French Revolution


nounFrench History.
  1. the revolution that began in 1789, overthrew the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons and the system of aristocratic privileges, and ended with Napoleon's overthrow of the Directory and seizure of power in 1799.

Words Nearby French Revolution

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How to use French Revolution in a sentence

  • Among the middle class there was a strong party which had accepted the doctrines of the French Revolution.

    Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-Pattison
  • In these ideas, agitating the heart of Phlippon, behold the origin of the French Revolution.

  • Wrongs less wanton and outrageous precipitated the French Revolution.

  • The following study proposes to deal with this attack on religion that preceded and helped to prepare the French Revolution.

    Baron d'Holbach | Max Pearson Cushing
  • The French Revolution had appealed to men's selfish and personal interests, their rights, their desire for happiness.

    The Life of Mazzini | Bolton King

British Dictionary definitions for French Revolution

French Revolution

noun
  1. the anticlerical and republican revolution in France from 1789 until 1799, when Napoleon seized power

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for French Revolution

French Revolution

The event at the end of the eighteenth century that ended the thousand-year rule of kings in France and established the nation as a republic. The revolution began in 1789, after King Louis xvi had convened the French parliament to deal with an enormous national debt. The common people's division of the parliament declared itself the true legislature of France, and when the king seemed to resist the move, a crowd destroyed the royal prison (the Bastille). A constitutional monarchy was set up, but after King Louis and his queen, Marie Antoinette, tried to flee the country, they were arrested, tried for treason, and executed on the guillotine. Control of the government passed to Robespierre and other radicals — the extreme Jacobins — and the Reign of Terror followed (1793–1794), when thousands of French nobles and others considered enemies of the revolution were executed. After the Terror, Robespierre himself was executed, and a new ruling body, the Directory, came into power. Its incompetence and corruption allowed Napoleon Bonaparte to emerge in 1799 as dictator and, eventually, to become emperor. Napoleon's ascent to power is considered the official end of the revolution. (See Georges Danton and Jean-Paul Marat.)

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.