Ancien régime

The phrase ancien régime (French: old régime or old order) commonly refers to the social and political system established in France under the old monarchy, subsequently swept away by the French Revolution of 1789. The phrase generally applies to France, for no other country, with perhaps the exception of Japan, has had in modern times so clearly marked a division between "the old order" and the new.

Stub text from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica