18th And 20th Century Positive Changes

rance, though often overshadowed by the likes of England and other European countries, underwent many huge changes between the 18th and 20th centuries. Wars broke out and were resolved, Enlightenment took hold and brought a wave of revolution, and industrialization swept across France just as it did to other nations. Like most other parts of the world, the population grew, and the land evolved with the change of the decades and then the centuries. France saw many of both negative and positive changes during this span of time.

The first event of this time period was the French and Indian War, which was a conflict between French colonists and England. The war got its name due to the fact that Native Americans, also known as the Indians, were allied with France during this time. The war broke out due to skirmishes over territory, and first peaked French forces defeated Lieutenant Colonel George Washington in the year of 1754. This was the war officially began. The French proved to be more powerful at first, but the clashes between the French

alliance and English alliance eventually led to defeat. The war ended in 1763, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
A few years later, a new era dawned, leading to civil unrest. The Age of Enlightenment spread to France. Enlightenment brought forth new ways of thinking, including an expanded interest in sciences, reason, individualism, and politics. This was what led to the American Revolution, and the French, who had aided the Americans, were inspired by it. Their own government was corrupt as well. While the French citizens lived in poverty, their monarch, King Louis XVI, lived lavishly in Versailles with his wife, Marie Antoinette. The mindset brought about by the Enlightenment caused French citizens to become uneasy and rise up against their leader, which led to conflict and a brutal revolution which rivaled the American one in its violence. Their organization was called the National Assembly.
The National Assembly almost immediately had to resort to violence, and stormed the Bastille, which was a building contain few prisoners, but a glut of weaponry. They used this weaponry to fight off troops which had swarmed Paris on the king’s orders. The Governor of the Bastille called a ceasefire on both sides, and the National Assembly retaliated by brutally murdering and beheading him. This was only the beginning of the bloodshed. The revolution moved quickly, and the Assembly declared independence from the monarchy in August of 1789. Their first actions of rebellion had only occurred in May of that same year. Claiming independence did not end the conflict; rather, it inflamed it further and sent the country into a period of turbulence. Wars broke out with other countries, internal conflict was rising due to extremism and paranoia, and the country eventually fell into the clutches of dictatorship rather than monarchy. Eventually, however, the country stabilized. Even with all the turmoil occurring, between the beginning of the 18th century and the 19th, the population grew from around 19 million to 28 million.
The next major milestone for France was the Industrial Revolution, which first started in England around 1840.

Unlike most of the other European countries, France had a slower and steadier transition into modernization. The Industrial Revolution was less of a revolution for the French than it was for other nations, as they had less resources and stayed in a less modernized state than other European countries, such as England, did. There were fewer factories in France than elsewhere, and much of the industrialized tools and work methods in the country were simply being used for commercialized agriculture. The only truly major aspect of change was the addition of railways to the land. France benefited from this partial stagnation, however, because its small businesses still managed to thrive, and its artisans and craftsmen were still appreciated. In most other modernized countries, such individual labor was becoming

irrelevant.
Despite its slightly less advanced state, France participated in the events at the peak of the Industrial Revolution and imperialism, which were the Berlin Conference and subsequent Scramble for Africa. Like the majority of other major European powers, France frantically claimed territories in Africa for their resources and to reinforce its power. The country claimed a large portion of the continent, including the majority of its western section. France’s history in Africa is somewhat less brutal than that of the other countries, or there is at least less record of it. The country’s primary interest was trade and expansion, due to the fact that they lost some territory in one of their numerous wars during the previous years.
In conclusion, France may have had a much different path than most other European countries, but it still boasts an eventful history in the time span from the 18th century to early 20th century. While the country did not experience the Industrial Revolution to the same degree that other European countries did, the fact that it had experienced a bloody and brutal revolution a few years prior was definitely a worthy substitute. Despite a period of instability and brutality, the France still managed to participate in major world events, such as the Scramble for Africa, which expanded its territory and increased its trade. It arguably went through more internal changes than external, for better or worse.