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abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

I mean, am I wrong? France bankrupted itself in the war and in funding the American revolution. The American Revolution produced and popularised a lot of ideas that found their way to France and inspired ideas in the French Revolution (as well as a rebellion in Scotland but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

The French Revolution gave rise to the idea of the Modern Nation State and Napoleon’s invasions of places like Italy and Germany implanted this idea in those places which eventually lead to the Nationalist revolutions in Germany and Italy in the 19th century.

If the American revolution failed, we’d might not have the French Revolution we know of today. If that is the case, there’s no rise of the Nation State and no Napoleon to spread it, ergo, no Germany or Italy, as well as a lot of other countries.

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Sergio@piefed.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This isn't really my area, but afaik....

the French bankrupted themselves for a number of reasons, one of which was indeed the global Ango-French War (which resulted in the creation of the USA) and the earlier Seven Years War. This wasn't the only cause of the French Revolution.

the American and French Revolutions were both products of "the Englightenment" which took part in Europe. To their credit, several of the American leaders saw the value in it and adopted those ideas, but America was pretty much a backwater at that time. Of course American independence was a topic of discussion, much in the same way that the war in Ukraine is today. No doubt some people were "inspired by" the distant foreign war, as an example of ideas that had developed locally.

I think the 1648 treaties of Westphalia are generally considered the beginning of modern nation states. I think it'd be tough to argue that German and Italian nationalism were "implanted" by the French Revolution.

I had a brilliant concluding paragraph but I accidentally deleted it. Something about how this period of history has many relevant lessons about balancing domestic vs international policy, updating antiquated systems of economic and representation systems, and the interplay between popular movements and individual leaders. But this is, after all, a shitposting community, so no great loss.
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