Didn’t the revolution spiral out of hand, allowing Napoleon to seize power and crown himself emperor, leading to a series of wars that killed millions of people?
Not since the Third Republic. But directly after Napoleon, power went back to the monarchy for like 50 years, so I’m not sure how much credit the guillotine deserves.
A 50 year relapse to eradicate an infection that lasted for 1300 years ain’t bad.
The reality is the French Revolution is why most of Europe is democratic now, it demonstrated more than anything else until the Russian Revolution that the “commoners” could not only win a war against the entrenched nobility, but that those nobles should be very, very fuckin scared of the idea and maybe get on board with the idea of a constitutional monarchy if nothing else.
Ask France if it works.
Didn’t the revolution spiral out of hand, allowing Napoleon to seize power and crown himself emperor, leading to a series of wars that killed millions of people?
Look, it might have got a little out of hand but ask yourself:
Does the HRE or the French Monarchy still exist?
Not since the Third Republic. But directly after Napoleon, power went back to the monarchy for like 50 years, so I’m not sure how much credit the guillotine deserves.
A 50 year relapse to eradicate an infection that lasted for 1300 years ain’t bad.
The reality is the French Revolution is why most of Europe is democratic now, it demonstrated more than anything else until the Russian Revolution that the “commoners” could not only win a war against the entrenched nobility, but that those nobles should be very, very fuckin scared of the idea and maybe get on board with the idea of a constitutional monarchy if nothing else.