Hanging with History
143. French Revolution; Necessary Reform and Planting the seeds of Disaster; Part 1
The first year of the French Revolution the way it is conventionally dated from the fall of the Bastille. We have had bloody violence and sensible reforms, the loss of privileges for the first and 2nd estates were a really good idea. The establishment of the departments, also sensible, a reform that has lasted to the present day. But we’ve also got craziness, a captive king, who really can’t do his job in any idea of a mixed constitution of shared power. Growing radicalism in Paris. And yet there is apparently great unity over the notion that the revolution had begun and so far it is doing good things. That the whole country can get behind with hope to make the future brighter. Except we know that the seeds of destruction have been sown with the requirement of the Civic Oath for the clergy and the placement of the national government within the physical reach of the Sans Culottes and their ever more radical leadership.
The first year of the French Revolution the way it is conventionally dated from the fall of the Bastille. We have had bloody violence and sensible reforms, the loss of privileges for the first and 2nd estates were a really good idea. The establishment of the departments, also sensible, a reform that has lasted to the present day. But we’ve also got craziness, a captive king, who really can’t do his job in any idea of a mixed constitution of shared power. Growing radicalism in Paris. And yet there is apparently great unity over the notion that the revolution had begun and so far it is doing good things. That the whole country can get behind with hope to make the future brighter. Except we know that the seeds of destruction have been sown with the requirement of the Civic Oath for the clergy and the placement of the national government within the physical reach of the Sans Culottes and their ever more radical leadership.