Question

What was the global effect of the French Revolution?

Answer 1

The impact of the French revolution was huge. The obviously, immediate impact was that absolute monarchy was gone in France, which was one nation were this form of government flourished at the time. In addition, the French Revolutionary wars went a long way towards drawing the map of Europe and North America as we know them today with the rise of Napoleon:

- After Napoleon invaded the German lands, the Holy Roman empire fell. This is a known driver of German nationalism and set into motion a number of events which led to the rise of Prussia and eventually the formation of the German empire
- His invasion of Italy was credited as one of the sources of inspiration for Italian unification
- His personal rule and the rule of those he appointed in the lands he conquered forced most of Europe to adopt the Napoleonic civil code which is still in force throughout all of Europe (except the UK)
- Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the United States
- The Congress of Vienna finalized many of the changes above and also established many of the world's Great Powers (UK, Russia, Austria, France, and Prussia) who would go on to be the main adversaries in World War I.