Chapter Six - France Eats the Rich

CHAPTER SIX

France Eats the Rich

IN AMERICA, REVOLUTION was dressed in parchment and powdered wigs.

In France, it came with a guillotine.

What started as a political crisis turned into an all-consuming fire — burning through monarchy, nobility, church, and eventually, itself.

This wasn’t reform.
This was judgment.

By the late 1780s, France was broke.

Decades of war. Bad harvests. A tax system built to protect the rich and bleed the poor. Bread prices doubled. Starvation loomed. And the monarchy — Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette — stayed oblivious in Versailles.

Meanwhile, the Third Estate — the commoners — made up 98% of the country and had no real power.

Until they said no more.

In 1789, The Estates-General was called for the first time in 175 years.
It backfired.

The Third Estate broke off. Declared itself the National Assembly. Swore the Tennis Court Oath — they wouldn’t back down until a constitution was written.

Then came July 14.

Crowds stormed the Bastille, a royal prison and symbol of tyranny. Heads on pikes. Gunpowder stolen. Revolution fully activated.

The monarchy started hemorrhaging power — and the people wanted blood.

In 1791, the king tried to flee.
In 1792, the monarchy was abolished.
In 1793, the king was beheaded.

Followed by the queen.
Followed by nobles.
Followed by enemies.
Followed by friends.

The Reign of Terror began — led by Robespierre, who promised virtue through violence. The guillotine became a national pastime. Paranoia turned revolutionaries into executioners.

Then Robespierre himself lost his head.

After years of chaos, France turned to a general: Napoléon Bonaparte.
He ended the revolution. Crowned himself emperor. And launched new wars across Europe.

The revolution that killed monarchy ended with a new kind of monarch — one who had earned his throne, not inherited it.

The French Revolution changed everything:

• It destroyed divine right.
• It turned citizens into the new center of power.
• It showed that revolution could be total — not just political, but social, economic, psychological.

And it haunted every king and emperor that came after.

Because France didn’t just kill its rulers.
It made revolution a contagion — a possibility.
A terrifying precedent.

You could cut off a king’s head.

And the sky didn’t fall.