Danton had a strong physical presence and was an incredible public speaker, while Robespierre was less passionate. However, Robespierre was a hard worker who was very ambitious. He blindly believed in the work of Rousseau, who argued that men are all born good at heart and are corrupted by society. It was these beliefs that caused him to continue the Terror even when it was no longer necessary Spielvogel, In , the armies of France were very successful against their enemies, which meant that the Terror was no longer necessary.
A number of other Girondins were later tracked down and either died by suicide or were executed. Related: What is a coup? Estimates of the number of arrests during this period range from , to ,, but no one knows the exact number, according to Davidson. The number of those executed during the Terror is also uncertain.
Official court records of those sentenced to death numbers 16,, but 18, to 23, more may have been killed without trial or may have died while imprisoned, according to historian Hugh Gough's book " The Terror in the French Revolution " Red Globe Press, One of the most prominent opponents of the Reign of Terror was Georges Danton, an influential member of the Jacobins and Robespierre's political rival. By the fall of , Danton argued that the instability threatening the revolution, which had justified the Terror, had ended.
In a speech to the Convention on Nov. Danton also co-edited a newspaper that criticized the Terror, the Convention and Robespierre. In March , Danton and his allies were arrested on a range of charges, including attempting to save King Louis XVI, carrying out treacherous transactions with the Girondins and having secret friendships with foreigners.
No witnesses were allowed to give evidence at the trial, and on April 5, , Danton was sentenced to death. As he was led to the guillotine, he reportedly turned to the executioner and said, "Show my head to the people; it is worth seeing," according to Neely.
The Committee—composed at first of nine and later of 12 members—assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. As a wartime measure, the Committee was given broad supervisory powers over military, judicial, and legislative efforts. It was formed as an administrative body to supervise and expedite the work of the executive bodies of the Convention and the government ministers appointed by the Convention.
As the Committee tried to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, it became more and more powerful. In July , following the defeat at the Convention of the Girondists, the prominent leaders of the radical Jacobins—Maximilien Robespierre and Saint-Just —were added to the Committee. The power of the Committee peaked between August and July under the leadership of Robespierre. In December , the Convention formally conferred executive power upon the Committee and Robespierre established a virtual dictatorship.
Influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau and Montesquieu, Robespierre was a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie and a deist. He opposed the dechristianization of France during the French Revolution.
In June , Paris sections took over the Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a low fixed price for bread, and a limitation of the electoral franchise to sans-culottes alone. The Jacobins identified themselves with the popular movement and the sans-culottes, who in turn saw popular violence as a political right.
The sans-culottes, exasperated by the inadequacies of the government, invaded the Convention and overthrew the Girondins. In their place they endorsed the political ascendancy of the Jacobins. Robespierre came to power on the back of street violence. Meanwhile, on June 24, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, the French Constitution of It was ratified by public referendum but never put into force.
Because of this fear, several other pieces of legislation passed that furthered the Jacobin domination of the Revolution. This led to the consolidation, extension, and application of emergency government devices to maintain what the Revolution considered control.
Although the Girondins and the Jacobins were both on the extreme left and shared many of the same radical republican convictions, the Jacobins were more brutally efficient in setting up a war government. The year of Jacobin rule was the first time in history that terror became an official government policy, with the stated aim to use violence to achieve a higher political goal.
The Jacobins were meticulous in maintaining a legal structure for the Terror, so clear records exist for official death sentences. However, many more were murdered without formal sentences pronounced in a court of law.
The Revolutionary Tribunal summarily condemned thousands of people to death by guillotine, while mobs beat other victims to death. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but many for little reason beyond mere suspicion or because others had a stake in getting rid of them. The execution of the Girondins, moderate republicans, enemies of the more radical Jacobins.
The passing of the Law of Suspects stepped political terror up to a much higher level of cruelty. This created a mass overflow in the prison systems. As a result, the prison population of Paris increased from 1, to 4, people over a three months.
In October , a new law made all suspected priests and persons who harbored them liable to summary execution. The climax of extreme anti-clericalism was reached with the celebration of the goddess Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral in November.
In June , Robespierre, who favored deism over atheism and had previously condemned the Cult of Reason, recommended that the convention acknowledge the existence of his god. On the next day, the worship of the deistic Supreme Being was inaugurated as an official aspect of the revolution. This austere new religion of virtue was received with signs of hostility by the Parisian public.
Following a decisive military victory over Austria at the Battle of Fleurus, Robespierre was overthrown on July 27, His fall was brought about by conflicts between those who wanted more power for the Committee of Public Safety and a more radical policy than he was willing to allow and moderates who completely opposed the revolutionary government.
Robespierre tried to commit suicide before his execution by shooting himself, although the bullet only shattered his jaw. He was guillotined on July The reign of the standing Committee of Public Safety was ended. The National Convention , the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, transitioned from being paralyzed by factional conflicts to becoming the legislative body overseeing the Reign of Terror and eventually accepting the Constitution of The National Convention was a single-chamber assembly in France from September 20, , to October 26, , during the French Revolution.
At the same time, it was decided that deputies to that convention should be elected by all Frenchmen ages 25 and older domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labor. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, without distinctions of class. The election took place in September Owing to the abstention of aristocrats and anti-republicans and the fear of victimization, the voter turnout was low — The universal male suffrage had thus very little impact and the voters elected the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in The full number of deputies was , not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris.
According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President, who was eligible for re-election, every fortnight. For both legislative and administrative purposes, the Convention used committees, with powers regulated by successive laws.
Most historians divide the National Convention into two main factions: the Girondins and the Mountain or the Montagnards in this context, also referred to as Jacobins. The Girondins represented the more moderate elements of the Convention and protested the vast influence held in the Convention by Parisians. The Montagnards, representing a considerably larger portion of the deputies, were much more radical and held strong connections to the sans-culottes of Paris.
Traditionally, historians have identified a centrist faction called the Plain, but many historians tend to blur the line between the Plain and the Girondins. Within days, the Convention was overtaken by factional conflicts. Girondins were convinced that their opponents aspired to a bloody dictatorship, while the Montagnards believed that Girondins were ready for any compromise with conservatives and royalists that would guarantee their remaining in power.
The bitter enmity soon paralyzed the Convention. The political deadlock, which had repercussions all over France, eventually drove both major factions to accept dangerous allies, royalists in the case of Girondins and the sans-culottes in that of the Montagnards.
In June , 80, armed sans-culottes surrounded the Convention. After deputies who attempted to leave were met with guns, they resigned themselves to declare the arrest of 29 leading Girondins.
Thus, the Girondins ceased to be a political force. Throughout the winter of and spring of , Paris was plagued by food riots and mass hunger. The new Convention, occupied mostly with matters of war, did little to remedy the problem until April when they created the Committee of Public Safety.
In response, the Committee of Public Safety instated a policy of terror and perceived enemies of the republic were persecuted at an ever-increasing rate. It acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching on the capital. Despite growing discontent with the National Convention as a ruling body, in June the Convention drafted the Constitution of , which was ratified by popular vote in early August.
The Committee carried out thousands of executions against supposed enemies of the young Republic. Its laws and policies took the revolution to unprecedented heights—they introduced the revolutionary calendar in , closed churches in and around Paris as a part of a movement of dechristianization, tried and executed Marie Antoinette, and instituted the Law of Suspects, among others.
Shortly after a decisive military victory over Austria at the Battle of Fleurus, Robespierre was overthrown in July and the reign of the standing Committee of Public Safety was ended.
After the arrest and execution of Robespierre, the Jacobin club was closed, and the surviving Girondins were reinstated Thermidorian Reaction. A year later, the National Convention adopted the Constitution of They reestablished freedom of worship, began releasing large numbers of prisoners, and most importantly, initiated elections for a new legislative body.
On November 3, , the Directory — a bicameral parliament — was established and the National Convention ceased to exist. It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, and several other leaders of the revolutionary government.
The name Thermidorian refers to Thermidor 9, Year II July 27, , the date according to the French Republican Calendar when Robespierre and other radical revolutionaries came under concerted attack in the National Convention. Thermidorian Reaction also refers to the period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory also called the era of the Thermidorian Convention. The conspiracies came together on Thermidor 9 July 27 when members of the national bodies of the revolutionary government arrested Robespierre and the leaders of the Paris city government.
Not all the conspiratorial groupings were ideological in motivation. Many who conspired against Robespierre did so for strong practical and personal reasons, most notably self-preservation. The left was opposed to Robespierre because he rejected atheism and was not sufficiently radical.
In the end, iRobespierre himself united his enemies. On Thermidor 8 July 26 , he gave a speech to the Convention in which he railed against enemies and conspiracies, some within the powerful committees. Robespierre was declared an outlaw and condemned without judicial process. The following day, Thermidor 10 July 28, , he was executed with 21 of his closest associates. The Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of July , For historians of revolutionary movements, the term Thermidor has come to mean the phase in some revolutions when power slips from the hands of the original revolutionary leadership and a radical regime is replaced by a more conservative regime, sometimes to the point at which the political pendulum swings back towards something resembling a pre-revolutionary state.
The Thermidorian regime that followed proved unpopular, facing many rebellions after the execution of Robespierre and his allies along with 70 members of the Paris Commune. This was the largest mass execution that ever took place in Paris and led to a fragile situation in France. The hostility towards Robespierre did not just vanish with his execution. On July 27, 9 Thermidor in the Revolutionary calendar , Robespierre and his allies were placed under arrest by the National Assembly.
Robespierre was taken to the Luxembourg prison in Paris, but the warden refused to jail him, and he fled to the Hotel de Ville. Armed supporters arrived to aid him, but he refused to lead a new insurrection. When he received word that the National Convention had declared him an outlaw, he shot himself in the head but only succeeded in wounding his jaw. Shortly thereafter, troops of the National Convention attacked the Hotel de Ville and seized Robespierre and his allies.
The next evening—July 28—Robespierre and 21 others were guillotined without a trial in the Place de la Revolution. During the next few days, another 82 Robespierre followers were executed. The Reign of Terror was at an end. In the aftermath of the coup, the Committee of Public Safety lost its authority, the prisons were emptied, and the French Revolution became decidedly less radical. The Directory that followed saw a return to bourgeois values, corruption, and military failure.
In , the Directory was overthrown in a military coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte , who wielded dictatorial powers in France as first consul and, after , as French emperor. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
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