The French Revolution

The French Revolution was a violent revolution that deeply affected Europe and the entire world. Following the example of the American Revolution, the French revolutionaries drafted a Declaration and a Constitution. The Revolution was successful, and the various stages it went through included the period of Terrorism and the Directory. Eventually, the Revolution ended up being controlled by the Corsican general, Napoleon Bonaparte. He led the French troops to a military campaign in Egypt (1798), battled in Europe against the Austrians, Germans, Russians, and English. He was finally defeated in Waterloo, Belgium, by the English general Wellington, in 1815. The ideas of the French Revolution echoed among the Greek intellectuals and planted the seed of hope for the freedom of the nation. Such an intellectual was Rigas Velestinlis, whose revolutionary ideas and writings awakened and inspired the Greek nation.