Republican Vendee

[fhaessig]

In the history of the french revolution, Vendee plays a special part, as it was the home of the most ( only? ) significant armed opposition to the revolution, and support to the retoration of the royalty, in the form of the chouannrie, which culminated in the 'Armee Catholique et Royale'.

The effects of this civil war upon the military might of France is two-fold.
+ first, it provided veteran troops to the republic, and later empire, troops which proved their worth against foreign foes. ' C'est dans l'enfer de la Vendee que la Republique a forgee les armees qui ecraserent l'Europe'.
+ OTOH, Vendee proved a bleeding sore which diverted badly needed troops from the borders to the interior from the beginning of the revolution ( in 1792, out of the 12 newly-created armies, 3 were dedicated to fighting interior foes ), through the darkest hours of republican wars ( Kleber and the Veteran army of Mayance were diverted to Vendee ), all the way to Waterloo ( at which the Lamarck army corp, kept in Vendee, could well have provide Napoleon the means to crush Welligton before Prussian intervention ).

So what would be the effect of a Vendee which, instead of being fanatically royalist, was as republican as, say, Alsace?

Let's say that, in 1770, a stupid, conservatist, bigotted noble ( who said Artois? ) is appointed governor in Vendee and manages to allienate all the peasanry, minor nobles and petty cleargy, turning them to republican sentiment. What would be the effects?

+ I suppose the Vendee deputies to the convention would be more inlined to Girondin than to Montagnard sentiments, so would Robespierre still win the power struggle which lead to the terror?

+ Without ANY Boubon support inside France, will England still pension and support them or will it ditch them? If the later, will the english kings still claim the title of kings of France to this day ? Also in this case, is peace between France and Uk more probable?

+ What would be the effects on the revolutionary wars of more numerous ( with volunteers from Vendee, in addition to the OTL troops freed ) but greener french troops?

+ Would an *Concordat still be signed, or would France become a laic state a century in advence of OTL?

+ Would Napoleon still come to power? If so, and if Waterloo still occurs, can he crush the prussian and anglo-dutch armies separately? If so, what are the impacts, given that the autrian empire is not very willing to risk its last army and that the Russians are a few month away, and have a big command problem beside?

 

[MerryPrankster]

Instead of putting in an obnoxious royalist governor, you could have the Republican government in Paris be less meddlesome. According to some material I've read on the Vendee, the people got tired of their priests, governing officials, etc. being appointed by Paris.

 

[fhaessig]

Getting a Paris government which doesn't try tp meddle with the provinces, and to appoint all officials needs a much earlier PoD. At the very least, it requires the fronde to succeed, which would definitely trigger huge butterflies. The whole history of the Capetian dynasty has been one of gathering power to the King and the Capital.

Also, a federal France, which is what your suggestion amount to, would be very different from OTL, and so, its history would be very difficult to predict.

It may be that a republican Vendee gives enougth power to the Girondin to make this movement triumph, which would make France less centralise, at least in the short run, but that would be a consequence, not the cause of republicanism in Vendee.

The causes of the Vendee rising were many, but the immediate triggering were :
+ la levee en masse
+ the king's execution
+ the pledge of the clergy

None of these caused widespread rebellions anywhere else in France, despite similar application of all the decrees, and none of these could be avoided in a revolution which looks anything like OTL. So I think the way to avoid Vendee rising is to change something in Vendee, not in Paris.

Another way to avoid the rising would be to have protestantism more successfull in Vendee, or at least, the protestant massacres less intense, but that puts a POD still early and may have butterflies I wanted to avoid.