For me the most fascinating chapter of Who We Are concerns the takeover of the French Revolution by British Intelligence, leading to the mass guillotining of hundreds of revolutionary leaders (known as The Terror), and the eventual installation of the brutal dictator Napoleon. .

The role of British intelligence in the execution of Louis XVI, a strong supporter of American republicanism was well-known in US patriot circles at the time. In 1814, Thomas Jefferson, who associated closely with Lord Sheborne (see Hidden History: How Ben Franklin and his Friends Created Britain’s Industrial Revolution) and Franςois d’Iverson (who directly supervised Shelborne’s Swiss agents) from 1785-1790 (while serving as US ambassador to France, wrote about British efforts to “anarchize” the French Revolution.

André Abbé Morellet, who Shelborne paid to manage his French agents, was Jefferson’s main editor, translator and publisher, during his stay in France.

Other important paid British agents included Geneva-born Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont, Samuel Romilly, Étienne Clavière, Jacques-Antoines Du Roveray, Jean Paul Marat, Jacques Necker, Camille Desmoulins and the Comte de Mirabeau (elected head of the Paris Jacobin Club in 1790).

The primary British motive was to destroy the powerful alliance of French, American and Irish republicans who helped the US win the Revolutionary War and hoped to make similar revolution in France and Ireland.

Britain deliberately set the stage for the French revolution through the brutal trade war they launched against France in 1783, via the Eden free trade treaty at the end of the 1778-1783 Bourbon War. The latter was an undeclared war on France owing to strong French military support for George Washington’s Army. The treaty forced France to suspend all tariffs on British imports, while allowing the British to continue to charge protective tariffs on France exports. By undercutting the price of France’s domestic manufactured products, the treaty totally destroyed France’s industries and economy. Unemployment and food prices soared, leading to major bread riots.