What if the French Revolution Failed?

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The House of Bourbon and the monarchy was overthrown in the French Revolution, leading to the reign of terror and rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Today we explore what would’ve happened if Louis XVI and Marie Antionette remained in power, as France kept its monarchy, and defeated the French Revolution.

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Sparked by a financial crisis, the French 
Revolution broke out in 1789 as “enlightened ideals” led to the fall of the Bastille and 
the rise of the Jacobin radicals. In June 1791, Louis XVI, fearing for his safety, attempted 
to flee Paris with his family in the ill-fated Flight to Varennes. Disguised as commoners, 
they aimed for the royalist stronghold of Montmédy but were recognized and captured in 
Varennes, shipped back to Paris and imprisoned. The revolution radicalized, culminating 
in the Reign of Terror under Robespierre, where thousands, including Louis, Marie 
Antoinette, and his young children were killed “to defend the revolution.” After the 
revolution cannibalized itself and failed to rectify the economy, Napoleon seized power, 
continuing the wars that destroyed Europe, spreading revolutionary ideals across the 
continent. Since the overthrow of the Bourbons, France has been under 11 different 
regimes, cycling between empire, monarchy, republic and fascism, with 
just two of them lasting over 18 years. 2. Civil War Happy Bastille day to all my French fans. In 
all honesty, I used to be a big proponent of the French Revolution, until I recently listened 
to the ten hour series about the outbreak from “The Rest is History.” I highly recommend you 
listen to it. This is how I now feel about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5mTScR60Sw Before we continue, please subscribe to 
the channel to help me reach 70k subs by the end of July. If you’d like to go 
a step further, you can also support me on Patreon where you’ll get ad free 
viewing, all the maps from the videos, and other exclusive content. Thanks 
so much, now back into the video. History was forever changed in the summer 
of 1791 as the royal made their desperate bid for freedom. Louis was worn down by the 
constant humiliations from the revolutionaries that seized his power while he pretended to 
uphold a hollow constitution to save his life, betraying his sacred oath to defend the faith. 
Marie Antoinette was vilified for her Austrian roots, subjected to a mob attempt to murder 
her with her children, while horrific lies were spread throughout the nation, calling 
her a lesbian vampire, with people calling to rip her guts out and use them as cockades. 
Paris was no longer safe for the Bourbons. Late, on June 20, 1791, Louis, Marie Antoinette, 
their children, and the king’s sister, Madame Élisabeth, slipped out of the Tuileries disguised 
as humble merchants. Instead of the flashy, lumbering carriage that historically got them 
spotted, they rode in a plain, fast carriage to blend in. This was arranged by the loyal Swedish 
noble Axel von Fersen, Marie Antoinette’s trusted ally, who lined up fresh horses and secured 
safe passage through loyalist networks in towns like Meaux and Châlons. Heeding Fersen, 
Louis stayed hidden inside the carriage, never speaking to locals, avoiding the 
fatal mistake that got him recognized at Sainte-Menehould. The nimble carriage dodged busy 
roads, and Louis’s silence kept them unrecognized, promising his family he would wield his power 
once they sorted this mess out. The group stuck to their schedule, no stops for food or rest, 
racing toward the royalist fortress of Montmédy, where General François Claude Amour, marquis de 
Bouillé, waited with loyal soldiers. By dawn of the 22nd, the royal family reached Montmédy, 
welcomed by Bouillé’s troops, who whisked them to the safety of the Austrian Netherlands, 
under Archduke Charles, Marie’s nephew. The National Assembly, furious at Louis’s 
escape, declared on June 25, 1791, that the king had abandoned his throne 
and traitorously allied with Germans, sentencing him to death. This united the Jacobins, 
Girondins, and Cordeliers into a shaky government. But the move backfired: royalist uprisings 
broke out across France, in Brittany, Vendée, Anjou, and Poitou, regions loyal to Church and 
crown. The army, already weakened by defections and clashing loyalties, shattered. Nearly 
a third its officers and soldiers deserted to join Louis. Among them was a young 
Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, not yet induced by revolutionary ideals. 
Disgusted by the republic’s chaos and drawn by the promise of order, Napoleon joined 
Bouillé’s forces in the Austrian Netherlands. Leopold II, Marie’s close brother and the Holy 
Roman Emperor, met with Prussian King Frederick William II, issuing the Declaration of Pillnitz, 
declaring war on the revolutionaries. They were joined by King Charles IV of Spain, Louis’ 
Bourbon cousin, who had been plotting with Louis since the revolution began. The dramatic 
events changed Louis into a proper leader; while Marie Antoinette was hailed as a new Joan of Arc 
by royalists, became a symbol of holy defiance, her image spread across pamphlets in loyalist 
strongholds, rallying many to their banners. General Bouillé, a practical and disciplined 
general, organized a strong army of 45,000 French loyalists alongside 30,000 Swiss and German 
mercenaries. In early August, Bouillé launched the first major offensive. At the Battle of 
Châlons-sur-Marne, his forces crushed a Republican army under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, opening the 
road toward Reims, which they quickly retook. Simultaneously, 30,000 Prussians under King 
Frederick William II crossed the Rhine and linked up with Archduke Charles of Austria’s 22,000 near 
Metz, while the Spanish sent 20,000 troops over the Pyrenees under Antonio Ricardos, a grizzled 
veteran of the War of the Austrian Succession. By September, the Royalist advance accelerated. 
At Troyes, Charles beat the revolutionary troops under General Kellermann, before crippling them at 
Sens with Prussian aid. Orléans fell soon after, aided by Catholic peasant militias as 
Jacques Cathelineau took control over Nantes. In Aquitaine, the Spanish faced the republican 
army under General Beurnonville at Toulouse. Weakened by defeats and desertions, the 
republicans crumbled against Spanish infantry, forcing their retreat to Lyon, where the 
revolutionaries of the South regrouped. This enabled the Spanish to take the undefended 
Mediterranean Provencal cities of Nimes, Arles, and Marseilles. Once those were garrisoned, they 
marched North, recovering Avignon for the Pope. Then came the decisive Battle of Melun, 
where Bouillé’s combined forces delivered a crushing blow just outside Paris. General 
Lafayette was captured by the young Bonaparte, and the path to the capital lay open. Within 
days, Paris was encircled. Panic gripped the city, as civil disorder, food shortages, and 
bitter factionalism paralyzed the government. On October 1st, the Siege of Paris began 
as artillery pounded the capital. After 15 days of bombardment, Royalists broke 
through in Montmartre, storming the North. Paris was a bloodbath with over 50,000 
people, soldiers and civilians dying as the Royalists had no love or wish to 
preserve the Parisians who they blamed for all this madness, permitting 
Prussian and Austrian barbarity. In the following weeks, they turned their sights 
on Lyon, the last major Republican stronghold, ignoring their desperate offers of peace. 
Jacobin-led forces under General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 
fortified Lyon with barricades and fiery resolve. Bouillé handed the siege’s artillery to 
Captain Napoleon, whose cunning use of cannons on Fourvière’s heights pounded republican supplies. 
After three weeks of relentless shelling, Lyon fell. Napoleon’s victory saw him painted 
as a noble Corsican devoted to king and faith, marking the rise of a new royalist officer 
elite. With Lyon’s fall, the revolution was over. 3. Reforms The brief six-month civil war enabled Louis 
to restore the absolute monarchy of his great-great-grandfather, Louis XIV, the Sun-King. 
The Estates-General was abolished as the Bourbon’s returned to Versailles. The sweeping changes that 
followed were fierce, calculated, and rooted in a total rejection of the godless, egalitarian chaos 
of 1789; adopting many of the excellent reforms of Spain’s Charles III, rebuilding France into a 
land where loyalty to crown, Church, and tradition defined all virtue. The revolutionary cry of 
“Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” was replaced by “Dieu, Roi, Famille,” heralding the new 
order, steeped in nobility and Catholicism. On March 15, 1792, at a grand ceremony at 
Notre-Dame, known as the Sacrum Regressum, Louis renounced his forced concessions to 
the revolutionaries in a solemn liturgy. The cathedral, purged of its blasphemous title 
as a “Temple of Reason,” was reconsecrated by papal envoy Cardinal Alessandro Mattei. 
The nuncio then read Pope Pius VI’s bull, Regale Reditum, declaring Clovis, 
Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Joan of Arc saints. Their legacies were 
weaponized to glorify the Bourbons. Priests slain in the revolution were likewise canonized 
as the French Martyrs. This was no mere ritual; it was the bedrock of Louis’s 
rebirthed France bound by the church. In April 1792, the Justice Committee was formed 
to hunt the former Republican leaders. Marie Antoinette, scarred by horrific revolutionary 
slanders drove these purges with a vengeance, akin to Catherine de Medici. Public executions at 
the Place de Grève, with crowds roaring “Vive le Roi!” as heads rolled, served as a grim warning 
to any who dared defy the crown. Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and any suspected accomplices faced 
the guillotine. The Feuillants, who had pushed a constitutional monarchy during the revolution, 
were forgiven upon oaths of loyalty to the king. The House of Orléans, the Bourbon’s treacherous 
kin, faced Louis’s full wrath. Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, had fueled anti-Bourbon 
propaganda from his Palais-Royal and spread vile rumors about Marie Antoinette, 
but sealed his fate when he voted for Louis’s death. In retribution, the Orléans 
line was stripped of titles and lands, redistributed to loyal nobles, as 
their entire bloodline was eradicated. To rebuild the aristocracy, gutted by 
emigration and revolutionary violence, Louis created a new nobility to reward 
his allies. Émigré nobles who fought in the civil war reclaimed their estates and gained 
grander titles. This new elite, unlike the old, prized service over birth, elevating men like 
Napoleon while binding them to the crown. The peasantry, especially in royalist bastions 
like the Vendée, were hailed as defenders of the throne and altar, rewarded with tax 
breaks and Church-run charities, while their leaders: Henri de la Rochejaquelein, Jacques 
Cathelineau, etc, were ennobled. Napoleon’s heroics at the Siege of Lyon won him the Duchy of 
Luxembourg and the rank of Marshal of France. At just 23, Napoleon married into a cadet-Bourbon 
branch, anchoring him to the nobility. As Military Governor of the French Netherlands, he 
controlled the vital borderlands with the Germans. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 
which had chained the Church to the state, was repealed, and priests who swore 
revolutionary oaths were defrocked or exiled. Stolen Church lands were returned, 
and tithes revived, swelling clerical power. Louis, ashamed by his forced betrayal of his 
sacred oath to protect the Church, worked closely with Pope Pius VI, who blamed the revolution on 
France’s lapse in faith. Huguenot communities in the Cévennes and Languedoc were crushed, 
while France renounced any claims on Avignon. Many older French customs were revived, banning 
theaters during lent, stricter lenten fasts, women veiling during mass, fines for skipping 
mass, etc. The Jesuits, exiled since 1764, were handed control over schools, teaching that loyalty 
to God, Pope, and king, stamping out Gallicanism with ultramontanism. A French Inquisition, 
modeled on Spain’s, burned revolutionary books and effigies of Jacobin leaders in public 
squares, purging heretical ideas from the land. Revolutionary notions of nationalism, populism, 
and conscription were obliterated. The press, once a revolutionary firebrand, was shackled 
by royal censors, with only crown-approved pamphlets or newspapers allowed, many 
depicting Louis as a new Charlemagne. France’s economic woes, worsened by 
revolutionary chaos, still loomed large. Louis founded the Banque Royale de 
France, modeled on the Bank of England, to stabilize finances. Loans from Austrian 
and Spanish banks funded the restoration, but Louis eyed conquest to secure wealth. Napoleon 
pushed plans for wars in the Rhineland and Italy, promising riches to fill royal coffers. However, 
with no opposition, Louis successfully pushed through his initial plans from 1787, creating 
a universal land tax for all three estates, modernizing internal trade laws, eliminating 
internal tariffs, abolishing forced labor, as new provincial assemblies to handle 
regional taxes were established. 4. Colonial Wars The French revolution’s failures had a massive 
impact on the French and Spanish Bourbon colonies of the New World. American revolts, occurring 
concomitantly with the European developments as the locals thought Spain and France were 
preoccupied with Europe, were disastrous. With initial rebel successes in Spanish America, 
Charles IV promised Louis a return of Louisiana for support in suppressing the revolts, so French 
armies quickly arrived as the King wanted an easy prestige boost to rally the fractured nation 
together. Liberal and nationalist dreams were ended as troops and mercenaries flooded the port 
cities of New Orleans, Cap-Français, Havana, Veracruz, and Caratgena, making short work of 
the fledgling revolutionaries. Spies soon prowled taverns and docks, burning outlawed pamphlets by 
exiles like Brissot and Condorcet amid sermons cursing the “sins of 1789”. Spanish viceroys 
wielded tribunals to interrogate potential conspirators elites, executing Jacobin exiles, 
bolstered with new garrisons from the mainland. Joint Franco-Spanish naval patrols blocked 
seditious texts, working with the Church in the counter-revolutionary crusade. Sadly, this locked 
slavery in the French Caribbean, where loyalists, with metropolitan reinforcements, crushed the 
Haitian Revolt, continuing their rich plantations. Caste hierarchies remained across Spanish 
America, funneling sugar, coffee, silver, and tobacco to Madrid, while the new French governor 
of Louisiana built forts and surveillance webs. These rigorous actions ensured that by 1800, 
France and Spain’s colonies stood strong as revolutionary dissent was crushed, mercantilism 
reigned. Loyalty to the crown remained. 5. European War By the turn of the 19th century, France was 
completely transformed as Louis’ reforms had taken root, but the financial woes continued, 
so the King finally heeded the advice of his brilliant Marshal, Napoleon Bonaparte. 
War was the answer, the armies were ready, and soon the continent would be reminded that 
France, not Prussia, Russia, or Britain ruled Europe and the globe. Austria, now led by 
Emperor Francis II, Marie Antionette’s nephew, was eager to retake the rich province of 
Silesia, stolen by Prussia back in 1742. The Habsburgs had likewise been pressuring Louis 
for war, renewing the 1757 Treaty of Versailles, offering to cede the Austrian Netherlands 
for French troops to capture Silesia. This alliance soon added Russia, under Tsar 
Alexander I, a fierce champion of absolutism, with the promise of Polish lands taken by Prussia 
in the partitions. The Russians had fought with Austria in the Seven Years’ War, and expected 
the Prussians to get trounced without Frederick, so wanted to partake in the spoils. Spain quickly 
followed suit, promised a share of the lucrative British Caribbean possessions. Jamaica alone 
had been worth more than the entire 13 colonies, as the West Indies accounted for up to half 
of all overseas profits for the redcoats. Against them stood Prussia, allied with 
Britain, Sweden, Hanover, and Bavaria. Napoleon, now 34 and the cornerstone of 
France’s military might, took command as the lead marshal. His post-civil war 
reforms had forged the French army into a disciplined juggernaut under his 
genius, blending careful stratagem and lightning-fast strikes, a skill 
that would shape the war’s course. In April 1803, the war erupted as French 
armies stormed through the Rhineland, making light work of the Bavarians. Napoleon 
then linked up with the Austrian armies, storming into Silesia, targeting Prussian 
strongholds at Breslau and Glogau. The opening clash, the Battle of Liegnitz, 
pitted Napoleon’s 80,000 against 60,000 Prussians under General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. 
Napoleon placed heavy cannons on the Katzbach River’s heights, hammering Prussian lines 
with deadly precision. French cavalry then swept around Blücher’s flanks, shattering 
his defenses. On April 22, Liegnitz fell to Bonaparte. Leaving the Austrians in 
Silesia, he marched through Germany, crippling any who opposed him as he eventually 
knocked the Bavarian out after taking Munich. Spain’s role proved vital early on as Spanish 
ships, joined by French squadrons, challenged Britain’s naval grip in the North Sea. Russia’s 
entry in July 1803 raised the stakes, as Tsar Alexander’s armies, under General Mikhail Kutuzov, 
marched into Prussia’s Polish lands. Prussia, however, was no easy foe. Fueled by British gold, 
Frederick William III fielded a disciplined army, strengthened by Bavarian troops under 
Maximilian IV Joseph and Hanoverian forces loyal to George III. The Battle of 
Thorn in August saw a Prussian army led by General Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg destroy the 
Russians, seizing the Vistula River. Meanwhile, Britain’s navy defeated the Franco-Spanish 
blockade attempt, haranguing French shipping. Despite their European naval woes, the bulk of the 
French and Spanish fleets were in the Caribbean, engaging in a series of indecisive battles as 
the British kept reinforcing their presence with nimble ships that made it impossible to force 
a conclusive battle Spain desperately needed. In 1804, Prussia struck back in Silesia, retaking 
Liegnitz, forcing Napoleon north with the Battle of Schweidnitz, where Blücher’s army nearly 
broke the French left flank. Napoleon’s quick shift of his reserve corps resulted in a hard-won 
French victory, breaking the Prussians. Reinforced by the Russians, they quickly marched on Berlin, 
meeting Prussia’s last ditch army at the Battle of Cottbus. The heavily outnumbered Prussians 
were decimated by the French Marshall, opening the road to Berlin, which quickly fell, forcing 
Frederick William III to retreat to Königsberg, who planned to continue the fight. However, 
devastating news arrived from America. The largest Spanish fleet assembled since the Armada of 1588, 
reinforced by France, finally caught the British fleet at the Battle of the Windward Passage. The 
meager French fleet, under Admiral Villeneuve, lured the larger British into the Windward 
Passage, where they were quickly outgunned and in trouble, before the massive Spanish arrived under 
Admiral Gravina. Now caught between the two, the British were surrounded and quickly overwhelmed 
by the Bourbon fleets, decimating the Royal Navy’s West Indies presence. With their navy out of the 
picture, a lightning campaign commenced as French and Spanish forces quickly invaded and captured 
Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the sugar islands, devastating the British economy. Thousands 
of new troops arrived on the newly acquired lands, reinforcing the French and Spanish 
positions, preparing for a British onslaught. When the news reached Europe, Prussia and Bavaria 
knew British aid was lost, so signed the Treaty of Tilsit in November 1804, ended the war. Austria 
gained Silesia and divided the Bavarian palatinate with France, who were ceded the Austrian 
Netherlands along with the ancient Carolingian capital of Aix-la-Chapelle. Habsburg attempts 
to outright annex Bavaria into their crownlands were unanimously opposed as France and Russia 
feared it would disturb the balance of power. Prussia’s Polish lands were divvied between Russia 
and Austria, but the Prussians retained their land connection between Berlin and Konigsberg. Britain, 
limited to naval power, cut its subsidies, leaving Prussia to face the consequences. 
Massive reparations were placed on the losers, with Hannover remaining under Habsburg occupation 
under King George III recognized the treaty as he continued the fight against France and 
Spain, desperate to reclaim the Caribbean. After constructing a massive fleet, the 
British crossed the Atlantic and won a series of pyrrhic victories that left them in 
control of the waves, but with nowhere to dock, besides the pirate-controlled Vieques, 
who they paid massive sums for harbor, they soon were out of supplies. Canada 
was far too distant to manage the theater, and America refused to support them as they 
honored the arrangements with the French from the revolution. France and Spain strategized the war 
for such an occasion, bringing most of their men on land, easily withstanding the British sieges. 
Finally, the British accepted defeat in 1807, the West Indies were lost for good at the Treaty 
of Amsterdam, split between France and Spain. The war erased France’s debts through 
plunder and territorial gains, solidifying Napoleon as a modern Agrippa 
to Louis’s Augustus. Their alliance with Spain and Austria kept France’s enemies in 
check, as the House of Bourbon reigned as the supreme power of the globe. With the wars 
close, Louis was celebrated all across France, with church bells ringing and 
crowds shouting “Vive le Roi!” Where do Louis and Napoleon turn their 
sight for a new conquest, Italy, Holland, or maybe even India? Let me know your thoughts in 
the comment section. If you enjoyed this video, click here to watch what could’ve happened if 
Napoleon III won the Franco-Prussian War. If you appreciate my work, please like, subscribe, 
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sticking around to the end, I will see you soon.