Hello Historians, I apologise in advance for my lack of understanding, but hope that some of you will be able to help with this question.
From my current understanding, during the French Revolution those who supported the monarchy sat on the right and so were known as "right wing", and this who were against it sat on the left and were known as "let wing". I have however been wondering as to why we see Liberalism as "right wing" when it surely would be a leftist ideology?
I also believe that Socialism developed during the French Revolution, and that the Socialists did not support the monarchy. Would this mean that at the time of the revolution both Socialists and Liberals would have been considered left wing, whilst ideologies being fundamentally different?
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, I'm sure i must have missed something very critical out and so my understanding is not quite as good as I had hoped. Any thoughts are very much appreciated.
Liberalism in the 19th century was all about freedom, on an economic but also on a governemental level. The second part was an opposition to the "ancien regime" aristocracy. While the system ended with the compromise of the constitutional monarchy in many countries, and it was the case in France before Louis XVI tried to flee to be able to negociate a better compromise in his favour (and was stopped at Varenne). To be short, the political spectrum was different as liberals and more "socialists" movements had to fight the reactionnaries. Finally while element of socialist ideologies can be recognised in the works of Gracchus Baboeuf, the socialist movement was not truly formed yet. That's why the word socialist is normaly not used for the revolutionary period.