French Revolution, The | Chapter 1 Preface

The causes of the French Revolution are complex; many of them can be traced far back into history. Indeed, the groundwork for the French Revolution was laid long before King Louis XVI, Maximilien Robespierre, and other key figures of the era reached adulthood. One such contributor to the revolution was the Enlightenment. This seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophical movement, whose adherents believed in freedom and equality, led to the popular belief in the 1780s that France should renounce monarchy and support a new type of government— one based on representation and consent....

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