Explain How Revolutionary Was The French Revolution

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How revolutionary was the French revolution? Did the Revolution simply replace the old ruling elite with a new, bourgeois one? What were the major effects on different groups of people, including nobles, priests, peasants, urban workers, slaves and women? Those are three different questions with only partial overlap. How much attention should you give to each point? I chose to give less attention to the last. But then, the grading guidelines—by peers—don't even ask if the essay addressed the question. The closest they come is to address comprehension of the course material. Here's the essay: The collection of events commonly called the “French revolution” transformed the way of life in France, and ultimately…show more content…
All societies evolve. The distinction between revolution and evolution is largely one of scale. The biggest difference today between the United Kingdom and France is that the United Kingdom still has a symbolic monarch. This difference does not significantly affect the lives or the rights of the man in the street: the visible differences between the United Kingdom and France are predominantly cultural. But the general opinion is that the changes in the United Kingdom were not revolutionary, because they occurred over a period of 800 years of gradual change. By contrast, France changed fundamentally in the 6 years between 1789 and 1795. Even then, the changes weren't as far-going as those that happened between 1215 and today in Great Britain. So: how revolutionary was the French revolution? What was the French revolution? It's clear that there were several phases. In the summer of 1789 the structure of French government was transformed radically. The National Constituent Assembly proclaimed the abolition of feudalism only 3 weeks after the storming of the Bastille. It took only another 3 weeks for the publication of the first Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Both of these were great steps for France, worthy of being called revolutionary. But they were steps, not a complete
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