This Place is dead and I blame the moderator.

[al Roumi]

Well I was going to make a thread on the anniversary of Fall Weiß discussing the major operations and battles, and some of the historical misconceptions about the campaign. However, there seems to be limited interest in the Eastern Front during WW2 so I didn't bother.

Really? I'd be interested too... I read Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad a few months ago and have Berlin sitting around waiting too...

The situation was different from say, Spain, because the emerging and growing bourgeoisie was quite fond of new ideas.
The situation was different from say, the UK because the bourgeoisie didn't hold any power, while it was starting to become the dominant economical class (industrialization was starting to kick in).

Why France is an interesting question. Meneldil does a good job of outlining the internal factors which led to the revolution (going back years). I'd expand a little on the famine point as spikes in bread prices, generating riots (which were variously exploited or channeled by politicians) were a key feature in generating flashpoints of the conflict/situation. Keeping control of the mob was as much a problem for the "revolutionary" leaders as it was for the ancien regime.

To answer: "Why not elsewhere in europe?", we should acnowledge that first of all, the french revolution was a move from absolute monarchy to consitutional of which there were other contemporary such movements, e.g. the low countries and England, decades before. What is unique about the French revolution is how far it went. But, few if any of the original individuals and groups pushing for reform from Absolute Monarchy desired or envisaged not having a king, let alone any of the particularily radical measures that were to ensue. Their movement was essentially one of the (bourgeois) property-owning middle class, whom the absolute monarchist system excluded from political power and respect/influence. The revolution was actually a long process, in stages, which gained momentum as the (primarily economic) crisis in France deepened.

The first few years were watched with avid interest and much liberal support from accross Europe -including Britain. Only when the constitutional government (i.e. non absolute monarchist) lost its grip and the sans-culottes started to run riot did the outside liberal world recoil in horror at the Jacobin "terror". In fact, during the first years, there was so much support and enthusiasm in Britain for what was happenening in France that it seemed things might also change in Britain. Then, as now, what was seen as Jacobin terror gave great credence to the supporters of "order" and for the protection of private property.