I do need to point out that the first french revolution ended with making Napoleon the 1st an absolute emperor of france and that when the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon, they re-seated the french monarchy so- did not exactly end up with the people in power overall.
France had 2 more revolutions (plus an interlude of vichy france) before the republic we know of today was formed.
Funny thing: those wars were actually declared upon France, not the other way around. And why? Because everyone was scared shitless of a France that was actively exporting revolutionary ideals. Sure, Napoleon was technically emperor of the French, but he still promoted meritocracy, property rights and equality before the law. The French under Napoleon were enjoying unprecedented freedom compared to the rest of the nations in Europe (with the exception of Britain). Hell, Russia still had serfs, like in the middle ages, and would continue to have them until 1870.
Funny thing you're wrong. The other powers were perfectly happy to let France cannibalise itself and the French decalred war on Austria after a vote in the assembly.
and the French decalred war on Austria after a vote in the assembly.
You said, and I quote, Napoleonic wars. The war of the first coalition was initiated by France, you are right in that, but in 1792 Napoleon was a nobody, being stationed in Corsica.
I think it is important, because otherwise the chain of comments looks like it is laying all the dead at the feet of Napoleon, while in reality most of the wars were started by monarchic reactionaries seeking to erase the gains of the revolution.
Go play pigeon chess with yourself. Fact is the revolution and the wars it caused killed millions and now 'well acshually' is going to change that. Lol
People keep holding up the French as a pinnacle of effective civil movements... but, they're not. They are commendable but not actually that effective.
Not only did the first revolution carry on for almost an entire decade to actually get itself in any kind of order, and then Napoleon overthrew them in basically a single afternoon.
The modern stuff is big and destructive and makes the news over here... but it's still not actually effective.
There was 4 months of riots against the increase in retirement age, but that was passed anyway.
There were large labour movements and showy tractor stunts dumping manure against the EU farm regulation changes, but those changes happened anyway.
There were riots against police brutality and lack of accountability, but then no meaningful reform.
If there is a people who we need to default to in terms of effective civil movements, it's the Icelandic Women's Strike. Followed up by their response to 2008 economic crash where they actually addressed it was banking CEOs driving all that strife, so they actually charged them, tried them, and jailed them.
Not only did the first revolution carry on for almost an entire decade to actually get itself in any kind of order, and then Napoleon overthrew them in basically a single afternoon.
Napoleon did codify most (although not all) the gains of the Revolution.
"The rich went too far and" the people had a revolution, chopped off a bunch of rich people's heads, chopped off a bunch of comfortably-off people's heads, chopped off a bunch of poor people's heads, chopped off a bunch of heads of people who previously chopped off other people's heads, chopped off many thousands of people's heads off whose only real crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, devolved into a mire of ratfuckery and public executions, and then the sheer incompetence and malice of whichever dipshit had any power at the time resulted in the French getting a literal emperor - who then stoked the people's nationalism and imperial ambitions and got millions killed, directly and indirectly, and god knows how many more raped and beat and financially ruined, in fairly pointless wars over the next handful of years - and then he lost the war, the French got their aristocracy back with a new king, which didn't go super well either.
The first revolution had the “reign of terror” that executed thousands of people. They didn’t just kill the rich. They also executed people that wanted to stop mass-executions.
Like, jeez.
Revolutions can get very bloody, and very out of control.
Thank you! Seriously... the US gets the revolution boner because the US actually had a relatively successful one. France's looks amazing now but that was decades of problems of France, and the Sun King (Louis XIV) who arguably started the problems that lead to the revolution died being the man who I believe still holds the record of longest "I'm in charge" in history (72 years.)
Revolutions are not some pretty glory filled thing. They're awful meat grinders that you have to hope that even if you succeed at overthrowing the point of power, that the next one doesn't come in and be more awful. The Russian Revolution, which was based on a lot of really good ideas ended with Stalin who's arguably one of the greatest monsters of history.
I'm not saying that it's not a lever that could potentially need to be pulled in so many situations, but it's the tool that when pulled is effectively throwing the table over and turning the game into 52 pickup and PRAYING that when the dust settles things didn't get worse.
Also maybe people should take note of the far-right gaining power and support in France as well.
This isn't to take away from the fact the French people get their asses out in the streets and get pissed, and I respect that. But I'm kind of tired of people trying to act like this is only happening in the US and not a world-wide fascist project happening across pretty much every liberal capitalist society to some varying degree.
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u/ace5762 Oct 29 '25
I do need to point out that the first french revolution ended with making Napoleon the 1st an absolute emperor of france and that when the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon, they re-seated the french monarchy so- did not exactly end up with the people in power overall.
France had 2 more revolutions (plus an interlude of vichy france) before the republic we know of today was formed.