Digital Media Repository, Military History

The French Revolution was a complex upheaval, profoundly affecting every aspect of government and society, and therefore considered a significant turning-point in French and European history. Although its causes have been subject to conflicting interpretation, conventionally the start was the summoning of the Estates General (spring 1789), which became the National Assembly when its three houses combined; it is also known as the Constituent Assembly. It responded to public pressure, such as the storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789), with wide-ranging political, social and economic measures (1789–91). These included the abolition of feudal, aristocratic and clerical privileges, a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), the establishment of a constitutional government, the confiscation of Church property, and a reorganization of Church–State relations in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790).

Source: Chambers Dictionary of World History. London: Chambers Harrap, 2005. s.v. "French Revolution."

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The Ball State University Libraries Digital Media Repository contains the collection listed below pertaining to the French Revolution, 1789-1799. To browse all French Revolution materials in the DMR click here.