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[[Image:Delacroix La liberte guidant le peuple.jpg|250px|right|La liberte guidant le peuple]]

[[Image:Delacroix La liberte guidant le peuple.jpg|250px|right|La liberte guidant le peuple]]

'''The French Revolution''' is one of the most famous revolutions in all of history.  It started out with hope and promise, but then there was a "[[Reign of Terror]]", a chaos wherein anyone could be killed at any time. At least 18,000 people were executed on the [[guillotine]], and perhaps as many as 40,000 were.  The cause was "the overthrow of religion, government and human society ...  Murder, butchery and war ... are declared by them to be completely justifiable ...."<ref>Yale President Timothy Dwight (the grandson of [[Jonathan Edwards]]), http://www.americanminute.com/index.php?date=2004-03-22&view=View</ref> Anyway the main goal of the French Revolution is the changemment of the European absolutistic system. Revolutionary ideals became the seed of Democracy and Liberalism in Europe.

'''The French Revolution''' was a 1789 revolution which is oft-quoted as the beginning of the modern era.  In fact a set of several revolutions in a period of unprecedented turmoil, it saw the rise of [[Robespierre]] and the [[Reign of Terror]], a chaos wherein thousands were [[guillotine|guillotined]] for political leanings and moderatism.  

Before the Revolution, [[France]] had three levels in its social system: The First, Second, and Third Estates.  The [[First Estate]] was about 1% of the population, but it controlled 10% of the land.  The First Estate consisted of the clergy, and they did not pay any taxes.  The [[Second Estate]] was about 2% of the population and they controlled 20% of the land.  These were the nobility, and they too payed very little taxes.  The [[Third Estate]] was everyone else, and they were badly overtaxed by the monarch.  This overtaxing was a major cause of the [[French]] Revolution.   

 

Before the Revolution, [[France]] had three levels in its social system: The First, Second, and Third Estates.  The [[First Estate]] was about 1% of the population, but it controlled 10% of the land.  The First Estate consisted of the clergy, and they did not pay any taxes.  The [[Second Estate]] was about 2% of the population and they controlled 20% of the land.  These were the nobility, and they too paid very little taxes.  The [[Third Estate]] was everyone else, and they were badly overtaxed by the monarch.  This overtaxing was a major cause of the [[French]] Revolution.   

The leaders of the Third Estate were the middle class, called the [[bourgeoisie]].  They were educated in the ideas of the [[Enlightenment]], most importantly [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]].  Rousseau's book, "The Social Contract" supported a [[direct democracy]], rather that the republican government that had been adopted in [[America]].  The social contract spoke against titles for nobility and demanded complete equality for all people.

The leaders of the Third Estate were the middle class, called the [[bourgeoisie]].  They were educated in the ideas of the [[Enlightenment]], most importantly [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]].  Rousseau's book, "The Social Contract" supported a [[direct democracy]], rather that the republican government that had been adopted in [[America]].  The social contract spoke against titles for nobility and demanded complete equality for all people.

French Revolutionary ideals, especially thanks to Napoleon, later inspired the Liberal and Democratic movements in XIX Century.

French Revolutionary ideals, especially thanks to Napoleon, later inspired liberal and democratic movements of the 19th Century.

==Chronology of the French Revolution==

==Chronology of the French Revolution==