The Road to Rebellion: Rural Uprisings and State-Building in the Run-Up to the French Revolution

Early modern European powers were beset by episodic unrest as they sought to consolidate authority and build empires. We examine how growing state communica-tion networks and increased state presence impacted rural unrest by combining original and detailed parish-level data from pre-revolutionary France on the expansion of the horse-post network with rural rebellion in this period. Using a staggered difference-in-difference framework, we find that new horse-post relays are associated with more local rebellion. We argue that the main mechanism is increased state presence and visibility. New horse-post relays are strongly associated with more rebellion against high-profile state agents – the military, police, and courts – and public buildings that symbolized and hosted state power. We find no evidence that relays fostered broader rebellion against the nobility or Church, or that the effects stem from informational or infrastructural changes occurring contemporaneously. Our findings have implications for the scholarly understanding of the co-evolution of states and violence.