Revolution is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "A forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system." (www.oxforddictionaries.com). In order to answer the question as to how revolutionary was the French Revolution, it is necessary to understand the social order it replaced. In 1789, France was a feudal society in which the power of the King was regarded as absolute. It was the ancient traditional legal and political structure built up over centuries which saw power in the form of ancient rights and privileges concentrated in the hands of the few in the First and Second Estates comprising the clergy and nobility. France was predominantly a rural country where many languages were spoken; a maze of provincial governments with no uniformity in taxation regulation with the clergy and nobility enjoying many exemptions while the burden fell on the business and professional classes and the peasantry, comprising the Third Estate. Nor was there any coherent legal system - only a medley of local laws and jurisdictions all interlaced with a tangle of feudal custom, royal edicts and ecclesiastical laws. While the role of the Church varied throughout the provinces, the Catholic Church exercised control over thought, held a monopoly on education and care of the poor and was …show more content…
Over a 10 year period, the French Revolution became an attempt to build a new and unified society; to transform a society based on birth and privilege and ruled by monopoly power under a King into a republic of free and equal citizens with an emphasis on the role of free will and choice. The Revolution brought many political, social and economic reforms to France and its