British Louisiana - Part 4

The costs of the war not only affected Spain.  It affected France too.  Unrest for the high taxation that punished the people, while the nobility and the church were released, soon lead to a full scale insurrection in 1787.  All the nobility, including the king himself, were targeted and imprisoned by the insurrects.

A revolutionary government was set, and they decreed that the aristocrats should resign all their property to pay reparations to the people, and become simple citizens, equal to anyone else.  A period of torture and a few executions followed.

In March 1788, King Louis XVI formally abdicated in prison and was freed at the gates of the Bastille.  Citizen Louis Bourbon and his family fled to Spain where his cousin, Charles III, gave them refuge.

Many nobles followed that path.  Penniless, Charles III gave them a chance: to go to the Americas and claim any land they could set on production.  Florida, near Baton Rouge was the preferred destination; a few went to New Granada or Mexico, but most stayed in Spain hoping that the revolutionary government in France would fall and they could get back their titles and property.