Political Factors that shape French Nationalism
By the summer of 1789, the National Assembly had made the Declaration of the Right of Man and of the Citizen. This political action was that everyone man should have equal rights and nobody was better or worse everyone was equal, this political action eventually led to the creation of the French nation based on new principles. it established France as a non-religious republic. The revolution was so powerful that other countries were in fear that people in their countries would be inspired by the revolution that people would do the same thing in their countries. Countries that were in fear sent forces to invade France and to restore power of the monarchy. But the revolutionaries fought these forces and they were successful. In 1793 the people of France had enough of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, they executed them with a guillotine and I believe that when the King and Queen got executed that was the birth of France becoming a republic. In France not everyone agreed with the way the revolution was being carried out, many people were horrified with the brutal acts that were taking place like executing the King and queen. The revolutionary leaders were fearing opposition within the country, so they began a crackdown called the Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobin's. In 1799 Napoleon emerged as a leader who united the French people and he brought order to France. Napoleon captured most of France by launching a series of wars, he was defeated by the British and their allies. He died in exile in 1821. Many people in France still to this date remember Napoleon as an inspirational leader, he modernized the government and laid the foundations for the public education. Other people remember him as a dictator whose wars cost the lives of a million French people.