an event of epic proportions. At the outset, alike the English Civil Wars, an autocratic monarch (Louis XVI) summoned Parliament, in France Estates General, in order to demand funds and prerogatives. The outcome became very similar to the English Civil Wars; the Third Estate rebelled (in England it was Parliament though), overthrew the monarchy, the King was executed, a republic was founded and kingship outlawed in the process. Nevertheless, even though the English Civil Wars and the French Revolution bear resemblances, they are very separate events; the key point is that unlike the English Civil Wars, the French Revolution created a dramatic cataclysm in the status quo, furthermore in either victory or defeat the ideal of Revolution was never spent and became a model to follow. This assignment will analyse how the revolution influenced other peoples and inspired the formation of state nation in later times.
The term Revolution is now understood as ‘a fundamental departure from any previous historical pattern’. Before the French Revolution thinkers like Aristotle would describe ‘revolution’ as a change in the nature of government (Britannica Academic Edition, ‘Revolution’, 2013, html).
‘State’ is considered the geographical area, under any government, where a nation is settled. The idea of ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ are more complex and a matter of endless scholarly-historical and sociological debate. Gellner believes nationalism is part of the process of modernisation, likewise recent; agreeing with Gellner, Breuilly adds that nationalism is built on power politics and subjected to the role played by influential individuals, like Bismarck or Garibaldi. Contrasting Classical Modernism; Hobsbawm and Anderson argue that nationalism is a cultural social construct,
The French revolution was an event of epic proportions. At the outset, alike the English Civil Wars, an autocratic monarch (Louis XVI) summoned Parliament, in France Estates General, in order to demand funds and prerogatives. The outcome became very similar to the English Civil Wars; the Third Estate rebelled (in England it was Parliament though), overthrew the monarchy, the King was executed, a republic was founded and kingship outlawed in the process. Nevertheless, even though the English Civil Wars and the French Revolution bear resemblances, they are very separate events; the key point is that unlike the English Civil Wars, the French Revolution created a dramatic cataclysm in the status quo, furthermore in either victory or defeat the ideal of Revolution was never spent and became a model to follow. This assignment will analyse how the revolution influenced other peoples and inspired the formation of state nation in later times.
The term Revolution is now understood as ‘a fundamental departure from any previous historical pattern’. Before the French Revolution thinkers like Aristotle would describe ‘revolution’ as a change in the nature of government (Britannica Academic Edition, ‘Revolution’, 2013, html).
‘State’ is considered the geographical area, under any government, where a nation is settled. The idea of ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ are more complex and a matter of endless scholarly-historical and sociological debate. Gellner believes nationalism is part of the process of modernisation, likewise recent; agreeing with Gellner, Breuilly adds that nationalism is built on power politics and subjected to the role played by influential individuals, like Bismarck or Garibaldi. Contrasting Classical Modernism; Hobsbawm and Anderson argue that nationalism is a cultural social construct,
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