A lot of the early (1789) revolutionaries were from the nobility and even the clergy. Many of the reactionaries were up and coming bourgeois who were about to make their way into the nobility. Sorry Marx, you got a few things right, but that one was an oversimplification.
The vast majority of the victims of the reign of terror were commoners. The nobility were underrepresented at the guillotine, besides a few obvious high-profile cases.
It appears as though Robespierre legitimately lost his mind at some point. He attempted to introduce a “cult of the supreme being” with himself as high priest that focused on adhering to his own idea of virtue. Anyone not virtuous enough, which was effectively literally everyone else, was liable to be executed.
Early in the revolutionary wars, the revolutionaries had arrested so many people that the Paris jails were super overcrowded. Some people didn’t want the armies to leave Paris for the front lines because maybe all those jailed people would break out and cause trouble. So Marat proposed that they reduce the incarcerated population… by killing them all. September 1789 was a bad month to have been a petty thief in Paris.
So many of the popular notions about the revolution are distorted or just ass-backwards.
Yes, Marquis de Lafayette was a famous example of a noble going against the privilege system and in favor of democracy.
I think Robespierre is one of the pioneer of both left ideology, and left extremism leading to autoritarism and its crimes as we later saw in communist Russia and China.
If i may, please look into Kurt Eisner as well! And especially the type of democracy he wanted for bavaria and later germany (a council republik where you also elect your workplace leaders and can always unelect them!)
Yes it did. “God created all men equal, so why is nobility and clergy worth more than a farmer” was his idea. Nobles hunted him. Even martin luther warned against him
A lot of the early (1789) revolutionaries were from the nobility and even the clergy. Many of the reactionaries were up and coming bourgeois who were about to make their way into the nobility. Sorry Marx, you got a few things right, but that one was an oversimplification.
The vast majority of the victims of the reign of terror were commoners. The nobility were underrepresented at the guillotine, besides a few obvious high-profile cases.
It appears as though Robespierre legitimately lost his mind at some point. He attempted to introduce a “cult of the supreme being” with himself as high priest that focused on adhering to his own idea of virtue. Anyone not virtuous enough, which was effectively literally everyone else, was liable to be executed.
Early in the revolutionary wars, the revolutionaries had arrested so many people that the Paris jails were super overcrowded. Some people didn’t want the armies to leave Paris for the front lines because maybe all those jailed people would break out and cause trouble. So Marat proposed that they reduce the incarcerated population… by killing them all. September 1789 was a bad month to have been a petty thief in Paris.
So many of the popular notions about the revolution are distorted or just ass-backwards.
Yes, Marquis de Lafayette was a famous example of a noble going against the privilege system and in favor of democracy.
I think Robespierre is one of the pioneer of both left ideology, and left extremism leading to autoritarism and its crimes as we later saw in communist Russia and China.
Give someone the power of life and death and they’ll start to equate attacks on them with attacks on the state which deserves death
Thomas Münzer and the peasent revolts with the Memminger Charter and the ditmarscher peasent republic: Hold our beer we’ll join
Thanks for sharing, I didn’t know about how m. It’s quite intriguing that his revolutionary ideas came from his theology according to his wiki page.
If i may, please look into Kurt Eisner as well! And especially the type of democracy he wanted for bavaria and later germany (a council republik where you also elect your workplace leaders and can always unelect them!)
Yes it did. “God created all men equal, so why is nobility and clergy worth more than a farmer” was his idea. Nobles hunted him. Even martin luther warned against him