The French Revolution

 Was Not a People’s Uprising. It Was a Financial Collapse Masquerading as One.

By Staff

The popular narrative is a lie. Liberty versus tyranny, the people versus the crown, an angry mob storming a fortress on July 14, 1789 and changing the world forever. It makes for a clean story, which is precisely why it survived so long. But the real French Revolution was not born in the streets of Paris. It was born in ledger books, in Swiss banker loans, in volcanic ash from Iceland, in a trade deal with Britain that gutted French industry, and in a war fought for American colonists who never paid France back. The truth is far more unsettling: the revolution was a slow motion catastrophe decades in the making, and almost everyone in power saw it coming and did nothing.

The Rot Beneath the Glitter

On paper, 18th century France was the dominant power in Europe. The largest population in the West, roughly 28 million people, a massive military, a sprawling colonial empire, a rich agricultural base, and cultural influence that stretched across the continent. French was the language of diplomacy. Versailles was the envy of every court in Europe.

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