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French Revolution And Modern Society

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French Revolution and Modern Society
The French Revolution from the years 1789-1815 was a time period of radical social and political reform. Despite the large amount of fatalities, this time in history has had immense influence on that period as well as modern Western Society. Enlightened ideas, an enhanced amount of pride for one’s country, and the emergence of liberalism and conservatism paved the way for reform during that time and served as a model for current events. In essence, the French Revolution and the following Napoleonic Era produced enlightened notions, the start of the separation of church and state, the start of nationalistic ideals, and the emergence of liberalism and conservatism that shaped modern history.
In the years before the French Revolution, Catholicism was the official religion of the French state, recognizing the authority of the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Although the authority of the pope remained, the Roman Catholic Church had negotiated certain liberates that privileged the authority of the French Monarch, changing the religious views at that time. Being French inherently meant being Catholic but, by 1794, France’s churches and new religious orders were closed now and religious worship was suppressed. This whirlwind into a group of events that changed the church in France and around the world.
The eightieth century church was attacked by intellectuals of the Enlightenment period who questioned every aspect of the French government. In the time of Enlightenment, the goal was to promote reason and scientific evidence as the basis for legitimacy and less praise on the church and reasoning based solely on a higher power. While the new enlightened groups of people often appreciated the value of religion and moral social order, the Church felt the tole that this trend had and had less followers than before the French Revolution. The diverse and often heavy-handed treatment of the followers in the century made one reason for legitimacy of attacking the church as well as France’s lack of toleration for religious minorities. monasteries received a large amount of criticism where monks and nuns spent days in prayer where opponents thought they should be using the time

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