Since the Revolution of 1789 and through the present day, France has experienced internal division over a variety of matters. It has struggled to overcome differences between groups and individuals with the hope of achieving national unity. By the time of the Revolution of 1789, the French were already divided over issues such as the Three Estates and religion. Class disputes and religious tension continue to be factors that divide the French even in the present. However, the French have been able to unify, at least nominally and at a very basic level, more than once when faced with a greater enemy. In 1789 and the immediate years following, the French were divided over just how far the Revolution should go, whether a constitutional monarchy was sufficient or if more …show more content…
Wylie writes, “Culturally, emotionally, geographically, aesthetically, the people of Peyrane feel they are an integral part of la patrie. They recognize also that officially, legally, statistically, they are a part of the State, which they respect but do not love” (Wylie 207). That last bit indicates there was a sense of disunity between Peyrane and the rest of France. To the villagers, “the ils outside Peyrane [were] dangerous because they are anonymous, intangible, and overpowering. Against the outside ils an individual has little defense, and yet from them come the greatest evils that best the people of Peyrane: inflation, taxation, war, legal restrictions, administrative red tape” (Wylie 206). The villagers, for the most part, felt powerless against and distinct from these outside ils. Because of propaganda during and after World War II, the villagers had “become extremely sensitive to the fact that the outside ils [were] trying to manipulate them” (Wylie 214). The people were proud to be French, but they did not truly feel unified with the