Creative and interesting directions the French Revolution could go in

Whenever the French Revolution happens in timelines, it tends to go in directions very similar to what happened in our timeline. It seems to be such a chaotic event could spill into a huge myriad of possibilities. I like to imagine alternate history as a tree of possible paths, which split into many branches, with those branches splitting, and those ones splitting too. It seems to me that with the French Revolution there are a LOT of splits in the potential paths, and those splits could go in very extreme directions.

I would love to hear people's thoughts and theories about paths it could take, particularly if they are odd (while still somewhat plausible) ones that we didn't go near in OTL. Using the tree analogy again, I'm not just interested in the first splits from our timeline, but the splits off them so that it creates something very different indeed.
 
Whenever the French Revolution happens in timelines, it tends to go in directions very similar to what happened in our timeline. It seems to be such a chaotic event could spill into a huge myriad of possibilities. I like to imagine alternate history as a tree of possible paths, which split into many branches, with those branches splitting, and those ones splitting too. It seems to me that with the French Revolution there are a LOT of splits in the potential paths, and those splits could go in very extreme directions.

I would love to hear people's thoughts and theories about paths it could take, particularly if they are odd (while still somewhat plausible) ones that we didn't go near in OTL. Using the tree analogy again, I'm not just interested in the first splits from our timeline, but the splits off them so that it creates something very different indeed.

One possibility I thinked about was that of a sort of modern Sparta. There was a proposal in the parliament to remove the kids from their family at 5 to be send to a republican school where they would learn republican values. Combine that with a partial military dictatorship like a more democratic consulate with three equals military consuls and you can have a fun France i think. Maybe a little ASB, but fun i think.
 
What I'd like to see is a TL where 1789 is an early 1848, not a French Revolution.

In OTL you had the Belgian Revolution, the Patriot Revolt, Hungary almost rising up, and Poland trying to reform.

It's a bit tough to jiggle, but a Habsburg implosion might see the entire continent radically be reshaped.
 
I am thoroughly intrigued. Though, I have to say, Napoleon's my boy. I cannot bring myself to butterfly him away. Writing flaw.
 
Haha, well, I like Napoleon and his son, but the rest of his family doesn't quite cut it for me. I am just weird I suppose. I know this has been brought up before, but what if the Revolution was not in France, and under some other absolute regime? (Kind of what Faeelin said, only in a more strict sense, like no French Revolution, just an Austrian Revolution along the original lines... if that makes any sense at all.)
 
Why not having revolution really starting in other country like in Austria and in all major country following the french exemple? Could it lead to some kind of pan-european movement?
 
I am thoroughly intrigued. Though, I have to say, Napoleon's my boy. I cannot bring myself to butterfly him away. Writing flaw.
But he doesn't actually have to be French, does he? What if Genoa had sold Corsica to some other nation instead of to France, such as the Kingdom of Sardinia or even the UK?
 
But he doesn't actually have to be French, does he? What if Genoa had sold Corsica to some other nation instead of to France, such as the Kingdom of Sardinia or even the UK?

Well, Thande did that, but a Bonaparte elsewhere would just be another middling guy, no?

I would argue the Revolutions were a pan-Europeanist movement, with a lot of it inspired by the American example. The Articles of Confederation were the draft for the government for the United States of Belgium; the Patriots in the Netherlands were inspired by the American example; Thomas Paine was in Paris; Leopold, as Grand Duke of Tuscany, drafted a constitution modeled on the Virginia Bill of Rights. Tadeusz Kościuszko, who was a colonel in the American army, helped lead Polish resistance to the partitions.
 
What I'd most like to hear about are interesting political developments within France, particularly before Napoleon gets to power.
 
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