French Revolution and its Enlightenment ideas about nationalism, universal rights and equal citizenship for all was extremely influential at the time it occurred, and was widely studied and imitated afterwards. Liberals and radicals in Europe, and increasingly the rest of the world, always recognized that the French Revolution was somehow uniquely theirs, especially in its attempt to end feudalism, state-supported churches, and the entrenched privileges of monarchs and aristocracies. It led to an expansion of commerce, industry, science and public education, and also created a new class of small farmers who owned land (Furet 35). It established the idea for the first time that women, the lower classes and religious and ethnic minorities should have equal right under the law, and that slavery and serfdom should be abolished forever. Conservatives who opposed the French Revolution, especially supporters of the monarchy and the Catholic Church, continued to oppose it throughout the...
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