As I read about the French Revolution, I am sort of surprised at how well the Paris government(s) held onto power despite how radical their agenda became. Given how religious and rural most of France was, how was a narrow crust of primarily Paris-based radicals able to drag the entire country along with them? Even taking into account the Vendee War and other uprisings, the resistance to the 180-degree flipping of the entire French social structure seems to have gone relatively unchallenged.