France’s bourgeoisie arrived in 1789 already equipped to dominate culturally

Evidence

The slave-trade and slavery were the economic basis of the French Revolution. “Sad irony of human history,” comments Jaures. “The fortunes created at Bordeaux, at Nantes, by the slave-trade, gave to the bourgeoisie that pride which needed liberty and contributed to human emancipation.” Nantes was the center of the slave-trade… . Nearly all the industries which developed in France during the eighteenth century had their origin in goods or commodities destined either for the coast of Guinea or for America … upon the success or failure of the traffic everything else depended. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 574 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

So the juridical Rousseauism that had long been its main theme led, in some sense, to the reactivation of two great historical forms during the Revolution. On the one hand, you have the reactivation of Rome, or rather of the Roman city, or in other words, of an archaic Rome that was both republican and virtuous, rather than the GalloRoman city with its freedoms and its prosperity. Hence the Roman festival, or the political ritualization of a historical form which, in constitutional or basic terms, derived from those freedoms. The other figure to be reactivated is that of Charlemagne; we have seen the role Mably gave him and how he became the point where Frankish and Gallo-Roman freedoms merged; Charlemagne was the man who summoned the people to the Champ de Mars. Charlemagne as sovereign-warrior, but also as the protector of trade and the towns. Charlemagne as both Germanic king and Roman emperor. Right from the beginning of the Revolution, a whole Carolingian dream unfolds, and it goes on unfolding throughout the Revolution, but much less has been said about it than about the Roman festival. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 225 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Slave-trade fortunes funded the bourgeoisie who made the French Revolution — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 574; The bourgeoisie expropriated popular culture to legitimize its rule; The French Revolution reactivated Rome and Charlemagne as historical legitimation — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 225 (+1 more)

Related

• Slave-trade fortunes funded the bourgeoisie who made the French Revolution (similarity 0.84)
• Slave wealth funded the very French Revolution that freed slaves (similarity 0.81)
• The French Revolution reactivated Rome and Charlemagne as historical legitimation (similarity 0.81)
• The American bourgeois revolution featured slaveholding leaders and lagged France by a century (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• The bourgeoisie expropriated popular culture to legitimize its rule #expands (0.92)
• Slave-trade fortunes funded the bourgeoisie who made the French Revolution #corroborates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 574
• The French Revolution reactivated Rome and Charlemagne as historical legitimation #expands (0.78) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 225
• Marx treats culture as a productive force materialized in labor and language #expands (0.72)