혁명과 전쟁은 불가분의 관계인 것처럼 보인다. 근대의 혁명들은 전비 마련을 위한 증세와 함께 시작되었고, 기존체제 안에서 해소될 수 없는 긴장이 무장투쟁으로 발전하면서 절정에 달했다. 혁명 프랑스는 신체제를 유지하기 위해서 모든 정복 전쟁을 포기했고, 인민주권과 민족자결의 혁명이념은 프랑스가 반혁명 세력에 맞서 혁명을 지킬 수 있게 해주었다. 혁명전쟁은 왜 일어나는가? 혁명이념 자체가 프랑스와 그 이웃 국가들 사이의 전쟁의 필연적인 원인은 아니었다. 유럽은 이미 잉글랜드의 입헌군주제, 프랑스의 절대왕정, 스위스의 공화정과 같은 다양한 정치체제가 공존하는 것을 지켜 봐 왔기 때문이다. 따라서 혁명전쟁의 원인은 프랑스가 혁명 이념에 따라 한층 더 효율적인 국가로 부활할 가능성이 커지자, 유럽의 열강들이 전통적인 국가체제의 작동 원리에 따라 힘의 논리에 호소하게 되었다는 사실에서 찾아야 할 것이다.

Revolution and war seems to go hand in hand. Modern-days revolutions usually start with the levy of heavy taxes to finance wars, and breaks out when the unsolvable tensions plaguing the existing system are turned into armed conflicts. Well aware of these facts, the Revolutionary France attempted to maintained its newly established system by abandoning conquest wars, and the revolutionary ideas of popular sovereignty as well as self-determination enabled France to protect the Revolution from the Counter-Revolutionary powers. Then, why did revolutionary wars break out? The revolutionary ideas were not necessarily the root cause of the wars between France and its neighboring countries. Europe have had the experience of different states systems―including, England’s constitutional monarchy, France’s absolute monarchy, and Switzerland’s Republic―coexisting on its land. The cause of the Revolutionary Wars is to be found in the fact that France, now equipped with its revolutionary ideas, was reemerging as a fully efficient and competitive country that would rival other European countries. Operating under the traditional mechanisms of balance of power and the fight for the hegemony of their own political system, France went into war with other European countries who saw France as a reviving threat.

La révolution et la guerre semblent être inséparables. Les révolutions modernes commencent avec la collecte d’imp̂ots pour financer les guerres et culminent avec la transition des tensions non-solvables au sein du système existant en conflits armés. Afin de maintenir son nouveau système, la France Révolutionnaire abandonne tous projets de guerres conqû̂etes, et les idées révolutionaires de souvereignté populaire et de détermination autonome permet à la France de protéger sa Révolution des forces contre-révolutionaires. Pourquoi les guerres révolutionnaies ont-elles lieu? Les idées révolutionaires m̂̂eme ne sont pas nécessairement la cause des guerres entre la France et ses voisins. L’Europe avait déja l’experience de voir plusieurs systèmes politiques―y compris la monarchie constitutionnelle du Royaume-Uni, la monarchie absolue de la France, et la République de la Suisse―coexister. La cause des guerres révolutionaires se trouve dans le fait que la France, munie de ces idées révolutionnaires, réemergeait un fois de plus entant que pays competitif qui pouvait rivaliser avec les autres forces Européennes. Suivant le méchanisme du maintien de l’equilibre des forces, la France se devait de faire la guerre avec les pays Européens qui la considérait comme la relance d’une menace.

French Revolution, Revolutionary War, Counter-Revolution, Legislative Assembly, National Sovereignty