18th century total war

Chapter 197 Nationalism
"Come on, handsome revolutionary soldiers, this is bread made by our family. We all got the land allocated by the Jacobin revolutionary government. We know that you are fighting on the front line to protect our land!
We old, young, women and children cannot go to the front line to help you, so we can only do what we can. You must accept these foods, fruits and vegetables..."

Daniel and his party, who were passing through a village, really felt what Tanshihuju is called!
The Jacobin regime headed by Robespierre has been tirelessly seizing noble and church lands and distributing them to peasants, and is getting the most authentic feedback!
These serfs, who were living in a daze, were grateful for the actions of the Jacobin revolutionary government from the bottom of their hearts, and in the political propaganda of the Jacobin revolutionary government, they hated the Li Wei rebels who wanted to seize the land in their hands!

He even hated the entire French aristocratic group!
It must be said that the political propaganda of the Jacobin Revolutionary Government, with the help of the land distribution policy, was very successful, and France's national consciousness was rapidly awakening!
The serfs sent their husbands, fathers, and brothers to the National Salvation Revolutionary Army to fight in the army, and the rest spontaneously provided a large amount of food for the front-line troops, which relieved a lot of trouble for the Jacobin revolutionary government with financial difficulties.

It also made the debt trap set by the financial capitalists in Paris have to repeatedly delay the time for the outbreak of harvest.

Holding the food donated by peasant women from different villages in his hands, Daniel had tears in his eyes. Now he finally understands that he is not only joining the National Salvation Revolutionary Army for the land, but a fraternal country, and he is fighting for his own country. Fight for French Citizenship!

The march of Daniel's troops is just a microcosm of the revolutionary army for national salvation gathered on the front line in the area controlled by the French Revolutionary Government.

Robespierre personally urged that all NRA troops supporting the front line pass through the cities and villages that have been allocated land!

The Revolutionary Army for National Salvation passing through the city didn’t feel too deeply. After all, urban residents were rarely allocated land. The Jacobin Revolutionary Government’s political work in the city mainly used newspaper propaganda and the awe of the Revolutionary Court.

But when passing through the village, these simple peasants who had just been liberated as serfs all their lives and had not experienced the hardships of the industrial revolution supported the Jacobin revolutionary regime from the bottom of their hearts, which made the soldiers of the National Salvation Army empathize with them!
Why did the European monarchs of the anti-French alliance hate and fear the French Revolution?
It is because the leading group of the French Revolution is opening an unprecedented ideological door, and they are releasing the terrifying monsters called "the spirit of nationalism" and the "spirit of equality and freedom"!
You must know that the foundation of the monarchy and feudal system is inequality. Nobles and kings are inherently superior to others. Only by relying on this deep-rooted thinking can we firmly imprison and enslave most of the common people at the bottom of society.

Once this ideological shackle is broken, how will the common people whose population base is much higher than that of the powerful class treat the upper class that oppresses them on weekdays?
Where there is oppression, there is resistance. This does not need to be learned, it is the basic cognition in the bones of human beings.

In the era of cold weapons, a small number of people can defeat the peasant rebel army who are undernourished and undertrained and have an advantage in numbers through good diet and combat training from a young age.

But in the era of shooting in line, even if you are a champion knight, you will be knocked down by a pariah serf holding a musket.

Queuing and shooting reformed the mode of warfare, turning the cold weapon battlefield with elite soldiers into a meat grinder that relies on the superiority of numbers to fight.

Of course, the elite army still has a great advantage in queuing up and shooting the battlefield, but the lethality of muskets and artillery makes the loss of elite soldiers in each battle far exceed that of the cold weapon era.

With a limited number of elite troops, how many battles can they withstand?
However, the civilian army is endless, as long as they have enough muskets and enough reasons to continue fighting, they can keep killing the so-called elite!

The faster the development of weapons, the greater the numerical advantage of the army, and the greater the importance of the civilian class. Naturally, nationalism in order to attract more civilians to the battlefield will inevitably awaken!

Nationalism is not awakened by itself, it is awakened under the guidance of those far-sighted people and even the ruling class.

The concept of nation is originally divided artificially.

Language and culture can be the basis for ethnic division, even speaking the same language, but civilians in different countries and regions can also be artificially divided into two hostile ethnic groups, fighting each other to meet the interests of the ruling class!
And France, where the Great Revolution broke out first, naturally became the first country to start national awakening. It is not that the French people are more awakened, but that the Jacobin revolutionary regime on their heads deliberately guides this way to unite the entire French population. , to serve their war!
In the history of the world in Li Wei's previous life, the biggest lesson left to European monarchs after Napoleon's death was to let European monarchs understand the horror of nationalism, and the British took advantage of this very well.

In the 21st century, the European continent is full of small countries and complex ethnic relations, many of which were 'defined' by the British.

The reputation of Europe as a troublemaker is not just talk. The British, who knew that they could not become the hegemons of the European continent, in order to prevent the unification of the European continent, "created" countless European nations in more than 18 years from the 20th century to the 200th century. Let the great powers of Europe be divided again and again!
Even a unified European country is facing the trouble of multi-ethnic conflicts, completely ending the possibility of European unification.

The so-called national referendum, a seemingly democratic political move, was born on the European continent.

Of course, the British also ate the bitter fruit they planted. The nationalism they promoted finally tore apart the global colonial empire of the British, which can be regarded as retribution.

Before the concept of nation emerged in Europe, those colonized indigenous areas didn't know what a nation was at all, and the cost of ruling was pitifully low, and they basically listened to whoever insisted.

As a result, after the concept of nationality began to spread from Europe, the cost of colonial rule by European powers, except for Africa, which was a waste of wood, the cost of colonization on other continents skyrocketed and became a huge economic burden.

Almost all the increasing costs of colonization have a common factor - increasing military spending.

The reason for the increase in military spending is also very simple - the awakening of national consciousness, and more and more armed independents are fighting!

(End of this chapter)