The French Revolution (1789 - 1799) led to the destruction of both the Monarchy and the Aristocracy and high Nobility of France, and set new governing precedent in the process. Posing as an organic movement of the people, it would serve to help change the trajectory of the western world, and profoundly alter the way western mankind would view nations, governments, and leadership. Victors really do write the history books - and few instances better illustrate this concept than historical accounts of the French Revolution. Anti-hierarchical sentiments, democracy, humanism, reductionist materialism, rationalism, the modern conception of 'human rights', the term 'Republican' and concepts of 'left-wing' and 'right-wing', the guillotine - all spring from revolutionary France.