French Revolution

France became governed by people who considered themselves revolutionaries, and acknowledged the inspiration of the principles which were established in 1789. Principles such as the abolishment of the feudal system, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, were seen as the most effective means of protecting peoples rights of liberty, property and security. The ideas of these principles were not new, the foundation of them could be traced back to the Enlightenment and even further. By the 1780s these two principles were political commonplace and acknowledged by all literate groups. They indeed expressed the politically consensus that was found in the cahiers of all three orders. The abolishment of the feudal governmental system was the acknowledgement of the need to conciliate the peasantry. It effectively transformed the character of property within France, iv hence increasing the power and rights of the public authority. The absolute monarchy and divine right of the kings were gone forever. Despite the fact that there would be kings and emperors crowned once again in France, it would always remain to be ruled and governed by the will of the people, and not by their own whims. The laws are the same for all French people as legislated by a freely elected assembly and enforced by an independent court system. Before 1789 a positive, self-conscious political outlook was unknown. By 1793, a new revolutionary ideology led to attacks on the principle pillars of the stability of the monarchy and, since the justification in the matter of things were no longer taken for granted v.
             Politics must take account of the social history of the French Revolution, because a substantial part of the politics was concerned with the changing social structure, such as the destruction of the absolute monarchy, the disappearance of the old society which was constructed in estates with specified rights and duties.