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I'm suspicious that you can really describe the French Revolution as "generally horrific". Sure, there were quite a few executions (~40k or so), that were often

I'm suspicious that you can really describe the French Revolution as "generally horrific". Sure, there were quite a few executions (~40k or so), that were often arbitrary and spectacular. And the Vendée rebellion got massacred (~100k+ depending on the source) [1]. But what really contributed to the death toll were the Revolutionary wars [2] and the Napoleon campaigns [3]. By contrast, modern warfare with machine guns, artillery, bombers, and genocide regularly yielded much higher death tolls [4]. [1] http://necrometrics.com/wars18c.htm#FrRev1 http://necrometrics.com/wars18c.htm#FrRev1 [2] http://necrometrics.com/wars18c.htm#FrRev http://necrometrics.com/wars18c.htm#FrRev [3] http://necrometrics.com/wars19c.htm#Napoleonic http://necrometrics.com/wars19c.htm#Napoleonic [4] http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm

stickfigure 11y ago
There is something particularly horrific about being killed in a political purge. Getting killed by a falling bomb isn't personal; you just happened to be under the wrong piece of airspace at the wrong time. The people who died in the Reign of Terror or Stalin's Purges or the Cambodian genocide lost a pernicious game of playground politics. Their executioners knew their names.
makmanalp 11y ago
Well, you need to put the numbers in perspective. In 1789 the population of Paris was around 600-700k. So in relative terms, an amount of people that is equivalent to 6%ish of Paris got executed, and in total a fifth of the equivalent of Paris died. Seems pretty bad to me. Also, all this happened in 3 short years. Besides, they're both just really horrific. "40k is nothing" is not quite the right attitude here.
- ddebernardy 11y ago
  Of course. But consider: - Over a 5 year period, ~40k is ~8k/year or around 22/day for the French revolution, with a population of ~26M around 1790. - Over a 29 year period, ~20M is ~700k/year or around 1.7k/day for Staline, with a population of around ~102M around 1950. Not discounting the horrific nature of getting your head chopped off of course. But all things equal the guillotine and arbitrary executions during the French revolution was nowhere near as deadly as Staline or other 20th-century mass-murder regimes. Humanity made great "progress" in between the two in its ability to industrialize murder.

stickfigure 11y ago

There is something particularly horrific about being killed in a political purge. Getting killed by a falling bomb isn't personal; you just happened to be under the wrong piece of airspace at the wrong time. The people who died in the Reign of Terror or Stalin's Purges or the Cambodian genocide lost a pernicious game of playground politics. Their executioners knew their names.

makmanalp 11y ago

Well, you need to put the numbers in perspective. In 1789 the population of Paris was around 600-700k. So in relative terms, an amount of people that is equivalent to 6%ish of Paris got executed, and in total a fifth of the equivalent of Paris died. Seems pretty bad to me. Also, all this happened in 3 short years. Besides, they're both just really horrific. "40k is nothing" is not quite the right attitude here.

ddebernardy 11y ago
Of course. But consider: - Over a 5 year period, ~40k is ~8k/year or around 22/day for the French revolution, with a population of ~26M around 1790. - Over a 29 year period, ~20M is ~700k/year or around 1.7k/day for Staline, with a population of around ~102M around 1950. Not discounting the horrific nature of getting your head chopped off of course. But all things equal the guillotine and arbitrary executions during the French revolution was nowhere near as deadly as Staline or other 20th-century mass-murder regimes. Humanity made great "progress" in between the two in its ability to industrialize murder.