The French Revolution had no territory of its own; indeed, its effect was to
efface, in a way, all older frontiers. It brought men together, or divided them,
in spite of laws, traditions, character and language, turning enemies some-
times into compatriots, and kinsmen into strangers; or rather, it formed,
above all particular nationalities, an intellectual common country of which
men of all nations might become citizens....
When we look away from those accidental features which modified its
appearance at different times and in various countries, and consider the
Revolution only in itself, we see clearly that its effect was simply to abolish
those political institutions which had prevailed for centuries among most
European peoples... that it entirely destroyed, or is still destroying (for it
still goes on) everything which in the old society arose from feudal and
aristocratic institutions.