The period following the American War of Independence was, for the France of Louis XVI, the high water mark of its diplomatic prestige. With France's arch-rival, Britain, humbled by the loss of her main north American colonies and deprived of any significant continental alliances, Louis felt confident that France could at last re-assume its natural role as the economic, political and military leader of Europe. That this did not happen, and if anything France's international prestige sunk even lower, was a bitter pill for its rulers, and one that was to have important ramifications beyond the sphere of foreign policy. Indeed, continued frustration at France's impotence on the world stage became a pressing domestic issue, with radically opposing solutions being put forward to bring about a 'national regeneration'. This work focuses on the policy responses of the National Constituent Assembly to the issues of global competition, especially in the maritime, colonial and economic sphere, and with particular reference to Anglo-French rivalry. These responses are contrasted to the policies of the 'reforming' royal government of the Pre-Revolution of 1787-1789. From this analysis of the Old and New Regimes' respective global policies, it is shown how French responses to the demands of international competition played a role in both fostering and shaping the Revolution of 1789. Moreover, Whiteman argues that in spite of profound ideological differences, in material terms there was a significant degree of continuity between the policies of the Constituent deputies and the Old Regime royal government.

The French Revolution can be seen as an enormous explosion of civic energy with huge ramifications for the rest of the world. In this balanced and accessible account, P.M Jones: Considers the build-up of pressure between 1787 and 1789 as the power of the ancien régimebegan to crumble Analyses the dramatic events that began with the taking of the Bastille in 1789 and led to the establishment of a radical new order Examines the demise of the Republic in 1804 and assesses the wider significance of the revolutionary decade At the core of the Revolution lay the realisation among ordinary men and women that the human condition was not fixed until the end of time, but could be altered for the better. However, it was soon discovered that the task of building a new and better society would require huge amounts of effort and ingenuity - as well as suffering on a massive scale. This new edition of P.M. Jones's authoritative overview has been significantly revised to include new material on politics, state violence, the army and citizenship in the French Caribbean colonies. In addition, it includes an expanded selection of original documents and illuminating contemporary images. P. M. JONES is Professor of French History at the University of Birmingham. He has written extensively on the French Revolution and French rural history.

This book argues that the introduction of popular sovereignty as the basis for government in France facilitated a dramatic transformation in international law in the eighteenth century.

Situating the French Revolution in the context of early modern globalization for the first time, this book offers a new approach to understanding its international origins and worldwide effects. A distinguished group of contributors shows that the political culture of the Revolution emerged out of a long history of global commerce, imperial competition, and the movement of people and ideas in places as far flung as India, Egypt, Guiana, and the Caribbean. This international approach helps to explain how the Revolution fused immense idealism with territorial ambition and combined the drive for human rights with various forms of exclusion. The essays examine topics including the role of smuggling and free trade in the origins of the French Revolution, the entwined nature of feminism and abolitionism, and the influence of the French revolutionary wars on the shape of American empire. The French Revolution in Global Perspective illuminates the dense connections among the cultural, social, and economic aspects of the French Revolution, revealing how new political forms-at once democratic and imperial, anticolonial and centralizing-were generated in and through continual transnational exchanges and dialogues. Contributors: Rafe Blaufarb, Florida State University; Ian Coller, La Trobe University; Denise Davidson, Georgia State University; Suzanne Desan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Lynn Hunt, University of California, Los Angeles; Andrew Jainchill, Queen's University; Michael Kwass, The Johns Hopkins University; William Max Nelson, University of Toronto; Pierre Serna, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne; Miranda Spieler, University of Arizona; Charles Walton, Yale University