The French Catholic Church, known as the Gallican Church, recognized the authority of the pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church but had negotiated certain liberties that privileged the authority of the French monarch, giving it a distinct national identity characterized by considerable autonomy. France’s population of 28 million was almost entirely Catholic, with full membership of the state denied to Protestant and Jewish minorities. Being French effectively meant being Catholic. Yet, by 1794, France’s churches and religious orders were closed down and religious worship suppressed. How did it come to this? What did revolutionaries hope to achieve? And why did Napoleon set out to reverse the situation?<span />
Although there were many factors, the greatest was "<span>an increase in the number of factories and jobs". Industrialization had begun in the United States, opening up many more factory positions. </span>
