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A 1789 revolution in France that followed a sequence of upheavals, leading to the downfall of France’s King Louis XVI, the rise of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror, a chaos wherein thousands were guillotined for political differences, and a succession of dictators. Radicals saw the Catholic Church as the enemy and promoted in its place a Cult of Reason. The Revolution emerged in part from the rationalism of the Enlightenment which distrusted all established institutions. It inspired fear into European monarchs and aristocrats.
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