Comment on Vive la révolution! Vive l'Empereur!
PugJesus@piefed.social 22 hours ago
Explanation: After the French Revolution, the French executed their king and declared their allegiance to a REPUBLIC of the French PEOPLE!
… after a decade of political chaos, the French eagerly embraced an ambitious war hero by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte, who proclaimed himself First Consul of the French Republic, and then, after that, Emperor, to genuine applause and popular support.
The PEOPLE’S monarchy!
Napoleon was certainly a very different kind of monarch than the French king who was executed - Napoleon always regarded himself as a tool of the Revolution, and the other monarchs of Europe agreed, with disgust. But it also can’t be denied that Napoleon’s reign included severe democratic backsliding and the concentration of absolute power into the hands of an autocrat, which is pretty contrary to many of the nice, inspiring words proclaimed as the core ideals of the French people during the Revolution.
Olap@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
See also: Cromwell. Pretty much the same thing a hundred years earlier