The French Revolution generally refers to a period of social unrest and political reorganizations that occurred between the years 1787 and 1795. The activities leading up to this period have been widely discussed and studied, with a variety of theories and examinations claiming differing factions as playing a large part in the turmoil. One of the most popular theories includes the idea that the fall of the monarchy was simply a result of the fall of the social class with which it was most closely associated, that of the feudal nobles. According to this view, the nobility, led by the parliaments, challenged the monarchy as it had done several times in the past. This time, though, the rising urban class of shopkeepers and artisans, known as the bourgeoisie, continued the struggle, focusing it against the noble landowning class that had traditionally been the support of the monarchy. With the bourgeoisie’s success, the noble class was pulled down, the King along with it as its figurehead, and replaced by the First Republic. This, however, is not the view of modern historians such as E. J. Hobsbawm and George Rude feel the populace and small traders had at least an equal part in the disruption. Studies have indicated that the percentage of urban capitalist shopkeepers and artisans made up perhaps half of the revolutionary forces. “Cobb … found that the rank and file of the Parisian armies revolutionnaires was 35 percent artisan and 25 percent shopkeeper and smaller merchants” (Lewis 1998). Hobsbawm (1969) claims perhaps as many as one European out of every five was a Frenchman, and the majority of these Frenchmen were rural farmers or small shop workers. Other reports indicate the monarchy enjoyed wide public approval (outside of the close court political circles) less than five years before the King was made powerless (Bosher, 1988). French society at the time of the revolution was very similar to most of the other countries of Europe of the period in that it had an absolute monarchy that followed much the same pattern of rule that had been established by Louis XIV in the early 1700s. As a part of this system, there was an aristocratic class that held most of the status and wealth of the nation in a feudal-type system, and a merchant class called the bourgeoisie that, at times, held enough wealth to rival the nobles but had none of the political clouts. There was “a vast peasantry accounting for one in seven or one in eight of the population, most of whom were legally free but bound to their seigneur … by a myriad of services and obligations surviving from the medieval past. … And, in cities, … a great urban population of innumerable crafts and occupations, for the most part, poor and depending for survival on cheap and plentiful bread” (Rude 1995). What made France different from these other countries that shared so many attributes was the fact that the French bureaucracy had been allowed to gain enough wealth to make them independent of the crown that had given them such success. “All these social groups and classes were potentially revolutionary or committed to some form or other of political and social change. … The bourgeoisie wanted a higher social status and a share in government commensurate with their wealth” (Rude 1995) while the aristocracy was continuing its centuries-long struggle to regain political power that had been taken from