[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
The monarchy came back several times.

[/ QUOTE ] But it was never the same.

Can you get yer mind around that without burping?

[ QUOTE ]
The real success of the revolution was the guillotine. Now that is a true symbol of France.

[/ QUOTE ] Yes, they still slice their baguettes with it... [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

FWIW, I think it is probably not a bad way to execute people, if you have to. Better than hanging or the garotte, from what the experts say.

And you forgot that the French brought Terror into politics. Shouldn't the American natioon feel grateful at least for that ?

By the way, the American Revolution (to get the ball under control somewhat) was an insurgency of natives against leaders living abroad and far away. A colony was rebelling against the metropolis. (Mind you, getting rid of King George's authority was not on the agenda right away!) It was an independence movement, that formualted on the basis of the small, independent middle class men that rose to the surface in American society, unhindered by the family provileges of European caountries. That movement progressed towards a higher level, that of political revolution, achieving extremely important ideological accomplishments in the process.

On the other hand, the French Revolution was purely a political uprising, directed against specific authorities, i.e. the feudal masters, the Church and the Monarchy. All three were never the same, anywhere.

A cursory look at the fires started all over the world, from Haiti to the Middle East, by the sparks of 1789 suffices to demonstrate that the French Revolution was a critical turning point in History, which profoundly affected human affairs (and its reverberations have reached well into the 20th century).

As Chu En Lai half-jokingly responded to a western journalist's question, during Nixon's visit in Peking, about the French Revoluition's impact, "It's too early to tell"...