A Revolution That Promised the World

With short, sharp phrases, the writer Edward Carlton describes the start of the French Revolution in 1789. It was the end of an age. The Bastille prison in Paris had a long history of holding prisoners who had been forgotten and treated unjustly. It had become a symbol of the harsh rule of the French Bourbon monarchy and aristocracy. To this day, the date of its destruction, 14 July, remains the Independence Day of France.

Many of the thinkers of Europe believed that this revolution—with its rousing call of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”—was the beginning of a new age for all mankind. It seemed to promise freedom from oppression, and to mark the start of a new era of kindness and peace. But did the French Revolution live up to such hopeful dreams? History says no.

The National Assembly of 1789 to 1791 passed laws meant to turn France into a fair and caring democracy. When this Assembly was dissolved in 1791, the feeling among many was one of relief… “Free at last!” However, the new Assembly, which met to put the ideas of the “founding fathers” into practice, was divided from the very beginning. Soon riots and massacres filled Paris with near anarchy. The new government executed Louis XVI by guillotine, and under Robert Pierre and others it brought in the Reign of Terror. The Terror destroyed not only the “enemies” of the Revolution but also many of its own “children”.

Full Circle… and Back Again

Quite quickly, the more moderate Directory took over from the Terror, and then Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power. He was made “consul for life” in 1802. “The French nation needs a ruler whose position passes down through his family,” he later claimed, and he soon had himself declared emperor in 1804. “I rule only through the fear that I create,” he said some years afterwards.

So within a few short years, the government of France had gone full circle. To make the irony even sharper, after Napoleon was forced to give up power, the Bourbons returned to the throne in the person of Louis XVIII. They returned, some say, having learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

Have We Learned Anything?

This is just one example of what some see as a pattern. History seems to repeat itself. As the German philosopher George Frederick Hagel put it…

People and governments have never learnt anything from history or acted upon principles deducible from it.

 German philosopher Georg W. F. Hegel

Why is this? What are some of the lessons that have not been learned from history? And can we, as people, personally benefit from them?