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Francisco de Miranda was a Venezuelan revolutionary leader, considered to be the precursor for the more successful and famous Simon Bolivar. After a military career in Spanish service, including fighting in the American Revolutionary War, he toured Europe to try to interest one of the great powers in supporting revolution in Spanish America. During his time in Europe, he managed to become a general in the French revolutionary army and despite being indicted twice by the Revolutionary Tribunal, he was acquitted and feted a hero.
On Miranda's release from prison, he looked to an alliance with royalists and moderates against the Thermidorian regime. According to Robert Harvey (Liberators), Miranda "made no secret of the fact that he wanted to hold office in post-revolutionary France" and despite being "a Spanish Creole, the lieutenant of a provincial regiment of his Catholic Majesty's, and a total stranger in France where he has lived only a few years and where he has only been known since the Revolution" he was considered as the possible leader of a military coup against the Directory. Miranda knew Napoleon Bonaparte, who described him both as a demagogue and as "a Don Quixote with the difference that he not mad... with sacred fire burning in his soul".
Ultimately, Miranda was accused of being involved in monarchist conspiracies and was exiled from France, but could things have been different? If Miranda, instead of Napoleon, had led the coup against the Directory, what would his regime have been like?