This study aims to explore such issues as the social role of archives, how this role emerged and what factors impacted it, along with the change of social role of archives from the past to the present. By taking archives as a case in point, it discusses the role of modern institutions, and the change of subsequent relationship among them, in the development of the contemporary civilization. This part of the article covers from the period of 1789 French Revolution, and investigates the process of social transformation and the role of archives in this process throughout these periods