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French Revolution

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French Revolution
The painting by Jean- Pierre Houel shows the event that starts the French Revolution, which is the Storming of the Bastille. The Bastille is a royal fortress that had been converted into a prison in Paris; the prison is used for king Louies XIV to lock up people who speak against him. On July 14, 1789 angry Parisians successfully attack the Bastille and took control of the Bastille. The Storming of Bastille inspired many other French citizens to take up against the royal king and queen. It is a defining moment in the history of France, which is consider as French citizen’s collective consciousness. This is the first time in France that French citizen have proven that as a nation they can govern themselves, without the rulers. The painting suggests that the violence of French Revolution had a great impact of the society. The deconstruction of the buildings shows that the French Revolution is breaking the peace in France. Even though the revolutionists have taken control of the Bastille however they did not success as a nation, as they did not accomplish their goal of French Revolution which is to make France a better place to live. Instead the revolutionists have breaks the peace that had once existed in France. Therefore the perspective of this source does not support French Revolution. The second source is showing the period of The Reign of Terror occurred in France. This is a period were both external and internal conflict is against France. Internally the French people was divided themselves as they have different beliefs and views about the revolution which result in mass murder, started with the murdering of the royal family by guillotine. Externally some foreign nations began to fought against France like Sardinia, Austria and England, for these nations, it is the best time to conquer France, due to the conflict inside of France. During this period of time, terror and war had caused the death of many innocent individual. People who were thought to be counterrevolutionary were guillotined. This source does not support the French Revolution. The French Revolution has brought wars in France both externally and internally, and causes the death of many innocent individuals. One of the goals of French Revolution is to let ordinary citizens have rights, freedom of speech and opinion. However revolutionists have failed to keep their goal, they have murdered many individual who is not afraid to show their own individual ideas to be against the revolutionists. This source is linked to source one, in which both sources believe that the revolution has led France to be in an worse situation than before. The last source suggests that as time changes, the society will change too, due to the growth and development in technology and ideas of each individual. During the period of enlightenment many philosophy and new idea had been promoted to people, as citizen learns more stuff about rights, science and freedom, they have developed the idea that the king and the queens are not promoted by god to rule the country. The enlightenment has changed the idea of how ordinary citizens see the government. People began to demands for equality, rights and freedom, the result of this idea have encouraged many people to act against the royal family. The quotation demonstrates that King Louis XIV thought that people’s idea about government, country and individual rights and freedom will not change, as people believes in him so strongly that they will never act against him. The result of this belief of Louis XIV’s has brought him to great failure. The French Revolution has changed the future of France forever. The author of this quotation is a former Irish writer and poet, Oscar Wilde. His opinion is different from both source I and source II. He is in favor of French Revolution. He believes that French Revolution has brought a “brand new” France that is run by a better governor system, and the result of French Revolution has brought new ideas to French people that cause the improvement of the society both economically and politically. The common idea of these sources is to reflect the events that happened during the period of French revolution, in which it has shaped what France is today. Source one and source two shows the events that took place in France during revolution period. They have both demonstrated that the French revolution have brought violence and took away many innocent individuals’ lives, French Revolution have made France worse than before. Therefore their perspective of French Revolution is the same, which is not supporting the French Revolution. The third source is opposite idea from the first two sources. Source three suggests that French Revolution led people to have freedom of thoughts, that it has started the growth and development of France both politically and economically. Therefore the author of this source- Oscar Wilde is in supportive of French Revolution. Different people have different thoughts and perspective on French Revolution.

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