Louis XVI…The king who bankrupted France for America
Most people will remember him as the king who lost his head on the guillotine at the dawn of the French Revolution. It is time America replaces this unjust headline with a more dignified one to recognize that without the support of Louis XVI, the United States of America most likely would not have formed. How’s that for a title?
That’s right. The considerable aid France provided the American colonies allowed the poorly-equipped Continental militia of Georges Washington to organize into a significant military force fueled with engineers, armament, and 600 million pounds of gold.
The fact that Louis XVI restored the People’s Parliament to give a voice to his people is testament he, unlike his predecessors,respected the opinion of the people. however, some believe the power it gave the people at the time may have fueled the boiling idea of the French Revolution.
It must be noted that when Louis XVI became monarch, he inherited an unmanageable economic crisis engendered by the lavish lifestyle, debauchery, and expensive wars for power both his great grand father and the Sun king left behind.
With the whirlwind of revolution already in motion, the hungry and angry revolutionaries had little care who bore responsibility for their trouble. They wanted to brandish the head of a king on a stick. Any king.
The guilty kings being dead, they took the head of the last Louis.