WI: Robespierre and the Jacobins Retain Power?

[Christian]

There was a discussion on this on the other site, and there wasn’t really much fruitful discussion, so I’m hoping that there would be a bit more here.

So, how would people here think it would look like? Someone once said that a likely course is that the Thermidorians would have been smeared like Robespierre actually was, and the violence would have been toned down as that was the trend that was emerging at the time. Eventually a sort of leftist-Consulate would have emerged with the close allies of Robespierre as its leading figures, such as Hanriot, Saint-Just, Augustin, his younger brother, and Napoleon, who would have been a favorite general due to Augustin’s friendship with him.

The most likely power struggle would have been on who is Robespierre’s heir, and that would likely happen not too long in the future as he always had a fragile health. So around the late 1790s or so.

Going a bit away from that, another interesting thing that’s possibly going to happen is a continued relationship with the Ottomans as Robespierre stressed the natural alliance between France and Turkey. He would have lobbied hard for them to recognize the republic as France’s legitimate government and would avoid the Egyptian expedition which sunk relations between the two countries.

He also would most likely emphasize France’s current borders as he never much believed in territorial expansion, but, in a book on his foreign policy, he most likely would have asked for Belgium in a possible peace deal.

 

[Yokai Man]

I feel that at some point the rest of France will get fed up with Robespierre’s anti-Christianism and imposing his version of Atenism and will rise up sooner or later. Maybe even a semi-successful Breton independence.

A power struggle will happen after Robey croaks it and,depending how it will,either Boney gets to be Caesar or Saint-Just maintains the status quo til it cannot be maintained anymore.

 

[Lucon50]

There's a possibility that, in any eventual succession war, Napoleon still comes out on top. However, a more influential Jacobin party in the long term might help others rise up. Contrary to what some think, Robespierre purged those who tried to overthrow the radical revolutionaries, but was not a bloodthirsty maniac and also introduced many social reforms while attempting to bring in safeguards against more violence. His OTL downfall led directly to Monsieur Bonaparte.

 

[Roger II]

There's a possibility that, in any eventual succession war, Napoleon still comes out on top. However, a more influential Jacobin party in the long term might help others rise up. Contrary to what some think, Robespierre purged those who tried to overthrow the radical revolutionaries, but was not a bloodthirsty maniac and also introduced many social reforms while attempting to bring in safeguards against more violence. His OTL downfall led directly to Monsieur Bonaparte.

So what do you think drove the Terror then?

 

[Christian]

So what do you think drove the Terror then?

If you subscribe to a more materialistic interpretation of the revolution, then it could be argued that the terror was driven by the real fears of counter-revolution and war. Certainly there were a lot of real plots and the war was a crisis that drove the government into complete extremes. I know that the worse days of the terror were when the situation was much calmer, but it could be argued that it was the culmination of the paranoia and fear that began with the war, or even further back, the king's flight.

How Robespierre, or his successors since he might not be healthy enough, would act in peace would be the biggest question. They were put in power because of a war crisis, what now? How would they accept the democratic process? Most of the country was, at least, quietly royalist or didn't care much for the republic, so how would these democrats accept that fact? That, I think, is one of the most interesting questions available.

 

[marktaha]

Hadn't Robespierre banned the accused from even having a defence?

 

[raharris1973]

He also would most likely emphasize France’s current borders as he never much believed in territorial expansion, but, in a book on his foreign policy, he most likely would have asked for Belgium in a possible peace deal.

Would be interesting to see if a Robespierrist Montagnard-Jacobin France could have by the later 1790s settled into a Cold War/Cold Peace situation with its European and British neighbors, and Robespierre and the ruling faction defining their program as "Republicanism in one country" - France, with Belgium or minor border adjustments at most, and persisting in internal socieconomic and cultural reforms at home and in its colonies. French Revolutionary Stalinist caution. The stock of French emigres in the near and mid-term falls as other states tire of supporting their invasions and plots, and they have to figure how to make a living in exile and the market for sad autobiographies starts to shrivel.