A New Historical Order
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Abstract

The period of the American and French revolutions, roughly from 1760 to 1820, transformed not just society and politics but also the European understanding of history. Before 1789 the society of most of Europe was divided into three separate orders, or “estates,” that most believed had existed from time immemorial. After 1820—owing in great part to the wars of the previous half-century—power had shifted from royal and aristocratic elites to representative bodies, even in those European states that had openly rejected revolutionary reforms. In doing so, they helped define the modern concept of the nation-state.

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