LIberty, Freedom, and Government

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Recommended: Causes and effects of French revolution

The year 1789 proved to be a pivotal and historical epoch of political upheavals, radical social movements, and the demolition of the old age monarchy in France. The Tennis Court Oath, storming of the Bastille, passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen, and a unprecedented assault on Versailles as well as the use of the guillotine defined the spirit and historical meaning of the French Revolution. Due to the significance of these political and social upsets, many stances have been taken on interpreting the revolution. The ideas formed regarding the interpretation on the causes and effects of the French Revolution are important in understanding the birth of new political ideologies that changed the landscape of European political order. Political ideologies such as conservative, liberal and revisionism have produced multiple perspectives surrounding the events of the French Revolution. This essay will present each ideology through analysis of causes and effects of the French Revolution.

The characteristics of the conservative ideology made the aristocratic and clergy members of French society hostile to the rapidly changing politics. On June 17 1789, the Third Estate drafted a constitution and created the “National Assembly” in response to being locked out of the regular meeting of the Estates Generals (Doyle, 2002). The pressure of the National Assembly forced the compliance of Louis XVI to change the votes to count individuals and not classes. This event was regarded by conservatives as anarchy and the beginnings of counterrevolutionary ideas began to be implemented in order to secure the survival of the monarchy (Osen, 1995). The conservatives wanted to return to the old order after the radical refor...

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