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Les Miserables

Seeing the name of this mod, I believe everyone will think of Hugo's world-renowned novel. However, in fact, the two neither belong to the same field nor share the same content (so it should not constitute infringement, right? If not, I can change the name later). Just like the 2019 film with the same title, "Les Misérables," if there is anything in common between the two besides the name, it's only the Miserable they both possess.
When I first read Hugo's "Les Misérables," Enjolras and others' uprising lingered in my mind for a long time: a group of republicans and idealists fighting against monarchy in Paris for the people, yet abandoned by the Parisian people... How miserable! Although the story in "Les Misérables" takes place after Napoleon and after the narrow sense of the French Revolution, no one can deny the inheritance of ideals and doctrines between the two.
If... I mean if the French Revolution had failed in 1794 under the joint suppression of European feudal forces, where would the course of world history have gone? How miserable such a world would be!

I. The Failed Revolution
When the bell of the times rang, everything seemed like a dream.
On July 13, 1789, armed crowds captured one position after another, and barricades of insurgents were everywhere in Paris. By the morning of the 14th, the people had seized the entire city of Paris. Only the Bastille remained in the hands of the king's army. "To the Bastille!" Shouts arose in the ranks of the insurgents. The insurgents converged on the last authoritarian fortress in Paris from all directions as if success were just a moment away.
However, the rule of a country is never that simple. The struggle between the Moderates and the Jacobins never ceased from the beginning to the end. Although the "rioters" in the rural areas helped them overthrow many opponents of the revolution, their land rights were not guaranteed. After the Moderates and the Jacobins engaged in that crazy firefight, even the revolutionary stronghold of Paris and its citizens doubted whether the revolution could bring what they wanted. With the paralysis of national institutions for three years, severe famine had already struck urban areas in France, yet the leaders of the revolution did not realize such problems: they were only concerned with their own power struggles.
Meanwhile, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican youth, set foot on his native soil again after an 11-year absence. This time, he organized the first army in his life to fight for Corsican independence. In 1792, with the help of Britain's intention to weaken France and dominate the Mediterranean, he successfully achieved Corsican independence.
And facts have proved that the revolution had already shown signs of failure when Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, fled France in early 1792. When the First Coalition invaded France, these signs became a reality. The Jacobins once again won the political struggle, but the long-term lack of supplies and the discord among all classes in the country made the resisting army vulnerable. Those merchants and nobles who originally supported them were now silent, as if they had never existed. And the peasants, during the three-year anarchist period, had already formed their own fortresses in the countryside and had no intention of acknowledging those "revolutionaries" who had never paid attention to them.
The battle on the Alps in June 1794 was the last organized offensive by the French. After that, there was only constant retreat. Franz II almost mobilized the full force of the German princes, while the French Committee of Public Safety could not mobilize many French youth.
When the anti-French coalition arrived in Paris, it was all over. Robespierre, the revolutionary leader who twice swayed from the revolution, was sent to the guillotine, and the French Revolution without the "Great" ended.
Louis XVI returned to the battered Versailles Palace. Just two years had passed, yet the country looked so dilapidated. Although the commander of the allied forces, Emperor Franz II of the Holy Roman Empire, was his relative, other "allies" such as the British Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia were not so easy to deal with. How should he govern this shattered country? He suddenly remembered that vast and bloated empire from the Far East, which might bring new vitality to France.
In this timeline, there are five reasons for the failure of the French Revolution: 1. The peasants were not united in the early days of the revolution, so they did not feel any connection to it. 2. Merchants and nobles became more deeply involved in the politics of the French Revolution, and in fact, they were all moderates, leading to tragedy. 3. Emperor Franz of the Holy Roman Empire mobilized the forces of the German princes to a greater extent than in our timeline and barely participated in the Polish uprising. 4. Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, fled France. 5. Napoleon, who led troops to crush the First Coalition in our timeline, did not join this war but successfully orchestrated Corsican independence with the help of Britain's intention to weaken France and dominate the Mediterranean.


II. A Failed Revolution?
Napoleon, who later became King of Italy, once wrote in his private letters:
The benefits of the French Revolution, such as open litigation procedures and the establishment of jury trials, are the characteristics of your monarchy... Your people are enjoying freedoms, equality, and a certain degree of happiness that the French have never experienced... Once the people taste the benefits of a wise and enlightened government, who would want to restore the old French monarchy? (Original words from Koppel S. Pinson's "A History of Modern Germany," with a modified subject.)
Indeed, although this revolution failed, the seeds it sowed were able to germinate tenaciously: France could never return to that ignorant and dark era. Even during the constitutional monarchy, people had already tasted the sweetness of representative democracy. But at the same time, Louis XVI could not bear to be a completely powerless king. Therefore, when Louis XVI returned to Paris, both sides tacitly reached an understanding, with the king and the National Assembly sharing the rule of the kingdom. Compared to the 1791 Constitution, which was a concession by the National Assembly to the king, it was undoubtedly still a victory for the Moderates if compared to the politics before 1789.
The struggle for power between the king and the National Assembly did not end in the following century but intensified in the 20th century, reaching a climax with the outbreak of the economic crisis...