The Impor­tance of the French Revolution

’ When asked what he thought of the French Rev­o­lu­tion of 1789, Chi­nese leader Zhou Enlai answered, “It is too soon to say.” ’

After high­light­ing the outer planet sig­na­ture of the period, I will step out of my astrologer-historian role into a more pure his­tor­i­cal one. The French Rev­o­lu­tion brought us the final stages in mov­ing away from medieval feu­dal­ism toward the mod­ern nation state. As Chou En Lai implied, we still deal with the consequences.

Outer Planet Highlights

Any his­to­rian of note will explain that the Revolution’s roots began with the reign of Louis XIV. Though he only ruled France in earnest, an event, Les Fron­des, a revolt of the French nobil­ity against the crown shaded his rule from the start. French knights, in other words, the nobil­ity, tri­umphant in the unof­fi­cial role of win­ning the Thirty Years War, demanded a greater say in gov­ern­ment. Even­tu­ally the upris­ing petered out. The fact to leave with cen­ters on how it influ­enced ‘Sun King’ con­trol over the noble class. He vowed never to let it con­trol the monar­chy; to do this he prac­ticed elab­o­rate schemes where nobles felt hon­ored to dress the king as he rose or oth­er­wise serve him in daily life. In doing so he empow­ered the middle-class that later beheaded his great grand­son. All of that sets up he mini-tutorial (click on the sub images below the main image). You can either save that for later and pro­ceed to the text below or fol­low the tuto­r­ial now. Either way, it adds to the narrative.

Outer Planet Charts of the French Revolution

The Rise of the Nation State

Many tomes cover the upris­ing that steered the West, and nations around the world, toward the mod­ern nation-state we now take for granted. One of the most impor­tant changes it affected we should all know is how and why this shift still echoes down to our time. In the end the French inspired pop­u­la­tions around the globe to demand from its lead­ers a national agenda, meant to serve the aspi­ra­tions of the peo­ple in the name of the state. This leap rep­re­sents a change in per­spec­tive that dates back, at least, to the Baby­lon­ian Empire, if not before. Until the con­clu­sion of the first round French Rev­o­lu­tion this author dates to the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Con­gress of Vienna, the peo­ple payed alle­giance to the monar­chy, not the state. Yes, the United States also moved along these lines, but at the time its tiny influ­ence meant lit­tle to the world. That the event occurred in France, one of the rich­est nations, if not the rich­est and influ­en­tial, shook the world to its core.

Nations and Nationalism

What is a nation? What should it stand for? What defines it? Does it stand for ideas, like in the US? Or is it defined by region? Eth­nic­ity? Who defines it and why? There is not one or even a few answers to that ques­tion. And that is the point Zhou En Lai implied. We still work out the answers every­day. What the French chose—and five gov­ern­ments since that time shows there are easy answers—was abstract con­cept over alle­giance to a per­son. Polit­i­cal lead­ers instead, even in dic­ta­tor­ships, now pay alle­giance to the peo­ple. It’s a con­cept we still work on and one of the most impor­tant changes in all of history.