How Coffee Saved The French Revolution

On July 10, 1789, the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), who was imprisoned in the Bastille, had an argument with his jailer. After 12 years of imprisonment, the Marquis was suffering from severe gastritis and was very bloated and puffy. He had been asking for coffee, due to its remarkable ability to clear up such blockages.

He was denied his coffee and to make matters worse they took away his rump cushion.

The Marquis de Sade grew insolent and grabbed his toilet funnel, using it as a megaphone. He cried out to the people on the street "The government is cutting the throat's of political prisoners inside the jail!"

Historians have always pondered why the rebels stormed the Bastille, as it only held a small handful of political prisoners and most of them were aristocrats like the Marquis.

After the Marquis' outburst, rumors began to fly. "The King has imprisoned rebels and is slitting their throats," people whispered.

10 days later the rebels stormed the Bastille. Of course, they found only a few prisoners like the Marquis, but - more importantly they found a huge cache of arms.

Without these arms, most historians agree, the French Revolution would not have been successful.

So it goes, had the Marquis' jailers given him the coffee he needed to clear his gastric blockage he may not have broadcast a lie to stir up the people on the streets outside.

Had the rebels not stormed the Bastille, they may have never found the arms they needed to be successful.
And again... coffee takes its place in history!