Q: Was the revolution in France inevitable?
A: I wouldn’t say it was inevitable, because, prior to the revolution, very few people in France could have anticipated that such a thing would happen. At the time, France was the most powerful regime in western Europe. It was wealthy, or at least it appeared so; it had a big army; it was very stable; and it had had an autocratic monarchy for centuries. Yet there were underlying problems in the country and it was these problems that brought about the revolution (see page 36).