Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [MLUG][DISCUSSION] Another reason not to be like France

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 4/16/08, Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> Mike Miller wrote:
> > On Wed, 16 Apr 2008, Scott Hussey wrote:
> >
> > > Interesting that the French signed their own death certificate. Without
> America's democratic experiment (and the huge debt racked up by France in
> the Revolutionary War), it is doubtful the French Revolution would have
> happened with quite the same fervor.
> >
> > Did the French royals do this because they were more concerned about
> controlling the British than with dealing with an uprising of their own
> people?
>
> I don't know.  But history books I read as a kid suggest that the British
> and French were on very agreeable terms at home - it was just in their
> foreign policies that they were at loggerheads.

And had been for a very long time. I always supposed that French and
Spanish cooperation with the American colonists was based almost
exclusively on the fact they wanted to weaken Britain.

> Maybe it was a case of
> breakdown of communication in the government between home affairs and
> foreign affairs.
>
> I would think that the French royalty were utterly dismissive and arrogant
> in any dangers they may have perceived from their own people.

The French royalty and aristocracy of the 18th century practically
*define* dismissive and arrogant, with a bit of stupifying ignorance
thrown in. I mean, "Let them eat cake" (not actually cake but a
different kind of quick bread) was really more completely clueless
than it was arrogant.

jking

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