What steps did the French revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective identity among the French people?
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Answer:
What steps did the French revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective identity among the French people?
Answer:
The ideas of ‘La Patrie’ (the fatherland) and ‘Le Citoyen’ (the citizen) emphasised the notion of a united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution.
A new French flag, the tricolour, was chosen to replace the former royal standard.
New hymns were composed, oaths taken and martyrs commemorated, all in the name of the nation.
A centralised administrative system was put in place, and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory.
Internal customs duties and dues were abolished, and a uniform system of weights and measures was adopted.
Regional dialects were discouraged and French, as it was spoken and written in Paris, became the common language of the nation.
The revolutionaries further declared that it was the mission and the destiny of the French nation to liberate the peoples of Europe from despotism. In other words, to help other peoples of Europe to become nations.