Den Franska revolutionen 17 Juli, år 1789 inledd i Frankrike:

   När människorna i Frankrike krävde sina rättigheter från kungen och hans feudalstyre, där kungen styr, och adeln (kungens familj, släktningar, ingifta familjer) fick de främsta priviligierna, och kyrkan och armen höll folket under förtryck.

   Folket i Frankrike svalt och levde i misär, medan kungen, adeln och armesoldaterna åt sig mätta, slängde mat och levde i enorma rikedomar, materiellt sett.

   Folket i Frankrike protesterade mot detta och lyckades efter många dödsfall från folkets sida till slut, vinna över den franska armen, och avsätta kungen.

   Napoleon, som hade tjänstgjort som officer vid den franska armens främsta artilleriregemente, ryckte senare in och blev ledare för det franska folkets revolutionsgarde så småningom, som spred Napoleons frihetslagar, (Napoleonic Code,Code Napoléon,Code civil des Français) till flera övriga länder i Europa.

   Detta innebar slutet för Europeiskt kungligt feudalstyre, och från kungars förtryck mot folket i Europa. Europas övriga kungamakter däribland Sverige, samlade ihop sina armeer och besegrade till slut Napoleons armeer i slaget vid Waterloo år 1815 i Belgien.

    Källor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Code#Code_of_civil_procedure

    https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I#Militärkarriär

   Bakgrunden till den franska revolutionen 1789:

   Industriella revolutionen:

   "Den industriella revolutionen markerar en övergång från jordbrukssamhället till industrisamhället. Industrialismens första fas inleddes i Storbritannien under senare delen av 1700-talet.

   Jordbruket skapade förutsättningarna:

   Jordbruket i Storbritannien hade vid den här tiden genomgått stora förändringar. Fram till 1700-talet hade böndernas jordar varit uppdelade i mängder av tegar (åkerlappar) som i regel var utspridda runt byarna där de bodde. Under 1700-talet förändrades systemet och tegarna slogs istället ihop till större jordstycken som enskilda bönder kunde bruka."

   "Samtidigt blev många bönder arbetslösa efter att ha sålt eller förlorat sin jord. Allt fler människor flyttade därför in till städerna där de försåg den framväxande industrin med billig arbetskraft."

   Källa: http://www.so-rummet.se/kategorier/historia/det-langa-1800-talet/industriella-revolutionen#

   "Folket ville ha ett mera jämlikt samhälle:"

   "Det gamla feodala samhället var på fallrepet. Fransmännen revolterade främst mot det kungliga enväldet och orättvisorna i det franska samhället.

   Det gamla samhället, som man revolterade mot, var ett uppdelat och splittrat samhälle. Adeln och prästerskapet hade privilegier, behövde inte betala skatt och var omåttligt rika. Resten av befolkningen fick försörja samhället och betraktades som en andra klassens undersåtar.

   Den 14 juli 1789 ville revolutionärerna ha ett nytt samhälle, ett jämlikt samhälle.

   Källa: http://www.so-rummet.se/fakta-artiklar/bakgrunden-till-den-franska-revolutionen-1789

   Den Franska Revolutionen:

   "Revolutionen hade förebådats under lång tid före 1789 av upplysningen och dess filosofer, Voltaire och Rousseau med flera, samt med tankar om folkstyre och människans förnuft, vilka inspirerade befolkningen till uppror och krav på större jämlikhet gentemot kungamaktens och adelns provocerande lyxliv."

   "Revolutionen innebar att första franska republiken utropades 1792, men hade även stor inverkan på övriga Europa och världen, och definieras som början på senmodern tid. Revolutionen ledde till att feodala privilegier avskaffades, samhällen sekulariserades, metersystemet spreds och att total krigföring uppfanns.

   Detta gjorde Frankrike framgångsrikt i Franska revolutionskrigen, vilket ledde till att en rad europeiska monarkier ersattes av republiker.

   Manlig rösträtt infördes en kort period 1792, och mer långvarigt efter februarirevolutionen 1848 då andra franska republiken utropades.

   I förlängningen bidrog de båda franska revolutionerna till såväl socialistiska revolutioner som till spridande av liberal demokrati. Den franska revolutionen hade stor betydelse för den ryska revolutionen 1905 och dess idéer inspirerade Mao Zedong i att bygga en kommunistisk stat i Kina."

   Källa: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franska_revolutionen

   Feudalism:

   "Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour."

   Källa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism

   Monorialism:

   "Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market economy and new forms of agrarian contract.

   Manors each consisted of up to three classes of land:

   - Demesne, the part directly controlled by the lord and used for the benefit of his household and dependents.

   - Dependent (serf or villein) holdings carrying the obligation that the peasant household supply the lord with specified labour services or a part of its output (or cash in lieu thereof), subject to the custom attached to the holding.

   - Free peasant land, without such obligation but otherwise subject to manorial jurisdiction and custom, and owing money rent fixed at the time of the lease.

   Additional sources of income for the lord included charges for use of his mill, bakery or wine-press, or for the right to hunt or to let pigs feed in his woodland, as well as court revenues and single payments on each change of tenant. On the other side of the account, manorial administration involved significant expenses, perhaps a reason why smaller manors tended to rely less on villein tenure."

   

   Källa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manorialism

 

   Estates of the realm:

   "The estates of the realm were the broad social orders of the hierarchically conceived society recognised in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Christian Europe. There was no single system of dividing society into estates, and systems developed over time.

   The best known system is the French three-estate system that was used until the French Revolution: the clergy (first estate), the nobility (second estate), and commoners (third estate).

   The two-estate system which eventually evolved in England was to combine nobility and bishops into one lordly estate, with "commons" as the other estate; this system produced the two houses of parliament. In southern Germany, a three-estate system of princes, burghers, and knights was used, with high clergy included as princes.

   Today the term "Fourth Estate" is often used in reference to forces outside the established power structure (imagined as three estates), and is now most commonly used in reference to the independent press or media."

 

   Sweden and Finland:

   "The Estates in Sweden (including Finland) and later also Russia's Grand Duchy of Finland were the two higher estates, nobility and clergy, and the two lower estates, burghers and land-owning peasants. Each were free men, and had specific rights and responsibilities, and the right to send representatives to the Riksdag of the Estates. At the Riksdag, each Estate voted as a single body. Since early 18th century, a bill needed the approval of at least three Estates to pass, and constitutional amendments required the approval of all Estates. Prior to the 18th century, the King had the right to cast a deciding vote if the Estates were split evenly.

   After Russia's conquest of Finland in 1809, a Finnish House of Nobility was codified in 1818 in accordance with the old Swedish law of 1723. However the Diet of Finland and its four estates was not convened until 1863.

   There was also a population outside the estates. Unlike in other areas, people had no "default" estate, and were not peasants unless they came from a land-owner's family. A summary of this division is:

   - Nobility (see Finnish nobility and Swedish nobility) was exempt from tax, had an inherited rank and the right to keep a fief, and had a tradition of military service and government. Nobility was codified in 1280 with the Swedish king granting exemption from taxation (frälse) to land-owners that could equip a cavalryman (or be one themselves) for the king's army. Around 1400, letters patent were introduced, in 1561 the ranks of Count and Baron were added, and in 1625 the House of Nobility was codified as the First Estate of the land. Following Axel Oxenstierna's reform, higher government offices were open only to nobles. However, the nobility still owned only their own property, not the peasants or their land as in much of Europe. Heads of the noble houses were hereditary members of the assembly of nobles. The Nobility is divided into titled nobility (counts and barons) and lower nobility. Until the 18th century the lower nobility was in turn was divided into Knights and Esquires such that each of the three classes would first vote internally, giving one vote per class in the assembly. This resulted in great political influence for the higher nobility.

   Clergy, or priests, were exempt from tax, and collected tithes for the church. After the Swedish Reformation, the church became Lutheran. In later centuries, the estate included teachers of universities and certain state schools. The estate was governed by the state church which consecrated its ministers and appointed them to positions with a vote in choosing diet representatives.

   - Burghers were city-dwellers, tradesmen and craftsmen. Trade was allowed only in the cities when the mercantilistic ideology had got the upper hand, and the burghers had the exclusive right to conduct commerce within the framework of guilds. Entry to this Estate was controlled by the autonomy of the towns themselves. Peasants were allowed to sell their produce within the city limits, but any further trade, particularly foreign trade, was allowed only for burghers. In order for a settlement to become a city, a royal charter granting market right was required, and foreign trade required royally chartered staple port rights. After the annexation of Finland into Imperial Russia in 1809, mill-owners and other proto-industrialists would gradually be included in this estate.

   Peasants were land-owners of land-taxed farms and their families, which represented the majority in medieval times. Since most of the population were independent farmer families until the 19th century, not serfs nor villeins, there is a remarkable difference in tradition compared to other European countries. Entry was controlled by ownership of farmland, which was not generally for sale but a hereditary property. After 1809, Swedish tenants renting a large enough farm (ten times larger than what was required of peasants owning their own farm) were included as well as non-nobility owning tax-exempt land.

   - To no estate belonged propertyless cottagers, villeins, tenants of farms owned by others, farmhands, servants, some lower administrative workers, rural craftsmen, travelling salesmen, vagrants, and propertyless and unemployed people (who sometimes lived in strangers' houses). To reflect how the people belonging to the estates saw them, the Finnish word for "obscene", säädytön, has the literal meaning "estateless".

   In Sweden, the Riksdag of the Estates existed until it was replaced with a bicameral Riksdag in 1866, which gave political rights to anyone with a certain income or property. Nevertheless, many of the leading politicians of the 19th century continued to be drawn from the old estates, in that they were either noblemen themselves, or represented agricultural and urban interests. Ennoblements continued even after the estates had lost their political importance, with the last ennoblement of explorer Sven Hedin taking place in 1902; this practice was formally abolished with the adoption of the new Constitution January 1, 1975, while the status of the House of Nobility continued to be regulated in law until 2003.

   In Finland, this legal division existed until 1906, still drawing on the Swedish constitution of 1772. However, at the start of the 20th century most of the population did not belong to any Estate and had no political representation. A particularly large class were the rent farmers, who did not own the land they cultivated but had to work in the land-owner's farm to pay their rent (unlike Russia, there were no slaves or serfs.) Furthermore, the industrial workers living in the city were not represented by the four-estate system.

   The political system was reformed as a result of the Finnish general strike of 1905, with the last Diet instituting a new constitutional law to create the modern parliamentary system, ending the political privileges of the estates. The post-independence constitution of 1919 forbade ennoblement, and all tax privileges were abolished in 1920. The privileges of the estates were officially and finally abolished in 1995, although in legal practice, the privileges had long been unenforceable. As in Sweden, the nobility has not been officially abolished and records of nobility are still voluntarily maintained by the Finnish House of Nobility.

   In Finland, it is still illegal and punishable by jail time (up to one year) to defraud into marriage by declaring a false name or estate (Rikoslaki 18 luku § 1/Strafflagen 18 kap. § 1)."

   Källa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates_of_the_realm

   Imperialism 1815-1914:

   "Tiden efter Wienkongressen 1815 (som avslutade Napoleonkrigen) och fram till första världskriget 1914 kan ses som imperialismens tidsålder. Under perioden genomgick Europas karta stora förändringar varefter många nya nationer uppkom. Stora riken splittrades i mindre stater och små förenades i större. Vid sekelskiftet 1900 behärskade också några europeiska kolonialmakter en stor del av världen utanför Europa.

   Fram till franska revolutionen i slutet av 1700-talet legitimerade sig de styrande genom en ”gudomlig” ordning där kungen var utsedd av Gud att regera över sitt folk. Vid tiden för de politiska revolutionerna i Amerika och Frankrike hade upplysningens och naturvetenskapens idéer bidragit till att ifrågasätta detta konstruerade tankesätt. Makten skulle istället utgå ifrån folket genom val.

   Under slutet av 1700-talet gjorde folket revolt mot överheten i Frankrike varefter den gamla maktordningen, där kungen och adeln bestämde, byttes ut mot en ny som istället utgick från folket.

   De styrande i Europas övriga länder var vettskrämda för att revolutionens idéer skulle få fäste i deras egna länder. Land efter land förklarade därför krig mot Frankrike för att återställa den gamla ordningen och förhindra de upproriska idéerna att spridas."

   Källa: http://www.so-rummet.se/kategorier/historia/det-langa-1800-talet/nationalism-och-imperialism