The French Revolution and The Idea of The Nation

• The French Revolution in 1789 marked the age of revolution in Europe. It led to the transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens.

• The revolution proclaimed that it was the people who would make the nation and shape its destiny.

• French revolutionaries introduced (took) various steps to unite the people of France. They considered it as the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the people of

Europe from despotism by introducing

(a) A new French flag

(b) The idea of la patrie and le citoyen

(d) Uniform laws for all citizens

(e) Uniform system of weights and measures.

• Students, educated-middle classes set up Jacobin clubs to spread the ideas of revolutionaries into Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and much of Italy in the 1790s.

• Napoleon introduced many reforms to simplify the administration and to make the whole system more efficient. His revolutionaries principles were called Civil Code of 1804 usually known as the Napoleonic Code.

• This code was exported to the regions of Switzerland, Italy and Germany.

• The French armies were welcomed as a symbol of liberty in Brussels, Mainz, Milan and Warsaw.

• The people became hostile due to increased taxation, censorship, forced conscription into the French army.

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