viii). Austen could hardly have been more wrong.
Revolutions and wars abroad. From initial sympathy, English public opinion regarding the French Revolution (1789) moved rapidly to ambivalence and fear. While the overthrow of the French monarchy inspired some Englishmen to press for reform in their own country, the horrors of revolutionary France soon turned sympathy into anxiety. If the lower classes in France could protest so violently, what was to stop the English lower classes from doing the same? The line between reform and revolution seemed altogether too thin while the guillotine lurked over the horizon (or just across the channel), and the British government started to come down hard on potential reformers. New legislation prevented unsanctioned public meetings, made trade unions illegal, and expanded definitions of treason to include writing and speaking as well as acting against the government. This new era of conservatism in England would last for more than a quarter century. The squelching of nearly all opposition to the government continued from 1793-1815, during which time England (along with most of Europe) battled with little respite the French Republican army, eventually led by Napoleon Bonaparte, who rose to virtual dictatorship in France and sought to conquer all of Europe.
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