Explain the effects of the French Revolution.

I would say that one of the effects of the French
Revolution was to display the intense amount of violence that can accompany
revolutions.  Intellectually speaking, one of the strongest effects f the Revolution was
to show how the revolutionary spirit, one that Wordsworth would call "pure bliss," can
morph so very quickly into something awful and horrendous.  The Reign of Terror that
started a year or so after the Revolution was a reflection of this.  The energy and
spirit that led to the overthrow of the monarchy had a very unsightly facade to it
during Robespierre's time.  The use of the government to suppress individual factions
and to do so without any checks or limitations created a state where personal vendettas
were carried out through executive power.  The use of the guillotine in public
executions on such a large scale proved that the French Revolution had strayed far from
its American counterpart.  Tribunals who "determined" guilt started to kill those that
the revolution had actually sought to protect.  Over 70% of those killed were poor
peasants who were sentenced for crimes such as larceny and disturbing the public peace. 
At this point, I would say that the effect of the Revolution was two fold.  The first is
that it showed that authority can represent corrupt ends at any time, and all authority
has to be questioned.  At the same time, this effect brought out the idea that
individuals in the position of power might not have the public interest at the forefront
of their concerns.  In the end, this abuse of power in my mind becomes one of the
significant effects of the French Revolution.