Napoleon would eventually declare himself "Emperor of the French." John Adams had feared just such a chaotic end: A revolution of this sort, he had argued, would lead not to democracy but despotism.

but the French Revolution was lead by the bourgeoisie from the start. In May 1789, King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates-General, to try and find a solution to France’s financial problems.

Regardless, the public turned against the Queen, and this moment eventually led to the French Revolution. Several critics ...

would lead to the invention of a killing machine still used by the French state more than 150 years later… Join Tom and Dominic in the third part of our second season of the French Revolution ...