The American Revolution may have guaranteed our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But for better or worse, America and the rest of the world still owes a great deal to the French Revolution.

Many of the ideas and ideals on which our societies are based were born in the rebellious fervor that accompanied the French Revolution. But it also influenced changes in less critical areas like food, fashion, and zoos.

10 The Idea Of Equitable And Humane Capital Punishment

Championed by Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the head-chopping machine was adopted in 1792 as the sole method of execution approved by the state. And it was, truly, a huge improvement over other methods of execution, such as death by hanging, drowning, or burning. Worst of all was the wheel, which broke the arms, legs, and backs of the condemned as their bodies were draped over wheels with their faces “turned to Heaven, to remain until it pleases God to dispose of them.”

Promoted for its effectiveness and efficiency by French surgeon Antoine Louis, the guillotine was first nicknamed the louisette or louison. Later, it became known as the national razor.^[1]

Though the number of lives taken by the guillotine is impossible to confirm, the machine was truly a national phenomenon. Records estimate the number of executions by the guillotine to be between 520,000 and 650,000. In Paris alone, 1,376 counterrevolutionaries were beheaded between June 10 and July 28, 1794.

Another revolutionary nickname for the guillotine was “the widow” because 88 percent of the decapitated were men. Post-revolution and until its last use in 1977, less than 1 percent of those who found their necks under the blades of the louisette were women. Comparatively, just 3.6 percent of those executed in the US are women.

9 The Metric System

In 1793, the meter was invented to standardize and unify the over 800 measurement units that were used in France prior to the revolution. Based on the distance from the North Pole to the equator along the Paris meridian, the new system replaced a panoply of units often based on the extraordinarily variable human body, such the foot (pied) and thumb (pouce). Other measures included the bushel (boiseau) and the acre (arpent or septier).

As the Englishman Arthur Young wrote when he was traveling in France from 1787–1789, “[In] France, the infinite perplexity of the measures exceeds all comprehension. They differ not only in every province, but in every district and almost every town.”

So it was a helpful innovation to have measures that crossed town borders and were used by everyone. Still, the new democratic system was not immediately embraced and did not become the law of the land until 1799.^[2]

All things considered, the French transition was nonetheless a rapid success. On the other side of the Atlantic, Thomas Jefferson gave conversion to the metric system a shot in 1789. Alexander Graham Bell tried again in 1906, and the US government has written act after act to encourage its adoption—in 1866, 1968, 1975, 1988, 1996, and 2004.

Nothing doing. The US general population is very attached to its feet and yards.

8 The Baguette (‘Equality Bread’)

In 1793, an official government decree stipulated that all bread must be created equal. No more heavy round balls of bread (the boule) for the poor and light, flaky loaves for the rich. Everyone would eat the same staple.

Whether this new loaf was truly the baguette is open to debate. Several legends circulate and are difficult to prove. But it is incontestable that the baguette was born in the revolutionary period.

One theory attributes the invention of the baguette to tax evasion. In 1790, there was talk of levying both an indirect and a direct tax on bread—on the boule. By changing both the flour used and the form confected, boulangers could sell what they liked, tax-free.

Another theory is that the baguette was introduced by a young Viennese officer–turned-baker who arrived in Paris around the time of the Second French Revolution in 1830, bringing with him recipes for beer-leavened, vapor-baked bread in an elongated form.^[3]

Those who want to hang on to the Frenchness of the baguette might prefer to attribute it to Napoleon’s Great Army. The baguette’s cylindrical shape and lighter weight was so much easier for soldiers to pack and transport, especially since the average boule weighed 1–3 kilograms (3–6 lb).

7 The Fabulous Restaurant Scene In Paris

Prior to the revolution, the French population, estimated at 26 million, included some 400,000 nobles. After the revolution, about 15,000 remained. So there were multitudes of excellent cooks and serving staff out of work, looking for something to do. Many opened a new sort of restaurant where diners could sit at their own tables rather than common ones. They could also eat their choice of dinner on fine china and served with flourish and grace.

The word “restaurant” originally designated a restorative bouillon of concentrated meat juices. By the middle of the 18th century, just before the political turmoil, the term had come to represent the place that provided such restauration. The first restaurant to offer choices beyond the restorative bouillon opened in Paris in 1872.

With the flight of the aristocracy, 1789 saw the appearance of some 100 Parisian restaurants in the modern sense.^[4] By 1819, there were over 3,000 of them.

6 Standardization Of Language And The Invention Of ‘Canadian French’

Fashioned in China in the early 16th century, the toothbrush made its way to Europe 200 years later. The first toothbrushes appeared in England in 1780. They were precious sorts of objects, made of silver or ivory and often embedded with jewels.

Dental hygiene was certainly not foreign to France prior to the revolution. But the toothbrush was looked upon with suspicion and was not popularized in the Hexagon until Napoleon favored it during the First Empire.

In Louis XVI’s day, the mouth was not a pleasant place. As such, vowels were kept closed. Moi was pronounced “moy,” with only a slight opening of the mouth. Peasants, who had a few other worries, pronounced the word “mwa” with little concern for whatever odors they might be releasing to their company.

In 1789, not many peasants actually spoke French, though. With 30-odd dialects, French was a foreign language to the majority of its population. Unifying the country linguistically was a big deal.

In 1793, “linguistic terror” imposed French on the entire population of the territory. Popularization of the language, though not immediate, was a priority. The country would no longer speak the king’s French. Instead, it would open its mouth for greater inclusion.^[5]

Although the Treaty of Paris in 1763 had effectively put an end to France’s presence in North America, Canadians remained attached to the French monarch. They felt no need to abandon their accents for the popularized version being promoted in Paris. Thus, Canadian French was born.

5 Fashion For All

Goodbye culottes. No more tights for men!

Under the Old Regime in France, clothing was dictated by one’s rank in society. At the National Assembly, for example, nobles wore cloaks and vests embroidered with gold and hats adorned with feathers. The clergy wore ecclesiastical robes in red, purple, and gold.

Both of these privileged classes also wore culottes (breeches). The rest of the representatives, the Third Estate, dressed in plain black suits with white ties and simple hats. This mandated dress code was a visual demonstration of inequality.

By 1792, revolutionaries were flying banners criminalizing culottes. True republicans were “free and without breeches.” Dressing according to the mandates of the Old Regime could be life-threatening for a nobleman, whose feathered hat risked permanent removal from his breeches.^[6]

Fashion was also revolutionized and democratized for women. A noblewoman in Old Regime France would have been hard-pressed to get dressed without help. By the time Josephine took the throne beside Napoleon, fashions had changed.

Josephine was as interested in fashion as Marie Antoinette was, but much of what Josephine wore could be slipped on single-handedly. Skipping forward a couple of centuries, Coco Chanel, an impoverished, orphaned child raised by Catholic nuns, would dominate the Paris fashion world for nearly six decades.

4 The Public Zoo

Although the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes dates back to the end of the 16th century, it did not become a modern zoo until the animals of exiled or guillotined aristocrats needed a new home.

In November 1793, three private collections of live, exotic animals that had been seized by the government from aristocratic families found a home in the Jardin des Plantes. That same year, a decree was passed outlawing the presence of wild animals in the streets of the capital. They, too, made their way to the Jardin des Plantes.

Finally, in 1794, the surviving animals from the royal collections in Versailles and Raincy joined the others and a true zoo with 58 animals was officially opened by a decree passed by the Convention.

Today, the zoo is home to more than 1,200 animals in the heart of Paris.^[7]

3 The Democratization Of Gastronomy

The Almanach des Gourmands, first published in 1803, refers specifically to the culinary revolution that necessarily followed the political one. With such a sudden and dramatic redistribution of wealth, the Almanach was something of a how-to guide for fine dining.

The first edition was dedication to a famous gourmand, Monsieur d’Aigrefeuille, and mentions Jean-Jacques-Regis de Cambaceres specifically as having the most distinguished table in all of Paris.

Cambaceres and d’Aigrefeuille were revolutionary figures from Montpellier in the south of France. As Napoleon’s Second Consul, Cambaceres spent exorbitant amounts on cuisine. A full third of his official budget was spent in his kitchen.

He sent for regional specialties from across Europe and beyond. His ox came from Hamburg, his hams from Westphalia, and his wines from Oporto, Madeira, and Malaga. Promoting good food was definitely on his revolutionary agenda.

Today, France’s Gastronomic Encyclopedia includes the entry “a la Cambaceres” as a method of cooking certain delicacies including lobster, pigeon, and foie gras. Cambaceres’s most lasting contribution to the world of cooking, though, undoubtedly lies in his popularization of it.^[8]

2 Revolutionary And Modern Medical Techniques

Under the Old Regime, medicine in France was as stratified as the rest of the society. Physicians had authority over surgeons. Not just anyone could become a doctor, and if you were able to become a surgeon, then you could not become a physician. The two branches of medicine were subject to different laws, different rights, and different social standings.

By 1792, the ideals of liberty and equality had spread to medicine. Wars following the revolution provided the context for surgeons to influence and change the medical world as never before.

In 1792, Dominique Larrey, a surgeon in the Imperial Guard, introduced the idea of triage, from the verb trier (“to sort”). Etymologically, trier means to separate into three, which is what Larrey did on the battlefield.

Some wounded were beyond hope (group 1), others may or may not have survived with medical intervention (group 2), and still others stood a good chance of recovery (group 3). Naturally, the last group was given priority by the triage nurse, a newly created position on the battlefield and in hospitals across the country.^[9]

1 The Implementation Of A Red Cross–Like Medical Service

Larrey and fellow surgeon Dr. Pierre-Francois Percy practiced Red Cross services three-quarters of a century before its establishment. Larrey invented the horse-pulled, “flying ambulance” (ambulance volante) that could transport up to four wounded quickly and in relative comfort to the nearest hospital. Then Percy went a step further. In 1799, he introduced the mobile surgical unit that could take the operating table onto the battlefield.

This new French mobile medicine did not take nationality or affiliation into consideration when treating the wounded. Larrey and Percy treated all without differentiation—to the extent that they could. Even if it took another few decades for the idea to catch on universally, the pilot program was successfully in place, thanks to the belief in liberty, equality, and fraternity born of the revolution.

Incidentally, the move toward universal health coverage and socialized medicine in France is largely attributable to Dr. Guillotin, who oversaw the establishment of the first health committee in parliament in 1790.^[10]

Vive la Revolution!

In modern times, France has developed a reputation for being unsuccessful in war. This started during World War II when the French government surrendered in a matter of weeks.

Before then, however, France had a long and successful military history. From seizing Gaul by force after the fall of Rome to dominating Europe throughout the Middle Ages and again during the reign of Louis XVI, France was the strongest military force in Europe for centuries before it was eclipsed by Germany at the turn of the 20th century.

Even after 1900, France remained a significant military power. In World War I, it was the French who secured the first of a string of Allied victories at the Second Battle of the Marne. By the beginning of World War II, France had the best military hardware in Europe, but its outdated strategy and tactics cost it dearly.

Some of France’s greatest military successes are also their least known, and many of them came early in the country’s history. Here are 10 awesome French military victories you’ve probably never heard of.

10 The Mad War

La Guerre Folle (aka “the Mad War”) took place between 1485 and 1488. King Louis XI had died, and Charles VIII wasn’t old enough to assume power. So the regency was placed in the hands of Anne de Beaujeu. The king’s cousin, the future Louis XII, wasn’t happy with this arrangement. When his bid to assume the regency failed, he fled to Brittany, which was independent.

The Bretons joined his cause alongside several powerful French vassals, including the Duke of Lorraine and Prince of Orange. They began a campaign against the French monarchy from the safety of Brittany.

Eager to capitalize on their enemy’s weakness, the rebels were supported by England, Austria, and Spain. All of them sent soldiers to Brittany to support the war effort. France declared the rebels traitors and began to plot the invasion of Brittany.^[1]

Overall, the Breton army was made up of several thousand Bretons, reinforced by large contingents sent by the Spanish and Austrians and bolstered by a small host of 700 longbowmen from England. The English archers were led by Edward Woodville, who had defied the English king to be there. Henry VII had already decided not to send an army, but Woodville went anyway.

The two sides met at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier where the Breton army lay in wait. The French were caught off guard, and the Breton army had a strong position on a high ridge.

The English longbowmen harassed the French army as it formed up for battle, causing panic. However, the French cavalry (led by Italian mercenaries) was able to exploit a gap in the Breton formation, breaching their defenses. The French soldiers poured through and routed the Breton army.

It was a decisive victory for the French. The rebels were rounded up, and Brittany integrated into France. Brittany had been a common place of refuge for rebellious nobility since the fall of Burgundy, and its collapse meant that future French rebels had no safe haven from which to attack the monarchy.

9 Battle Of Bir Hakeim

France famously capitulated within a few weeks of World War II beginning. However, the French government remained, setting itself up in exile in London. Many French soldiers rallied to the exiled government. They became known as the Free French.

Since France controlled much of Africa at the time, many Free French units were either already based there or were sent there to help oppose Hitler’s North Africa campaign. One of the most important Free French divisions was the 1st Free French Division, which was made up of the first soldiers to flee France and join the exiled government.

As part of the effort to halt the German advance, the British Eighth Army occupied several key positions in the Libyan desert. The 1st Free French Division, which was about 3,600 men strong, was sent to the old Ottoman fortress of Bir Hakeim.^[2]

Their occupation of Bir Hakeim meant that the Germans had to make a significant detour to supply their army, so they laid siege to it in 1942. The Free French put up a much tougher resistance than the Germans expected and held out for more than two weeks against an army 10 times their size.

The Free French were eventually forced to retreat, but the holdup meant that the German general, Erwin Rommel, lost the crucial element of surprise he’d been hoping for. This would have allowed him to flank the Allied position.

The German plan to invade Malta was thrown into disarray, and Bir Hakeim directly enabled the crucial Allied victory at El Alamein shortly after. The courageous stand even led to Hitler calling them the second-best fighters in the world (after the Germans). The victory reminded the world that the French were still good fighters, and it bolstered the morale of the French Resistance in mainland France.

8 Battle Of Tours

In October 732, Charles Martel, leader of the Franks, entered battle with the soldiers of the Umayyad Caliphate just outside the city of Tours. His subsequent victory shaped the fate of Europe.

At the time, the Umayyad Caliphate was the most powerful military force in the world. Under the new generation of Umayyad caliphs, their empire had expanded dramatically, stretching from the borders of Persia to Spain and encompassing North Africa. Spain had recently fallen, and after consolidating their power there, the Umayyads were now looking further afield.

The Kingdom of the Franks (which would later become France) was the most powerful state in Europe. It didn’t come close to rivaling the might of the Roman Empire that came before it. However, through diplomacy and conquest, the Kingdom of the Franks had expanded rapidly and covered most of modern France, the Low Countries, and western Germany.

The Franks would be more than a match for the Umayyads. But between the two empires lay the small, independent Duchy of Aquitaine, which the Umayyads soon set their sights on.

The Umayyads made short work of Aquitaine, but the Duke of Aquitaine, Odo, called on Charles for help. Charles answered, and when the Umayyad army made its way toward Tours, intending to loot and burn it, they found a large Frankish army in their way.

The Umayyad army, led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, tried to force the Franks to abandon their vantage point in the hills where the powerful Umayyad cavalry couldn’t harm them. But Charles held his ground. With winter approaching, the Umayyad army couldn’t afford to wait, so after seven days, they attacked the Frankish army.^[3]

Usually, heavy cavalry would have expected to defeat an army of infantry with no problem, but Charles’s army was superbly drilled and experienced, having campaigned with him for years. They used a phalanx formation and held their nerve against successive cavalry charges, though the Umayyads broke their ranks several times.

At some point during the battle, a rumor broke out among the Umayyad army that some Franks had crept around the back and were looting their camp. Whether or not this was true, it caused a large portion of the army to break away to protect their loot.

When the rest of the army saw them fleeing, they broke, too. Al Ghafiqi was killed in the ensuing chaos, ensuring the Franks’ victory. When the Franks emerged from their camp the next day, they found that the Umayyad army had fled overnight.

7 War Of Saint-Sardos

Although most of these victories were won through force, the War of Saint-Sardos was a masterclass in diplomacy. As it stood, the King of England, Edward II, was also the Duke of Aquitaine in France. This meant that while there were English laws and English soldiers in Aquitaine, the English king had to frequently journey to France and give homage to the French king as his lord.

Meanwhile, in Aquitaine, many local landholders were turning to the French Parlement to settle their disputes rather than the English courts. Unsurprisingly, the Parlement nearly always ruled in France’s favor. One by one, small landholdings and villages were returning to direct French rule.

Things came to a head when the Aquitanian town of Saint-Sardos became the center of a dispute. The local monastery wanted to turn the village into a border fort for the French king, while other local landowners wanted to remain under English protection. Some days after, a local lord burned down Saint-Sardos and lynched its sergeant. The French accused the English of ordering the crime.^[4]

The English ambassadors desperately tried to stall the situation, making promises and apologizing while saying they would sort the matter out themselves. The French king saw his opportunity, however, and invaded Aquitaine. The English were caught completely off guard, and the war was over within six weeks.

Most of the duchy was now in French hands, and the English had suffered a couple of embarrassing defeats. The diplomatic failure turned many English lords in England against the king and led directly to the collapse of his authority. This made him vulnerable to the coup that ousted him in 1327.

6 Battle Of Austerlitz

Napoleon is often lauded as one of the greatest generals of all time. Even though he ultimately lost the Napoleonic Wars, France was able to stand alone against a united Europe for over a decade through his leadership. Many of his greatest victories came early in his career, however. If he had been able to continue with the same momentum, he might actually have been victorious.

During the War of the Third Coalition, he led his army into Austria with the aim of knocking Austria out of the war. He devastated the Austrian army during the Ulm Campaign in October 1805, and by December, he had conquered Vienna. The Austrian army avoided conflict with him until the arrival of the Russians. The Austrians planned to join up with the Russians and drive Napoleon out.

Both Tsar Alexander and Napoleon realized that the French army was overextended, so the original Russian plan was to withdraw further, forcing the French to stretch their supply lines even more. In response, Napoleon decided to lay a trap.

He used several techniques to convince the allies his army was weaker than it was. He sent a letter expressing his reluctance to enter battle, secured an armistice, and withdrew his army rapidly from Pratzen Heights, creating the impression of an army in disarray. The moves were enough to convince the allies to throw out the Russian plan and launch an attack.^[5]

The allied army was made up of around 85,000 men. Napoleon’s army initially appeared to be 53,000 strong, but his numbers shot up to 79,000 as forced marches drew his contingents back to the main army over the course of the battle. The allies planned to launch a heavy attack on Napoleon’s right flank, hoping to break his soldiers and cut off their supply line.

Napoleon had already guessed they would do this and purposely weakened his right flank. As the battle progressed, the rest of his army—which he deployed on his left flank—retook the hill they’d abandoned earlier and surged down into the weak allied central and left flanks, shattering them.

The momentum turned in Napoleon’s favor, and after a few more hours of fighting, the battle was over. The French had taken under 10,000 casualties, but the allies sustained 16,000 and the French captured 20,000 more.

In the treaty that followed, Austria was forced out of the war. They agreed to pay reparations to France while acknowledging Napoleon’s conquests. As a direct result, the Holy Roman Empire, which was over 1,000 years old, was dissolved the year after.

5 Hundred Years’ War

Lasting from 1337 to 1453, the Hundred Years’ War featured some of the most famous victories in English history. At Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the English longbowman was proven to be the most effective soldier of late Medieval Europe. However, the war was also a decisive victory for the French, resulting in the permanent end of four centuries of English territorial influence on the continent (with the exception of Calais).

The victories at Crecy and Poitiers may actually have hindered the English overall, encouraging successive kings to pour money and resources into a war with an enemy who considerably outmatched them in population and resources. While Agincourt was considered one of the greatest victories in English history, it followed a period of 30 years in which the English had been defeated in every battle they had fought against France.^[6]

The war was ultimately brought to an end by the Battle of Castillon. The French army feigned retreat, and the English, under the command of the impetuous and venerable general Lord Talbot, chased them enthusiastically. The English fell into a French ambush, where the French artillery (which was some of the most advanced in Europe) opened fire from fortified positions in the French camp, which the English thought was abandoned.

The English army was finished off by a large cavalry charge. When the dust settled, the English had lost thousands of men, while the French had lost around 100. The internal struggles, now known as the Wars of the Roses, put an end to any English hope of launching another invasion.

4 French Invasion Of Normandy

England and France had waged war over the fate of Normandy on and off for decades by the time hostilities resumed in 1202. This time, however, the French were facing the bumbling King John, who was already struggling to maintain order among his nobility. Several of them were so strongly opposed to John’s rule that they flipped to the French side and joined the effort to conquer Normandy.

Things changed, however, after John’s decisive victory at the Battle of Mirebeau. In one fell swoop, John had eliminated the Lusignan army and captured all the rebels who were conspiring with France against his rule. In the aftermath, he reinforced his castles in Normandy. The king of France, Philip II, was forced to turn back and defend the French borders from John’s army.

However, John’s mistreatment of his prisoners turned more of his supporters in Normandy against him. The final straw came in 1203 when John, supposedly drunk, had the Duke of Brittany (and arch-rebel) tied to a stone and drowned in the river Seine.

Philip capitalized on this by laying siege to the crucial fortress of Chateau Gaillard while also cultivating support among the disgruntled nobles in eastern Normandy. John tried and failed to relieve the siege before heading to Brittany and then retreating to England.^[7]

Philip conquered Gaillard in March 1204, by which point resistance to his rule had collapsed. By August, through military and diplomatic skill, Philip controlled Normandy, Poitou, and Anjou. Meanwhile, Brittany had turned against John. England’s final French possession was the Duchy of Aquitaine.

3 Battle Of Bouvines

King John tried to recover his lost lands nearly a decade later when he joined Pope Innocent III’s effort to build an international coalition against France. Leaders in Germany, the Low Countries, and England all united in their efforts to reverse the French conquests of Normandy and in modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands.

Initially, the plan was for John to land in western France and raise soldiers in Gascony and Aquitaine while the rest of the coalition approached Paris from the north. However, the English campaign was ended by the battle at La Roche-aux-Moines, leaving King Philip free to engage the northern army.

The English joined the German army in Flanders, making the army 9,000 strong in total. Philip’s army numbered just 7,000, but he could rely on a large amount of heavy cavalry. The battle raged for some time, but the coalition’s flanks collapsed one after the other under the weight of continuous cavalry charges. The commanders of both flanks, William Longespee and Ferrand of Flanders, were captured over the course of the battle, causing their soldiers to flee.

Then the French began to encircle the German center, who had been holding their ground, and drove them back. The allied army was all but defeated. But Reginald of Boulogne made a defiant last stand with around 700 pikemen, who held out for hours before being defeated by a mass charge.^[8]

This brave stand may have saved the coalition army from hundreds more casualties. Night was beginning to fall by the time they were defeated, and the French decided not to pursue.

Following their utter failure, King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta and was ultimately overthrown. The German emperor, Otto, was deposed and replaced the following year.

2 Second Battle Of The Marne

In an attempt to bring World War I to an end, the Germans launched the Spring Offensive in March 1918. They hoped to surge through France and force a surrender. Although they failed, they still made significant territorial gains, and the German generals resolved to continue their campaign through the summer by launching an all-out assault through Flanders. As part of this plan, they launched a diversionary attack along the River Marne, hoping to scare the Allies into reinforcing their lines since they were so close to Paris.

According to the German General Ludendorff, the first two days of the battle were “the very pinnacle of military victory.” They were easily able to capture the French front defenses, surging through them so quickly that they had to halt their advance so their artillery could get back into range.

The German stormtroopers were able to seize several bridgeheads on the Allied side of the river. They didn’t know, however, that the Allies had pulled back purposely, planning to launch a devastating counterattack the next day.

The French were reinforced by 85,000 British and US troops on the night, and the next day, they started their offensive. Due to reconnaissance and information extracted from captured German soldiers, the Allies knew the German battle plan in intimate detail. They’d also ensured the Germans got their hands on a false Allied plan, so the Germans bolstered their defenses based on this plan.^[9]

On July 18, the Allies began their counterattack. By the 20th, the Germans issued the order to fall back. It was the first in a string of victories for the Allies that led to the end of the war just three months later.

While the Allies sustained higher casualties, it was considered a significant tactical and strategic victory: The Allies had bolstered their own morale with the victory while crippling that of the Germans. The Allies never took a further step back before the end of the war in November.

1 Battle Of Malakoff

The first half of the 1800s was the story of Russia’s rise. By 1850, they were an emerging power on the European stage with a powerful fleet in both Sevastopol and St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire, the major power in the Black Sea since the Middle Ages, was in continual decline and militarily weak.

This situation didn’t suit the French or the British, who were determined to maintain the status quo in Europe. So when a crisis broke out between the Ottomans and the Russians, the French and the British were quick to assure the Ottomans of their support if it turned into a war.

Sure enough, the Ottomans declared war on Russia shortly after. Britain and France landed soldiers in Crimea, set on removing Russian influence over the Black Sea. From the very start, the key target was the Russian port of Sevastopol, the base of their southern fleet and therefore their power projection in the Mediterranean.

Of course, both sides recognized the importance of Sevastopol, so the Russians fortified it heavily. The French and British laid siege to it, and from then on, the two sides were caught in a stalemate. The French and British lacked the artillery they needed to destroy the Russian defensive positions, but the Russians lacked the military and strategic ability to drive out their enemies’ infantry.^[10]

The months dragged on, and both sides lost more men to disease and the weather than to each other. The Russian winter loomed on the horizon, prompting the British and French to act. However, the British were unable to devise a plan to defeat the Russians. After several government crises, withdrawal looked like the only option.

One last effort was planned to take the port: a heavy naval bombardment followed by a joint British-French assault. The French would attack the fort at Malakoff while the British would attack the Redan. Using their ships as artillery, the allies were able to reduce the Russian artillery defenses enough to launch their assaults. But the fighting was chaotic.

The British successfully seized the Redan but were driven out after several hours by determined Russian soldiers. The French assault on Malakoff, however, was successful after a desperate attack along the whole right side of the city. They held out against Russian counterattacks, securing a breach in the defenses that the allies could use to take the port.

The victory was crucial. It meant that the siege wouldn’t continue through the winter, in which hundreds of soldiers would have died. Following the defeat, the Russians evacuated the city and burned their whole fleet in the harbor to prevent the allies from taking them.

The French Revolution changed everything. France’s kings were replaced almost overnight by the most radical government the world had ever seen. France was suddenly a beacon of freedom: “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” was the motto of the revolution: it is still used to defend liberalism today.

But the revolution wasn’t all positive. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives and the country was torn between different groups who used force to crush rebellion. It led France into dictatorship and, eventually, back to the days of kings. Here, we’ve rounded up ten of the most dreadful atrocities of the French revolution.

Top 10 Pretenders to the Thrones of Europe

10 Beheading Louis XVI

The beheading of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette was one of the biggest events of the French Revolution, but it didn’t have to happen. Before he was king, Louis XVI was quiet, dedicated to his studies and painfully shy. It took him seven years to consummate his marriage to the beautiful and intimidating Hapsburg heiress. When he became king he was cautious and indecisive, eager to be loved. In another age he would have been a great king, but he was entirely unsuited to the political crisis of the time.

People around him took advantage of his weakness to seize more power. Louis was little more than a figurehead. It was no surprise when the new government voted to abolish the monarchy shortly after.

Some revolutionaries argued against executing Louis, but the revolution was in full swing and the public hated him. Louis XVI was killed by guillotine in January 1793.

The move shocked many across the world since Louis had always been seen as a moderate king. His death enraged nearby European countries and led to a war that might have been avoided. He faced his death fearlessly: with his final breath, he forgave those who condemned him and hoped that no more blood would be spilled.^[1]

9 Toppling Of Statues

Executing Louis wasn’t enough: later that year, the rebels decided to remove all trace of the old kings from the country. They started with the tombs of St Denis, the traditional resting place of France’s royals.

To begin with, the masons were happy just to destroy the old Carolingian statues and other symbols of royalty. But within a month they were hammering into the old vault that held the kings from the House of Bourbon. When they were in, they started destroying the old coffins. Some of the kingly remains were put on public display, while others were dumped into a large burial pit, to cries of joy from the crowd. Many people came to watch—so many that the labourers struggled to do their work. According to eyewitnesses, members of the crowd grabbed at the bodies when they could, taking stray hairs, teeth and other things as personal mementos. These acts were later condemned both within France and across the world, but by that time it was too late.

After the Bourbon Restoration, the kings were retrieved from the pit and moved to the crypt in the basilica, but the damage was already done: many of the kings were unrecognisable.^[2]

8 The Law of Suspects

The revolution started because the rebels wanted everyone to be free and equal. After they won, though, their anger didn’t come to an end: instead, they started hunting down anyone who might be a threat. This period is now known as the Reign of Terror, and it resulted in thousands of innocent deaths.

The Reign of Terror started with the Law of Suspects, which granted the government the power to accuse pretty much anyone of being a rebel. They attacked the priests, who were driven underground—for a while, being Catholic was actually illegal. In the end, anyone who might have been connected to the old nobles could be imprisoned and executed.

Over two years around 500,000 people were accused—a huge number for the time. So many were accused, in fact, that the prisons were too full and people had to be put under house arrest. Though most were eventually allowed to walk free, around 16,000 people were killed—and many thousands more died in prison. Under the law, anyone whose “conduct, relations or language [showed them to be] partisans of tyranny … and enemies of liberty” was arrested and put on trial.^[3]

7 Lyon Erased

Not everyone in France supported the revolution. The city of Lyon backed the moderate Girondins, a group who were part of the revolution but were not as bloodthirsty as the others. The rebel leaders considered Lyon a centre of royalist support, so they laid siege to it in 1793. Over the course of the fighting over 2,000 people were killed in Lyon and the city was conquered. The revolutionaries had won, but they had further plans for the city.

In October, the National Convention issued a decree calling for Lyon to be destroyed. Everyone who lived in Lyon was to have their weapons taken away. They would be given to revolutionaries. Any building “inhabited by the wealthy” was to be torn down, leaving only the homes of the poor, factories, and some monuments.

They even planned to purge the city’s name from history. The city’s name would be erased: Lyon would be called Liberated City (Ville Affranchie) instead. They planned to build a column with an inscription on it saying: “Lyon made war on Liberty; Lyon is no more.” Fortunately, this project was never finished.^[4]

6 Girondins Executed

France’s new government had two main groups: the Girondins and the Montagnards. The Girondins were moderates: they wanted to build a free, capitalist, democratic country where everyone had a say in how they were ruled—regardless of who they were. They were supported across France but the people of Paris liked the Montagnards more.

They were extremists who “wanted everything levelled”. Anyone seen as elite had to give up their status or be executed. The groups got along well to begin with, but fell out over Louis’s death. The Montagnards wanted to kill him, but the Girondins wanted the country to vote on it. The Montagnards said they were plotting to save the king and called them traitors.

Things boiled over on the streets of Paris. A group of soldiers and citizens surrounded the government buildings and demanded the Girondins be kicked out of the government. The Montagnards duly did so. Some Girondins were able to escape, but a few months later, those who were left were rounded up and guillotined.^[5]

10 Real Countries Straight Out Of The Handmaid’s Tale [DISTURBING]

5 Drownings at Nantes

The city of Nantes was a center of revolution, but much of the countryside surrounding it was royalist. The region rose up in rebellion, leading to the Battle of Nantes. After this, the new French government decided to purge the city of anyone who still supported the monarchy. To do this, they sent Jean-Baptiste Carrier, one of their most committed supporters.

Jean-Baptiste took his job very seriously. In around five months, between 12,000 and 15,000 people were killed by his order. Nantes lies on the Loire, which Jean-Baptiste called “the national bathtub”. He and his men built special boats called lighters which were specifically designed for drowning prisoners. The captives would be shackled to each other, often naked, and herded onto the boats—which had trap doors on the bottom. The boats were then sunk with the prisoners on board. The elderley, pregnant women and children were all drowned without distinction.

In the end Jean-Baptiste’s methods were too extreme even for the revolution: he was recalled to Paris by the Committee of Public Safety, put on trial and executed by guillotine.^[6]

4 Law of 22 Prairial

Over the course of the Reign of Terror, thousands of people were imprisoned, some for absurd reasons. By June 1794, the prisons of France—particularly Paris—were overcrowded, so action had to be taken. Robespierre and his allies drafted a new law which would allow trials to be concluded much quicker: they pushed this law through the Convention and it was passed on 10 June 1794.

It meant that people could be put on trial for simple things like ‘spreading fake news’ or ‘seeking to inspire discouragement’. Citizens were expected to confront or report their neighbours if they expressed any kind of opposition to the government.

When these people were put on trial, they weren’t treated fairly: the judges and jury only had three days to come to a conclusion, and they had to choose whether to allow the accused to go free or be put to death.

This new law marked the beginning of the Grand Terror. Executions per day increased dramatically across France, and most of those killed were undoubtedly innocent. The Grand Terror came to an end after two months, but not because people were horrified by the killings. No, the new law had also made it so members of the Convention could now be put on trial. Looking to preserve their own skins, the members of the Convention removed Robespierre and guillotined him, bringing an end to the killings.^[7]

3 The Massacre in the Vendee

The revolution was supposed to be a movement that freed the French lower classes and gave them liberty and security. But anyone who opposed the new government was harshly punished, even those who were lower class. In the early days, the church was singled out for its wealth and excess. The revolutionary government veered between atheism and a new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, but they were united in their desire to destroy the old Catholic system.

In the Vendee, however, the people rose up to protect their priests and churches from the new revolutionary government. When the government ordered them to form a conscript military unit, they rebelled, joining together in local militias which were collectively known as the Catholic and Royal Army. This alarmed the new government, who sent the army to tackle the problem. After a series of pitched battles, the Catholic and Royal Army was defeated.

But the government didn’t stop there. Determined to prevent another such uprising, the government sent General Louis Marie Turreau with twelve columns of troops to destroy to Vendee. Farms, villages, supplies and forests were destroyed, and the soldiers killed without restriction. When it was over, General Francois Joseph Westermann wrote a letter back to the government saying: “There is no more Vendée… According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all.”^[8]

2 Law of the Maximum

Unlike many other atrocities on this list, the Law of the Maximum was implemented with good intentions—though the government was forced to do it. One of the biggest reasons people joined the rebellion in the first place was because food was too expensive, but by 1793 even the basics were going back up in price. The enrages, a collection of anti-elite protestors who might today be called Marxists, argued that the nobility had been replaced by greedy merchants. Action was needed to take away their wealth and help the poor.

The government passed the Law of the Maximum in response. It set a maximum price for goods, from bread and wine to iron and shoes. Merchants had to display a list of prices outside their stores and, if any of their prices were above the maximum, they would be fined. Instead of going to the government, the fine went to whoever informed the authorities about the illegal pricing, encouraging people to rat out merchants who ignored the law.

It had a disastrous impact on France. While merchants did reduce their prices, it left them with almost no money. The less honest shopkeepers began watering down their goods, disguising ash as ground pepper, starch as sugar and pear juice as wine. Farmers in rural areas began hoarding their produce because they couldn’t get a good enough price in the cities, meaning that people in the cities starved.

The result was a black market where the rich could still buy the goods they needed, while the poor had no access to food at all. These famines were fixed temporarily when the government sent soldiers to take food from the farmers and bring it to the city by force, but this only caused more unrest.^[9]

1 September Massacres

After Louis was killed, the government fell into chaos. No-one knew who was in charge. In the meantime the Paris Commune, who were supported by the armed mob, had all the power. Chaos reigned as the new government fought over who should be in power, alongside issues like the economy, the army, and the justice system.

What dominated, however, was a fear of counter-revolutionary backlash. The new movement had been denounced in Britain, Austria and Prussia, and war loomed on the horizon. Meanwhile, French royalists were gathering support in other parts of the country. The revolutionaries feared that, if a royalist army was to attack Paris, the new revolutionary government would fall. In particular, they came to believe that the inmates of the city’s prisons would join with the counter-revolutionaries if given a chance. These fears were exacerbated when it came time for the new army to leave the city, with the people believing it would leave the city vulnerable to a prison break.

Between the 2nd and 6th of September 1792, the inmates were attacked by revolutionary mobs, with over 1000 being killed in the space of a single day. Half the city’s entire prison population was massacred, with corpses left mutilated in the streets. The revolutionary government sent letters to regional governments saying that conspirators in the city’s prisons had been executed. The act was repeated elsewhere: murders of prisoners took place in 75 of France’s 83 departments.^[10]

10 Things We Owe To The French Revolution

The French Empire officially refers to the geopolitical entity set up by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804, though the French colonial empire is way older than that. French colonies started showing up in the Americas and India as early as the 17th century, and some of them still remain under French control. For the purposes of our discussion, though, we’d draw the line at the Algerian war of Independence in 1962, which is considered by many to be the effective end of the French colonial empire.

Throughout this long period, French society went through many profound changes in its government and social structure – changes that had a cascading effect on Europe and the rest of the world. One can find traces of many political currents that swept across the world in the 19th and 20th centuries within the history of the French Empire, including our modern ideas of liberty, freedom, revolution, and nationalism. In many ways, France is where the modern era began, despite strong, often well-armed resistance from the old one. 

10. Revolutionary And Napoleonic Wars

The Revolutionary Wars were a series of conflicts between revolutionary France and almost all other major European powers at the time, most of them absolute monarchies. Beginning in 1792, the conflict would go on for more than two decades, pitting France against some of the largest, most battle-hardened armies of that time, including Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and sometimes even the Ottomans.

The Napoleonic phase of the conflict is now known as the Napoleonic wars, beginning with the establishment of his consulate in 1799. Despite the overwhelming combined superiority of the rest of Europe, France – at least in the first phase – proved to be an exceptional military foe. Many factors have been proposed for their early successes, including the military genius of Napoleon Bonaparte, introduction of the mass conscription system still used in countries around the world, and high morale among French soldiers.

Conflict continued until 1815, when Napoleon was finally defeated and exiled for good, though this entire period would have a defining effect on European affairs for a long time to come. For one, its revolutionary nature helped spread the ideas of the revolution across the land, such as universal suffrage, worker’s rights, liberty for all, and all that other good stuff. 

9. The Original Vietnam War

The French Empire’s early experiments with overseas colonies might not have been as successful as, say, Britain or Spain, though it emerged as a formidable colonial power in the early part of the 20th century. Of all of its colonial possessions, Indochina – made up of modern day Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and parts of China – was one of the most lucrative. It was also strategically placed, which would be crucial in the upcoming World Wars.

That wouldn’t last long, however, as this was also a time when nationalist sentiments were growing within the country, especially Vietnam. As soon as WW2 was over, a majority of rebel fighters grouped under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, and declared a people’s republic in North Vietnam called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. 

The first Indochina War lasted from 1946 to 1954, and resulted in one of the largest military defeats for a European colonial power at the hands of a native rebel army. While it was the end of French presence in the region, they left a country divided between communist-held areas in the north, and US-backed, royalist territories in the south, paving the way for what we now know as the Vietnam war. 

8. Belle Époque

The French golden age – or Belle Époque, translated to ‘beautiful age’ – was a period of growth in arts, culture, living standards and general quality of life right after the Franco-Prussian war of 1971. It was also a relatively stable time without any major conflicts, allowing freer expression of ideas in all spheres. From 1871 to 1914, France tripled its GDP, made new strides in the upcoming fields of aviation, electronics, railways and automobile, and raised its urban wages by more than 50%, among many other achievements.

Some historians, though, object to that rosy view of this period, arguing that the time wasn’t a golden era for everyone involved. While some of the poorer sections of the society did benefit from this period of relative excess, most French citizens – especially outside its urban areas – saw little change in their day-to-day conditions. This was also when popular discontent started moving towards reactionary, racist points of view instead of the original ideas of the French revolution.

7. Left Vs. Right Wing

Left and right seem to be an arbitrary measure to describe political leaning, as there’s nothing inherently political or ideological about directions. Still, we continue to place conservative and reactionary ideologies to the right of the political spectrum, and those advocating for change or progressive reform on the left. 

Similar to a lot of other commonly used political phrases today – like the ‘Fourth Estate’ – the left and right wings come from the French Empire. Precisely, they refer to the revolutionary National Assembly established in 1789 and its seating arrangement. The supporters of King Louis XVI – who’d be executed by the guillotine in January 1793 – and other royalists sat on the right. The left was taken up by all kinds of radicals, from the Jacobins to moderate Girondins to the more conservative Dantonists. 

6. The Failed Colonial Empire

The history of the French Empire runs in stark contrast to other major European powers of the time. While others like Britain, Spain and Portugal already had thriving overseas colonial empires by the end of the 18th century, the French experiment with colonies didn’t turn out to be as successful, as they had lost most of their colonial possessions to Britain by the end of the 18th century.

That didn’t matter, though, as the political and social currents within France of that time would still have a major impact on European politics in the next century. While Britain’s colonial strategy was focused on overseas expansion, France developed theirs around battlefield superiority within Europe, and it turned out to be immensely successful during Napoleon’s reign. At the height of his power, France controlled almost the entirety of western Europe, with perhaps the largest army ever assembled in Europe up to that time.

5. Invasion Of Russia

We often compare the French invasion of Russia with Hitler’s disastrous Operation Barbarossa in the Soviet Union, though this interpretation is wrong on many levels. Most importantly, Napoleon’s wars, while still French, nationalistic and immensely bloody at times, weren’t ideologically or politically driven by the same interests as the Nazis; not even close. Strategically speaking, too, Napoleon fought a different, monarchist Russia that was far weaker compared to the Soviet war machine, making these comparisons illogical in many ways. 

What they did have in common, though, is the final outcome of the war: absolute ruin for the invading force. Napoleon’s Grande Armée lost just the same as Hitler’s, and in much the same way, too, thanks to bad roads, harsh weather conditions, and a massive scorched-Earth campaign undertaken by Russian forces to destroy everything in their retreat back into the interior. Napoleon – despite his extraordinary genius on the battlefield back in Europe – lost more than 300,000 of the 500,000 troops in the entire campaign, leading to his downfall and first exile to the Mediterranean island of Elba. 

4. The Paris Commune

While the French Revolution of 1789 did a lot to dismantle feudalism, its contribution to the emancipation of the most downtrodden parts of the French population was questionable. Many later thinkers consider it to be the end of feudalism and the beginning of industrial-era capitalism, as it did little to improve conditions for the rapidly emerging working class during the Industrial Revolution.

The Paris Commune of 1871 was another attempt almost a century later, though this time, it would be crushed far more brutally and finally. Set up in the immediate aftermath of the siege of Paris by Prussia in 1870-71, it was started by members of the National guard – a unit made of mostly workers defending the city – and went on for two months, before being suppressed by royalist forces. Some estimates put the number of dead at around 20,000, along with several other harsh measures against revolutionaries and other opposition groups within Paris. 

3. War in the Vendée

The Vendée uprising was an exceptionally brutal phase of the immediate post-revolution years in France. Historians at the time saw it in the binaries of revolution and counter-revolution, though as we’ve come to realize in the years since, it was far from being that simple. The rebelling population was largely Catholic, royalist, conservative, and in favor of the restoration of the monarchy. However,  it was also entirely made up of the local petty bourgeoisie – such as priests, administrators, military commanders, etc. – and working class people with their own idea of freedom. 

The threat of counter-revolution had been a part of revolutionary theory in France since its early phases back in 1789. The Vendée uprising was the first organized effort by counter-revolutionaries to retake France, blurring the line between popular revolt and revolution, as in this case, popular sentiment supported the re-establishment of the Ancien Régime.

Historians have tried to explain it in many ways,, including the overwhelmingly Catholic and conservative population of the Vendée. Whatever the causes, the revolt – which had quickly turned into full-fledged warfare – went on from 1793 to 1796, and saw some of the most brutal violence against civilians in post-revolutionary France.

Estimates vary, though anywhere between 117,000 to 200,000 people may have died throughout this war. Most of them were civilians, too, with cases of rape, torture, summary executions, and intentional destruction of civilian property rampant across the Vendée region. 

2. The Haitian Revolt

The Haitian revolt was an important event for colonial and revolutionary movements around the world, and is still referred to as the only successful slave revolt in history. Beginning in August, 1791 and ending in January 1804, it was one of the longest wars involving the French empire. 

It was also the perfect example of the inherent contradictions within revolutionary French society – slavery and colonialism were treated as antithetical to the ideals of the revolution and banned within France, while still extensively used for labor and profit in the American colonies. For the Haitians, it was a particularly paradoxical position to be in. 

Regardless, the revolt was fought on pretty much the same principles, espousing the ideas of liberty for everyone, separation of state and church, land reform for the common good, and freedom of religion. It’s debatable if those goals were actually achieved in the long term, though just like the French revolution that inspired it – which ultimately failed and resulted in an even stricter monarchy of the Bonapartists –  at least they tried. 

1. The Terror

By now, it’s clear that the French Revolution weighs heavily on the history of the French Empire. In some ways, it is the history of the French Empire, as France only reached the height of its imperial power in its immediate post-revolutionary years.

On the other hand, the revolution of 1789 also strengthened the forces of monarchy and royalism, largely triggered by the execution of Louis XVI by the guillotine in January, 1793. Within France, the event would further radicalize an already radical segment of the government, resulting in its bloodiest phase until that time – the Reign of Terror.

Beginning in September, Robespierrists – a radical Jacobin faction within the National Assembly – executed more than 40,000 people without trial for actions they perceived to be against the revolution. Between 300,000 to 500,000 were arrested across Paris, though accurate numbers are hard to come by due to the fog of war. 

It remains one the most controversial parts of French history as well as revolutionary theory, and would have a major impact on events within France and the rest of Europe in the coming decades. For one, it would associate images of bloodshed and wanton murder with the relatively egalatarian and progressive ideas of the French revolution, massively weakening its appeal among the more conservative sections of European society.

If ever we needed a real-world example of the mythological Pandora’s box, the French Revolution would suffice. What began in the late eighteenth century in a united spirit of brotherhood and rooted in the principles of the Enlightenment quickly descended into utter chaos, taking thousands of lives with it and forever changing the course of Europe and the rest of the Western world.

As the 1789 revolution was only the first of several in France, it is difficult to evaluate it in isolation. There can be no doubt, however, that many of the events that followed it were not in line with the principles that had inspired it. From a complete breakdown of social order to the eventual restoration of the ancient royal line, here are 10 unintended consequences of the first French Revolution.

10 From Starvation to War

The years leading up to the revolution were not easy. Decades of fiscal mismanagement had caused an economic crisis. Recurrent bad harvests coupled with an increasing population also led to widespread hunger and discontentment among the lower classes. Many facets of French society were outright medieval, including some agricultural methods and the continuing existence of serfdom in practical terms.

Those were the issues that prompted the revolution, but it soon snowballed into one of the most cataclysmic dramas in European history. No sooner had the initial incursions been made than extremist factions took the reins and set the country literally on the warpath. By 1792, France had declared war on Austria, the birthplace of the French king’s wife, Marie Antoinette. For the lowliest of French citizens, who’d gone from no bread to no peace, this could hardly have been an improvement.^[1]

9 Widespread Looting and General Disorder

Far from stabilizing the underlying tensions of the years leading up to it, the revolution quickly led to episodic breakdowns in law and order. As soon as one small step toward meaningful reform was taken, dissatisfaction quickly set in. France’s problems were far too complex to be swept away as easily as converting the absolute monarchy into a constitutional one, and patience was in short supply. Rioting, looting, and a general threat to the public order became commonplace.

In truth, the beginning stages of the revolution were dominated by moderate reforms compared to what came later. The men at the center of these changes were largely on the side of orderly progress and respect for the law. Unfortunately, steps like abolishing noble titles didn’t magically put bread on people’s tables. With the king no longer in control, the masses, who’d been promised change but had little to show for it, turned on authority in general.^[2]

8 New Aristocracy of the Rich

As influenced as they were by Enlightenment principles, the revolutionary powers that be were willing to take their agenda only so far. Universal suffrage was out of the question. Basically, to have any say at all, you had to be a property-holding man who paid taxes. This was a voting bloc of some few million male citizens, compared to an overall population approaching 30 million.

This pool of male property-holders elected fellow tax-paying representatives to act on their behalf. It was these higher-taxed representatives who themselves elected the men who actually ended up in office. This created a system whereby men with money chose men with more money to put other men they trusted into government. The old aristocracy, of birth and privilege, was replaced with a new aristocracy of wealth and concentrated voting power. Dissatisfaction with this new system eventually provoked more radical action.^[3]

7 Enduring Inequality of Women

Considering the pivotal role women played in the early days of the revolution, you’d think the movement’s leaders would have been more amenable to feminist causes. That certainly would’ve lined up philosophically with their dismantling of the feudal system and other structures of arbitrary privilege. Unfortunately, as far as women were concerned, pre- and post-revolutionary France were two heads of the same beast.

As their American counterparts had done, the French revolutionaries drew up a new constitution that provided equality for all men. In both cases, women were not even mentioned. Rightly incensed at having been left behind, in 1791, political activist Olympe de Gouges authored a woman-centered companion text to the famous “Declaration of the Rights of Man.” Not long after, Gouges became yet another casualty of the revolution.^[4]

6 Disestablishment of the Church

Some of the revolutionaries’ early religious reforms were supported even by members of the Roman Catholic clergy in France, but these were soon overtaken by increasingly zealous changes. Within the space of a few months, the Church’s income was abolished and its lands forsaken, making it dependent on the state. In 1790, a glimpse of the radicalism that would soon consume France came in the form of the clerical oath. This was a requirement for all clergymen to swear allegiance to the new constitution.

Half refused, including most senior clergymen, on the grounds that their allegiance was to their faith. The Pope himself denounced the actions of the revolutionaries, who also intended to open up clerical appointments to popular elections, thereby restructuring the internal governance of the Church. Priests who refused to publicly endorse the new constitution had no option but to flee into exile. These changes politicized religion and turned the Vatican into an enemy of the revolution. Disestablishment followed not long after.^[5]

5 Reign of Terror

The most notorious aspects of the revolution were not seen in its initial stages but after the king and queen had been deposed, and a new republic declared. Already imprisoned and completely powerless, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were subsequently executed by the republican authorities in 1793. After that, the new French Republic and the governing Committee of Public Safety turned its attentions to other perceived enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Indeed, the revolutionary fervor had only begun. Within 18 months of the king’s execution, over 20,000 people had been sentenced to death or died imprisoned without trial. The powers of Europe united against France, sparking conscription, which itself led to internal rebellion. Priests and the Christian religion were massacred and denigrated. Finally, in a macabre and ironic twist, one of the Terror’s most famous figures, Robespierre, was himself guillotined and made a scapegoat for the Committee’s excesses.^[6]

4 A King for an Emperor

King Louis XVI was deposed in 1792 and summarily executed. His wife, Marie Antoinette, followed shortly after that, as well as other members of the royal family, other members of the nobility, and anyone else the revolutionary courts deemed a threat to the new order. By 1795, the king’s only surviving son, Louis Charles, by most accounts, had died of neglect at the hands of the revolutionaries. However, the exact circumstances of his death have never been uncovered.

For everything it took to rid themselves of the ancient monarchical system, you’d think the French would have been outright opposed to any return to similar customs. But in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte, who’d started life as the son of a minor nobleman, crowned himself emperor after a few years’ rule as a dictator. The last of his reigning descendants was Napoleon III, who fittingly was also the country’s final monarch.^[7]

3 Ten-Hour Days and a New Calendar

In 1792, perhaps the most peculiar and unnecessarily confusing exercise of the revolution, the first republican government instituted a new calendar stripped of the perceived Christian and royalist characteristics of the Gregorian calendar. Year I of the new republic was established to have started in September, and the calendar eventually came to be used not just in France but in other territories that fell under French control during the revolutionary wars.

There were still 12 months, but fewer weeks since they were now 10 days long (the leftover days were treated as bonuses, with no parent months). For some reason, the revolutionaries were particularly enthusiastic about decimalization, so each day was made 10 hours long. If this weren’t baffling enough, imagine trying to wrap your head around it in an environment of riots, political chaos, and war. Thankfully for Europe’s sanity, this bizarre experiment was eventually abandoned, with Napoleon abolishing the calendar shortly after becoming emperor.^[8]

2 Bourbon Restoration

Considering the point of the revolution was to get rid of the Ancien Régime, it’s safe to say its least intended outcome was the restoration of the old dynasty, but that’s precisely what happened. Just over two decades after the fall of the Bourbon monarchy and the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Louis’s brother assumed the throne as Louis XVIII in 1814, albeit with certain concessions.

Louis XVIII’s reign was short but more effective than that of his reactionary brother, Charles, who became almost immediately unpopular upon ascending. A traditionalist, Charles attempted to revive some of the characteristics of the Old Regime, which led to disaster. In 1830, revolution again visited France, but mercifully in a more peaceful fashion, with Charles agreeing to abdicate in favor of his cousin, Louis Philippe. Louis Philippe’s own reign would meet its end with a further revolution in 1848.^[9]

1 Long-Lasting Partisanship and Deadlock

It’s human nature to look for resolution in the world around us. For those living through it, the revolution probably seemed climactic, the final chapter in the Ancien Régime story that, once lived through, would condemn its difficulties to history. But the months and years that followed brought their own sets of problems, not least of which were extreme partisanship and disenchantment with the democratic process.

Politically speaking, the terms “left” and “right” are inheritances from the revolution that we still use today, originally referring to the position of the liberal and conservative factions in the National Assembly. We already know the results of the breakdown in cooperation between the various deputies, some of which are named in this list. Today, partisanship and governmental gridlock continue to be serious problems for nations around the world.^[10]

French efforts to expand its overseas empire go as far back as the 16th century, though it wasn’t until 1605 that a settled outpost was established in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, it would grow to be one of the largest and wealthiest empires in history, with colonies spread across the Americas, Africa, Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and southeast Asia at its peak. Much of that was made possible by military conquest, as the French army was also a potent and formidable military force, often equipped with state-of-the-art technology and made up of conscripts from around the world.

Of course, the French imperial army also went through its fair share of military defeats, much like every other empire in history. Despite its technological superiority and vast numbers, the French empire faced many worthy enemies throughout its existence. That includes two large wars of independence in Indochina – now Vietnam – and Algeria, and the largest slave rebellion ever in Haiti, among other lesser-known conflicts fought around the world.

10. Korea

The French invasion of Korea in 1866 was triggered by the persecution of Christians ongoing across the country at that time. In February, seven French Catholic missionaries were executed on the orders of the imperial regent of Korea, drawing a disproportionate response from the French forces stationed in the Far East.

Fighting was largely limited to Ganghwa island – a strategic location on the Han river en route to Seoul. For six weeks beginning in October, the French forces occupying the island made multiple attempts to advance towards the heavily-fortified capital, though to little success. The Korean army was better-equipped and numerically-superior, with the added ‘home ground’ advantage. The invasion resulted in a humiliating defeat for the French, which massively reduced its influence in the region for years to come. 

9. Austria

The Battle of Neerwinden was fought on March 18, 1793 between France and an Austrian army led by the Habsburg Prince Frederick Josias. While not a major battle on its own, it was an important engagement in the larger French Revolutionary wars – a series of conflicts between post-revolution France and a coalition of European monarchies. 

It was the first French defeat in the otherwise-successful invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, setting the stage for further setbacks against the Habsburgs during the following year. Despite the revolutionary morale and numerical superiority of the French troops, they were no match for the trained, experienced army wielded by Austria. By the end of it, the French army was forced to retreat with losses of over 4,000 soldiers, compared to about 2,000 lives lost on the Austrian side. 

8. China

The 1859 Battle of Taku Forts in China happened in the backdrop of the Opium Wars – a decades-long war that pitted the British and French empire against imperial China. It was a large-scale conflict occasionally involving other European powers, fought primarily over trading rights in China. While the western nations ultimately won the war, the battle at Taku Forts was a huge setback for both Britain and France, forcing them to retreat and return with a much larger force. 

On June 25, allied forces began bombarding the forts – a strategic location on the way to the capital city of Peking, now Beijing. A contingent of soldiers was also sent to overrun the garrison, though the combined attack was soon halted and repulsed by the heavily-fortified defensive positions of the Chinese. Out of 1,100 invading soldiers, 434 were killed or wounded that day, with four of their gunboats sunk.  

7. Mexico

Cinco de Mayo is often confused with Mexico’s independence day, though it’s actually the date of a major Mexican victory against French forces back in 1862. Known as the Battle of Puebla, it was one of the many small and large-scale battles fought during the Second French Intervention in Mexico – an invasion launched by Napoleon III to replace the nascent Mexican republic with a conservative French puppet state. 

At the time, Puebla was the second largest Mexican city, located at a strategic location on the way to the capital. The French – emboldened by earlier victories in the campaign and the overwhelming technological and military superiority of their forces – attacked the city on May 5. While the defending army was made up of volunteers and poorly-trained militias armed with basic weapons like machetes, they were able to hold off the French advance, eventually forcing them to retreat. 

The victory at Puebla galvanized Mexican resistance against colonialism. While France did take Puebla and Mexico City in 1863, they could never hold the territory due to irregular warfare waged by Mexican rebels across the countryside. After nearly six years of fighting, French forces completely withdrew from Mexico in March, 1867. 

6. Japan

When France was successfully invaded and occupied by Germany during the early phases of the Second World War, many of its overseas properties were still controlled by imperial French troops. Sensing an opportunity, Japan signed a pact with the collaborationist Vichy government to station more than 6,000 troops in French Indochina – a colonial-era name for the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. 

Without warning, a full-scale Japanese invasion was launched on September 22, 1940, as infantry columns breached the border at three places. For close to five days, colonial French troops and Foreign Legionaires fought the Imperial Japanese Army for control of major strategic points, though they were eventually defeated by the superior Japanese airpower and armor.

5. Prussia

The Franco-Prussian War began in July 1870, when the French emperor Napoleon III ordered his troops to mount a full-scale invasion of Prussia – then a loose confederation of German states under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck. While the immediate cause was a dispute regarding the Spanish throne, the war was fought in the backdrop of a larger rivalry between Prussia and France – at that point two of the most powerful states in Europe. 

The war ended in disaster for France. Despite being evenly matched in terms of numbers, Prussia was able to deploy a large number of troops to the battlefield within a few days’ time. French soldiers, on the other hand, were usually unequipped or late to the front, resulting in catastrophic losses for one of the most technologically-advanced military forces of the time.

The war ended with the Siege of Paris and eventual French defeat in 1971, and it would have lasting consequences for Europe in the years to come. In France, it ended Napoleon’s reign and established the French Third Republic. In Germany, it reinforced popular faith in German militarism and united the previously-separate Prussian states into a singular German empire. 

4. Vietnam

The First Indochina war between France and communist rebels in Vietnam – then Indochina – began almost as soon as the end of WW2. As Japan signed the surrender terms on September 2, 1945, an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam was declared by the Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh on the same day, setting the stage for a years-long conflict that would significantly erode the strength of the French colonial empire.

While fighting was limited to small-scale, low-intensity skirmishes in the early years, all that changed in 1949 after the successful revolution in China. The Viet Minh deployed increasingly aggressive guerrilla tactics across North Vietnam and parts of South Vietnam, prompting the United States and other western powers to get involved. 

The war came to an end with the siege of Dien Bien Phu – a mountain outpost near the Laotian border occupied by France. While heavily fortified and regularly supplied from air, the garrison couldn’t withstand the overwhelming assault by Viet Minh forces. The garrison was overrun within two months beginning in March, 1954, bringing a decisive and bloody end to the French colonial empire in Asia. 

3. Algeria

The Algerian War of Independence against colonial French rule was one of the largest conflicts of the 20th century. Beginning in 1954 and lasting until 1962, more than 1.5 million Algerians may have died throughout the war, though the real numbers could be far higher. Much of the violence could be attributed to French retaliation against revolutionary activities by the Algerians, particularly those allied with the National Liberation Front (FLN), including summary executions, rape, and torture against the native civilian population.

The most intense phase of the war was the Battle of Algiers in 1956-57, where Algerian rebels deployed increasingly-brutal combat techniques to break the French will to fight. While retaliation was often swift and disproportionate, the ferocity of the fighting quickly turned the French citizenry against the war. France did make some breakthroughs from 1958 and 1959, though growing anti-war pressure at home and abroad forced Charles de Gaulle to sign a peace agreement in 1962, ending more than 132 years of French rule in Algeria. 

2. Russia