Though it may get me labeled a traitor And it surely won’t make me rich In the face of all those who hate them I announce: I love the French. For De Tocqueville and Voltaire For L’Enfant who designed DC For the fact that without their Aid the US would never have come to be For Dumas, Joan of Arc, Exupery Doctors without Borders, and For a civilized society, Low crime rates and beautiful land For their gorgeous, passionate women For Cezanne and for Gaughin For wine valleys, chateux – earth heaven - For Riviera, Paris, Sorbonne For their foreign aid to the poor And diplomatic outreach - There is one thing I know for sure: Hear me saying: I love the French. https://sites.google.com/site/ibshambatpoetry
I was never indoctrinated in cultural-marxism revisionist history so what I learned, King Louis XVI of France who aided the American colonist to defeat the British during the American Revolutionary War was tried by a kangaroo court for treason and had his head decapitated by a guillotine by the French people.
Despite I have Robespierre as an avatar, I quite respect the king Louis XVI. What happened in 1789 shortly for me : A proud nobility which based their value on their ability to fight ended to wear wigs and heels. What they brought to the country in 1785 ? Few things but they asked a lot of tax. The country was full of debt and people heavily suffered from poverty. The french nobility fell in hedonism and arrogance. The technological context changed aswell. The first newspapers appeared a century ago and so the relationship to power, before newspaper, knowing what was happening in the country was the privilege of the powerfull and the wealthy. More people could be informed and so have an opinion. Firearms made knights obsolete. The catholic church was corrupted, and too many representants were abusing of richness when they were supposed to vow to poverty. Louis XVI. I do believe that this man was deeply honnest, deeply caring for his people. Ironically, one of the most caring leader we had. Much more caring that Napoleon for instance. But when he decided to flee, he commited treason. That was a huge mistake. There killed Louis XVI, to kill the idea of monarchy, and they failed, they brought Napoleon to power. It's one of the reason I love Robespierre aswell. He predicted that if we start a war two things would happen : people would hate the revolution and a general would make a coup. Could Louis XVI have avoided the revolution ? I think hardly. The nobility became freeloader of the society. He had two choices, fight the nobility or face a revolution. Whatever he did, he would have faced hard consequences. How the revolution could have been avoided ? We could says that the trouble started with Versailles. Who turned the nobility into the degenerate they became ? Louis XIV. But Louis XIV had very good reasons to create Versaille, Versaille which turned the french nobility into sort of prostitutes. He knew in his youth revolts, and Versailles brought peace to the country. I think what happened was the fate. People which become degenerate know tragic fate. Despite that, pre revolution France is my favorite france. Now the country is fading off and buildings looks like prisons. 18th century architecture (France) One of my favorite piece of french culture, leçons des ténèbres of François Couperin Or Georges de la Tour painting
The Bastille was never the most famous building, Versailles, les Tuileries, Notre Dame, the church of Saint Sulpice, and so on. We speak of the Bastille because of its impact during the revolution, but not so much otherwise. Versailles is much more well know than the bastille.
Of course it was. The masses of the Third Estate were millions of times more likely to end up in that building than to ever set foot in Versailles. It was a looming source of fear and intimidation for normal people for hundreds of years. It was centuries older than Versailles.
Ok. You're absolutly wrong on many points : First, the Bastille wasn't build as a prison, it was originally simply a castle which was turned into a prison later. The bastille was more a prison for the uper class. Most of the third estate had no reason to end in the bastille. You could end in the bastille if you criticized too much the king. If you were poor and commited crimes, you were much more likely to be hang or get the breaking wheel for the biggest crime. There was aswell the prison of the Châtelet. There were at best 60 prisonners in the Bastille. In 1789 there were 7 people inside : 4 counterfeiter, two mad people and one noble man which ended there for incest. For a quick reminder, at that time, the french population were between 30 to 40 million people. Furthermore, many people ended in the Bastille not because of the king, but because their family required that : That can be the case for people commiting incest. The Marquis de Sade ended there as a way to escape common justice, he could have face death penalty because he raped and torture a young maid. Some noble family asked to put people in the bastille when their son/brother were wasting the fortune of their family in games and prostitute, or for being alcoholic. Few people ended in the bastille because of the kind, it was mostly families asking that favour to the king to exile someone one dishonored the family. So no, the third estate had no chance to end in the Bastille, much less chance than being guillotined or end in a labor camp during the different republics. What you're speaking of is mostly received ideas and stereotype, not reality. And anyway, I prefer that France not for political or morale reasons, but for artistic reasons.
The difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution, France used guillotines and executed the aristocrats and the king. The American colonist used guns and decided the fate of the colonies on the battlefield and executed nobody. King George was allowed to remain on the throne. Even the Tories in America were allowed to either except defeat and assimilate or were allowed to peacefully move to Canada. FYI: The Tories were actually the only true right wing political party that ever existed in America. It all began in America. "The shot heard around the world." But it would be the most stupidest war ever fought, the First World War that brought an end to most monarchies in Europe.
I didn't say that it was. It sure as hell became one though. It became a symbol of the tyranny of a government and social structure that oppressed and deprived the common man at every turn and with increasing unfairness.
Like I documented it, it wasn't the common man. The common man was much more likely to be hang, go on the wheel barrow or to the chatelet. Napoleon was much more brutal than Louis XVI. The american revolution was an indenpendance war, the french revolution a civil war. That's a major difference aswell. Proper civil war doesn't exist. I said I prefer it, not that was perfect. Our own behaviour will lead to many disasters, ecological or civil. If we're refering to 1789 revolution, we're in a years like 1775, just before the storm.
