You wrote:
“No wonder France is such a perennial mess. They killed or drove out all the independent-minded people.”
They did? So the FRench Revolution never happened? After all that would take “independent-minded people.” France is screwed up because serfdom lasted too long, and the French Revolution was so violently WRONG. The culture was wrecked, the people were warped by the revolution and the secularization and France has never recovered.
Good point. It was the usurpation of culture, even going so far as to institute a 10-day week. (Resulting in one of my favorite sayings of all time... The beasts of the field taught the revolutionaries a lesson in practical theology). The Bolshies really admired this aspect of the FRev.
The French Revolution was bad because so many of the people who could have produced peaceful evolution and increased prosperity were already gone! You ought to ask yourself why Catholic countries (and Orthodox ones like Russia) were so backward, then exploded into violence and chaos. It just might have something to do with the fact that their large monopolistic, corrupt, and flagrantly anti-Biblical church establishments were repulsive to many. If a wealthy established institution wallows in corruption, allies itself with abusive political elites, and massacres all dissidents, explosion (or massive cynicism like that seen in many Catholic cultures) is inevitable.