Reactionaries writing at the time portrayed the impact of the French Revolution on the northern Catalan people as cruel and disastrous. A sentiment echoed by autonomist writers lamenting the part played by revolution in destroying the identity of French Catalans. This is a one-sided assessment of the impact of these events. In as much as the Revolution was about the building of a nation state with the same language, laws and values throughout France, then any notion of an autonomous French Catalonia was bound to be rejected. As France went to war with Europe, national frontiers were hardened up and the loyalty of all French people to the nation was expected. The religious policies of the revolutionary state were highly divisive and antagonised the majority of French Catalans. But with the sale of national lands, the Revolution created a group of politically influential stake holders who stuck with the cause through the dark days of 1793. In Perpignan survivors of the Revolution found a way to be patriotic Republicans and Catalans. Nevertheless, when the army left Pyrénées-Orientales in the summer of 1795, the legacy and unresolved conflicts of years of Revolution and bitter warfare hung heavy over French Catalonia.