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Vive la France!


Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Egorger vos fils et vos compagnes !

Refrain:
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons !

Que veut cette horde d'esclaves
De traîtres, de rois conjurés ?
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves
Ces fers dès longtemps préparés ? (bis)
Français, pour nous, ah ! quel outrage
Quels transports il doit exciter ?
C'est nous qu'on ose méditer
De rendre à l'antique esclavage !

Refrain

Quoi ces cohortes étrangères !
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers !
Quoi ! ces phalanges mercenaires
Terrasseraient nos fils guerriers ! (bis)
Grand Dieu ! par des mains enchaînées
Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient
De vils despotes deviendraient
Les maîtres des destinées.

Refrain

Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides
L'opprobre de tous les partis
Tremblez ! vos projets parricides
Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix ! (bis)
Tout est soldat pour vous combattre
S'ils tombent, nos jeunes héros
La France en produit de nouveaux,
Contre vous tout prêts à se battre

Refrain

Français, en guerriers magnanimes
Portez ou retenez vos coups !
Épargnez ces tristes victimes
A regret s'armant contre nous (bis)
Mais ces despotes sanguinaires,
Mais ces complices de Bouillé
Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié
Déchirent le sein de leur mère !

Refrain

("Couplet des enfants")

Nous entrerons dans la carrière
Quand nos aînés n'y seront plus,
Nous y trouverons leur poussière
Et la trace de leurs vertus (bis)
Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre
Que de partager leur cercueil,
Nous aurons le sublime orgueil
De les venger ou de les suivre !

Refrain

Amour sacré de la Patrie,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs
Liberté, Liberté chérie,
Combats avec tes défenseurs ! (bis)
Sous nos drapeaux que la victoire
Accoure à tes mâles accents,
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire !

Refrain

Do you think the French Revolution was a good thing?

Vive la France!

Do you think the French Revolution was a good thing?


I respect France and her national traditions.

Do you think the French Revolution was a good thing?
Impossible to say, society changed so radical then, and so much has happened, it is hard to comment on such a wide event. I doubt many people will agree with me, but I think that most of the changes made in the revolution were for the better.

Impossible to say, society changed so radical then, and so much has happened, it is hard to comment on such a wide event. I doubt many people will agree with me, but I think that most of the changes made in the revolution were for the better.
I say by every objective measure it was an unmitigated disaster. Monarchy( not that Louis XVI didn't bring much of his problems on himself by bankrupting France in a very wasteful war with Britain... and I would have been a Tory) tends to be a far less obtrusive form of government. Napolean's Empire made the French feel good about themselves for a while but they've declined in every way since( especially militarily...).

Oh and the revolutionaries executed Lavoisier...

They were trapped in an agrarian, unindustrialized economy with little hopes of advance. And I disagree about monarchy: it is only as good as the quality of the king in power at the moment, and as intrusive as his personality allows him to be. Monarchy as it existed in those days was the reason European maps had to be redrawn every 5 years, with all the warring going on. The politics in Europe these days suck, but I can't understand people who hate it so much they actually feel nostalgic about the disastrous absolutism of those days.

They were trapped in an agrarian, unindustrialized economy with little hopes of advance. And I disagree about monarchy: it is only as good as the quality of the king in power at the moment, and as intrusive as his personality allows him to be. Monarchy as it existed in those days was the reason European maps had to be redrawn every 5 years, with all the warring going on. The politics in Europe these days suck, but I can't understand people who hate it so much they actually feel nostalgic about the disastrous absolutism of those days.
Outside of Russia Serfs paid less then 25% of their income in taxes and feudal dues. Few Democracies are so economical with their free citizens. Government also tended to be a more localized affair before the French Revolution.

Italy was loaded with Republics which redrew their maps constantly, Germany while local administration tended to be very autocratic generally lacked a controlling monarchy and was divided between petty princes( little more then warlords... hence I say the HRE was anarchistic). The age between the 30 years war and the French Revolution is also called "The Age of Limited Warfare" there was no total mobilization for war or mass army.

The only respect which Monarchial France can really be unfavorably compared to social Democracy is the incredibly bad king Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes.