The French Revolution

During the reign of Louis XVI, the country of France was turned upside down in what we now know as the French Revolution. This event was in contrast to the American Revolution, in which we saw a very well thought out direction, where as the uprising in France did not have the same clear path, much less a plan to arrive at any finishing line. Although, it does provide us with a lesson that whenever we are going to engage in any large scale social transition, we have to clearly see what our goal is in order to have success. 

            Most people might have the misconception that the French Revolution was just a bunch of chaos and murder, but what they don’t realize is that from the point of view of the revolutionaries, at the onset they were moving toward a goal. During this time, France was divided into three estates or social classes, and when the Estates General was summoned to discuss the desperate financial situation of France, the Third Estate thought it the perfect time to call for more voting priority, being that they represented the vast majority of the population. Each estate got one vote, regardless of how many people that estate represented, this is why the Third Estate petitioned to get more priority. However, the other estates dodged these attempts. This resulted in the first estate breaking away and forming its own assembly, however, the other estates would not allow them to convene in the large building where the Estates General usually did, and so the first estate met in an empty indoor tennis court, where they made the famous Tennis Court Oath, pledging not to rest until they drafted a new French Constitution. After this, the French government sent troops into France to put down any revolts that might arise, but the Third Estate took offense at this, retaliating by storming the Bastille Prison. Which contrary to popular belief, was mostly symbolic as there were only seven prisoners and most were not political. The revolutionaries really only stormed the prison for the weapons inside, although in this attack several French soldiers were killed, marking the first real violence in the movement. 

            When we think about the French Revolution, we think about chaos in the streets and random violence, which to an extent is rightly so, because although things might not have been as disorderly as we sometimes picture, the type of chaos went beyond the physical, as the entire mindset of the revolution had no foundation or finishing line. The mere number of executions, imprisonments, and atrocities, committed during this time was horrific enough, let alone when Maximilien Robespierre headed a group called the Jackobites, who were so radical that they executed other revolutionaries. In the end, Robespierre was also executed and the revolution represented things that the original conspirators would be horrified at. The reason that all of this failed, was because the uprising had little foundation and no standing goal, and thus was doomed to fail from the start. This, of course, is in contrast to the American Revolution, in which they clearly wanted to be a sovereign nation. 

            The French Revolution serves as an example of the consequences of not having a plan, though today we might hear people say that it was a milestone or a great change in thinking, the truth is that it did not bear any fruit apart from death, and as soon as things cooled down, France ended up with another dictator, having lost tremendous wealth, life, and infrastructure. The lesson we can take away from this is that without a goal or plan of action as a foundation, any plan built on top will certainly come crashing down. Therefore, in life we have to be mindful of the direction we are going in and must direct our focus, and strategy in alignment with our goals in order to succeed.