The revolutionary gains were consolidated during the Directorate, when there is also a change in foreign policy, from a revolutionary instrument to the expansion of French dominance in Europe.
The idea of radicalizing the revolution continued to be supported, as in the case of other revolutions, by an action with egalitarian intent, Babiuf's "Spell of Equals." Having limited social foundations, the Babuvist movement, conspiratorial, had an organizational legacy (Carbonari) and a spiritual one (utopian socialism).
The Napoleonic period (the consulate and the empire) abandoned revolutionary methods, but strengthened the application of its principles (laws, organization of education, introduction of compulsory recruitment, etc.) and contributed to their expansion into Europe.
Europe's victory over Napoleon led to a partial change of the Old Regime by imposing Reconstruction.
The impulse towards modernization continued to be realized through two new stages: the July revolution of 1830, which imposed a monarchy on the oligarchy of Louis Philippe, and the revolution of February 1848, which abolished the monarchy, briefly imposing a new republic.
It was only after the Second Empire (in which Napoleon III pursued a partial continuation of Napoleon Bonaparte's program) and the socialist warning of the Paris Commune (1871) that France established the Third Republic, organized according to the principles outlined in the first period of the French Revolution and stabilized after a period of political unrest, partly nationalistic in nature.
The dispute over the French Revolution, which unfolded politically and spiritually, continued and continues at the historiographical level, opposing the supporters of the Revolution of the Old Regime (represented, in particular, by historians belonging to the French Action, under the motto "Kings created France").
It was also suggested that the French Revolution in its entirety was nothing more than a simple incident, and the mathematician-philosopher Cournot understood that it would be a "colossal accident."
Similarly, in the camp of those who emphasize the importance of Revolution, there are differences that give the idea a monarchist-constitutional coloring, Girondins, Jacobins, even Babouvists.
Historians' interpretations vary depending on the evolution of historiography, as well as the political situation; In the second half of the twentieth century, in particular, French and American historians spoke of the existence of the "Atlantic revolution", and then the "world revolution", and finally the Western revolution.
In general, the evolution of the historiography of the French Revolution, starting from its time ("to be fair, we did not have a history until now," said a French publicist in 1789) and before the concept of the "Western revolution" appeared, illustrates Benedetto's thesis. Croce: "The whole story is modern history." https://www.gamblinginsider.ca/
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