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The French Revolution ((フランス語:Révolution française) (:ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz)) was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, experienced violent periods of political turmoil, and finally culminated in a dictatorship by Napoleon that rapidly brought many of its principles to Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas, the Revolution profoundly altered the course of modern history, triggering the global decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history.〔Linda S. Frey and Marsha L. Frey, ''The French Revolution'' (2004), Foreword.〕〔R.R. Palmer and Joel Colton, ''A History of the Modern World'' (5th ed. 1978), p. 341〕〔Ferenc Fehér, ''The French Revolution and the Birth of Modernity'', (1990) pp. 117-30〕 The causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War,〔Tombs, Robert and Isabelle. ''That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present''. Random House (2007) ISBN 978-1-4000-4024-7. Page 179.〕 the French government was deeply in debt and attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes. Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789. The first year of the Revolution saw members of the Third Estate taking control, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August, and a women's march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October. A central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the ''Ancien Régime''. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy. In a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution. The Revolutionary Wars beginning in 1792 ultimately featured French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and most territories west of the Rhine – achievements that had eluded previous French governments for centuries. Internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. The dictatorship imposed by the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror, from 1793 until 1794, established price controls on food and other items, abolished slavery in French colonies abroad, dechristianised society through the creation of a new calendar and the expulsion of religious figures, and secured the borders of the new republic from its enemies. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, with estimates ranging from 16,000 to 40,000.〔Matusitz, Jonathan ''Symbolism in Terrorism: Motivation, Communication, and Behavior'', p. 19〕 After the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, and significant military conquests abroad.〔Palmer, R.R. & Colton, Joel ''A History of the Modern World'' p. 393-7〕 Dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. Napoleon, who became the hero of the Revolution through his popular military campaigns, went on to establish the Consulate and later the First Empire, setting the stage for a wider array of global conflicts in the Napoleonic Wars. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution. Almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor.〔Palmer, R.R. & Colton, Joel ''A History of the Modern World'' p. 361〕 Its central phrases and cultural symbols, such as ''La Marseillaise'' and ''Liberté, égalité, fraternité'', became the clarion call for other major upheavals in modern history, including the Russian Revolution over a century later.〔Dmitry Shlapentokh, ''The French Revolution and the Russian Anti-Democratic Tradition'' (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997), p. 220-8〕 The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day. French historian François Aulard comments that: :the Revolution consisted in the suppression of what was called the feudal system, in the emancipation of the individual, in greater division of landed property, the abolition of the privileges of noble birth, the establishment of equality, the simplification of life... The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity." Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies. It became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organizing the resources of France and the lives of its citizens towards the objective of military conquest. Some of its central documents, like the Declaration of the Rights of Man, expanded the arena of human rights to include women and slaves, leading to movements for abolitionism and universal suffrage in the next century.〔Suzanne Desan et al. eds. ''The French Revolution in Global Perspective'' (2013) , pp. 3, 8, 10〕 ==Causes== (詳細はAncien Régime'' to lead to the Revolution. Rising social inequality, new political ideas emerging from the Enlightenment, economic mismanagement, environmental factors leading to agricultural failure, unmanageable national debt and political mismanagement on the part of King Louis XVI have all been cited as laying the groundwork for the revolution. The economy in the Ancien Régime during the years preceding the Revolution suffered from instability; poor harvests lasting several years and an inadequate transportation system both contributed to making food more expensive. The sequence of events leading to the Revolution included the national government's fiscal troubles caused by an inefficient tax system and expenditure on numerous large wars. The attempt to challenge British naval and commercial power in the Seven Years' War was a costly disaster, with the loss of France's colonial possessions in continental North America and the destruction of the French Navy. French forces were rebuilt and performed more successfully in the American Revolutionary War, but only at massive additional cost, and with no real gains for France except the knowledge that Britain had been humbled. France's inefficient and antiquated financial system could not finance this debt. Faced with a financial crisis, the king called an Estates General Assembly of Notables in 1787 for the first time in over a century. Meanwhile, the royal court at Versailles was isolated from, and indifferent to the escalating crisis. While in theory King Louis XVI was an absolute monarch, in practice he was often indecisive and known to back down when faced with strong opposition. While he did reduce government expenditures, opponents in the ''parlement''s successfully thwarted his attempts at enacting much needed reforms. The Enlightenment had produced many writers, pamphleteers and publishers who could inform or inflame public opinion. The opposition used this resource to mobilise public opinion against the monarchy, which in turn tried to repress the underground literature.〔William Doyle, ''The Oxford History of the French Revolution'' (2nd ed. 2003), pp.45–49, 76–77〕 Many other factors involved resentments and aspirations given focus by the rise of Enlightenment ideals. These included resentment of royal absolutism; resentment by peasants, labourers and the bourgeoisie toward the traditional seigneurial privileges possessed by the nobility; resentment of the Catholic Church's influence over public policy and institutions; aspirations for freedom of religion; resentment of aristocratic bishops by the poorer rural clergy; aspirations for social, political and economic equality, and (especially as the Revolution progressed) republicanism; hatred of Queen Marie-Antoinette, who was falsely accused of being a spendthrift and an Austrian spy; and anger toward the King for dismissing ministers, including finance minister Jacques Necker, who were popularly seen as representatives of the people.〔Doyle, ''The Oxford History of the French Revolution'' (2003), pp.73–74〕 Freemasonry played an important role in the revolution. Originally largely apolitical, Freemasonry was radicalised in the late 18th century through the introduction of higher grades which emphasised themes of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Virtually every major player in the Revolution was a Freemason and these themes became the widely recognised slogan of the revolution.〔Martin, Henri. (History of the Decline and Fall of the French monarchy ) Volume II (1866) p. 481〕 Historian Margaret C. Jacob argues: :We can relate freemasonry to the French Revolution because in the lodges of the 1770s and 1780s some of its eventual promoters and opponents can be heard discussing how society and government should be, before each would be simultaneously changed forever.〔Margaret C. Jacob, ''Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe '' (Oxford UP, 1991) p 214 (online )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「French Revolution」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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