The origins of the Revolution of 1789 lie deep in French history; the basic outcome of the Revolution hastened the nation’s development without altering its historical direction. Begun by the ‘patricians’, as Chateaubriand remarked, the Revolution seemed to be the final episode in the aristocracy’s struggle against the Capetian monarchy, and thereby it ended the long history of the kingdom. Completed by the ‘plebeians’, it made certain the advent of the bourgeoisie. Thus it inaugurated the history of modern France, but nonetheless capped the era preceding it, for the germination of that class within the feudal world it undermined was one major aspect of a long-term development.
Neither of these features sets France apart from Europe. All European states were formed similarly, at the expense of the lords, and all were sooner or later dominated by the rising bourgeoisie. The French Revolution was not the first which benefited a middle-class—before it, two revolutions in England and one in America were landmarks in that evolution.
Viewed in the broad development of civilization, the Revolution has greater significance. After the barbarian invasions ended, a passion for conquest drove Europeans towards domination of the globe, towards discovery and control of natural forces. At the same time a bold determination to govern the economy, society, and manners grew stronger—for the welfare of the individual and the improvement of mankind. The bourgeoisie of 1789 guaranteed freedom of research to the scholar, freedom of enterprise to the producer, and at the same time undertook to rationalize the ordering of politics and society. The French Revolution denotes one step in the destiny of the Western world.
Nevertheless, as its power grew the bourgeoisie could have stepped into government without breaking with the aristocracy. In England, after the revolutions of the seventeenth century, gentlemen and bourgeois joined to share power with the king; in the United States they dispensed with the monarch by common agreement; on the continent hereditary kings, yielding to historical change during the nineteenth century, retained control and arranged compromises. In France, on the contrary, the nobility intended both to impose itself on the king and to hold the bourgeoisie down. To oppose the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie became the apostle of the equality of rights, and when popular force stepped in the Old Regime abruptly gave way. The aristocracy lost not only its privileges but also a portion of its wealth and, consequently, of its social authority. Artisans and peasants, however, supporting the ‘notables’ in their struggle, turned the same principle of equal rights upon the bourgeois, who had used it to arm themselves, and the Revolution for a time led first to political democracy and then to an embryonic social democracy.
Accelerating its development with these sharp changes, the Revolution stirred fervent hopes beyond its frontiers. It also, however, aroused violent reaction from threatened kings and aristocrats. Thus, from 1789 to 1815, the history of countries of European culture was to a large extent determined by this great event.
Its influence has not yet ceased to play a role in men’s lives. Nevertheless, if we today are for that reason inclined to view the French Revolution as one chapter in world history, the reader must not expect that feature to characterize the Revolution at the time it took place. Then, much of the world lay outside European dominion; the great civilizations which had developed under Islam and those in India, China, and Japan had not yet opened to the European spirit. The greater part of contemporary humanity was unaware of the flame that had been kindled in a small area of the world, or else did not feel its heat. The unity of the world is beginning to be realized in our time; only when it is achieved will a truly universal history begin.