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by guerrilla 1412 days ago
And what happened after that? You're not being serious if you just end there. Liberal democracy, capitalism and the metric system in most of the world...
2 comments

Are you implying that the Napoleonic wars, all of the resulting politics, etc. are the natural result of revolution? That the revolutionary ideal requires military defeat in order to reach a positive end state?

You're not being serious if you end there.

No. I'm stating that the world today depended on the French Revolution happening.
The question is if these ideas, already in place would have come to fruition without the suffering of people up front. We just can't know. I remember a similar discussion with my history professor and us students when talking about the French Revolution and about the Enlightenment. We basically have only one history and are not able to state that the French Revolution was the cause for these good ideas to follow. We couldn't even state it as a catalyst with certainty.

Edit: Typo

> The question is if these ideas, already in place would have come to fruition without the suffering of people up front

Of course not. Those in power don't just willingly give it up.