French rev 1791-95 Flashcards
(25 cards)
The significance of the Paris crowd in the development of the revolution
- 1789: Political instability coincided with high bread prices and urban distress
- The Cahiers had lead to high expectations of the estates general
- There was a large literate population in Paris influenced by increasingly radical newspapers and pamphlets
actions: - 9th July 1789: National assembly becomes the national constituent assembly
- 11th July: riots over the dismissal of Necker
- 14th July: storming of the Bastille
- 5th Oct 1789: October days
- 21st June 1791 the king is brought back to Paris
- 17th July 1791 Champ de Mars
- crowds had started demanding the removal of the king
The Jacobins and the revolution
- Popular action was influenced by the ideas of political clubs
- Oct 1789 in the convent of st Jacques (first meeting)
- Members were middle class
- discussed issues in the assembly, aimed to limit the kings power
- 1791: split over the more radicals wanting a republic
- 1792: were divided over war with Austria
- they became more radical and aligned with the Sans Culottes
- Under Robespierre, they dominated the government, implemented radical war policies and new social, religious and economic policies
Origins of war 1792
-** August 1791:** Austria and Prussia issue the Pillnitz Doctrine threatening combined military intervention in support of the king
- émigré troops under louis youngest brother increased revolutionary fear of invasion and counter revolution
- 20th April 1792: The Assembly declared war on Austria with the kings support
Course of the war 1792
- Girondins seized control of the debates in the legislative assembly (most notorious Brissot) and were appointed to government
- Some radicals like Robespierre opposed the war but the assembly saw refractory clergy and emigres as a counter revolutionary threat and two laws were passed:
- not swearing the clerical oath became a crime
- demand of confiscation of emigre’s land
- Louis vetoed the laws and dismissed leading Girondins
- He appeared to be obstructing the legislative assembly
Defeat and extremism in the war 1792
- almost halve the army officers were emigres
- soldiers were demoralised
- generals were urging peace talks
- the king was mistrusted and revolutionary’s called for more revolutionary methods of defeating the enemy
- Sans Culotte wanted food price control and extension of the vote.
- early 1792: Riots over food prices increased militancy
Overthrow of the monarchy: 20th June - 10th August 1792
20th June 1792
- last bloodless demonstration against the monarchy
- thousands of sans culottes stormed the Tuileries and forced Louis to wear the red cap of liberty
July
- Provincial guards began to arrive in Paris calling for the fall of the monarchy following the decree of state emergency
1st August
- The Brunswick manifesto, declaring Paris would suffer vengeance if harm came from the king, arrived from Prussia in Paris
- identified Louis as the enemy
- Marie Antionette was thought to be plotting with Austria to betray France
10th August
- The Tuileries is attacked, the Swiss guards massacred and the deputies of the legislative assembly are forced to hand over the king and queen
-** They had to agree to:**
- new elections by universal suffrage of a national convention that would draw up a new, more democratic, constitution
Aftermath
- Power shared between the legislative assembly, the revolutionary commune and the new Provisional executive council created by both groups
- An extraordinary tribunal was set up to try and sometimes guillotine counter revolutionaries
September Massacres
- Lafayette defected to Austria after trying to end the revolution
- Hundreds of counter revolutionaries were being arrested and there were rumours they planned to escape and hand Paris over
- Marat and other extremists called to have them killed
- 2nd September 1792: News of the fall of the fortress of Verdun reaches Paris. The prisons are broken into and over 4 days, ab 1,300 prisoners are murdered
The committee of public safety
- created 6th April 1793
- 12 men to coordinate the war effort
- Initially dominated by Danton but was coming to be lead by more radical revolutionaries like Robespierre, Couthon and Saint-Just
- Carnot was responsible for war strategy and personnel. he was behind the 23rd August Leve en Masse conscription
- CPS also dispatched representatives on mission to armies to improve moral and supervise generals
1793-94, 84 generals were shot or guillotined, 352 were dismissed on suspicion of treachery or defeatism
Committee of general security
composed of 12 deputies to:
- oversee state security incl police
- prossecute foreign agents and counterfeiters of assignats
- report regularly to the national convension
- began to resort to terror as threat of invasion and defeat grew
The coming of the terror
- the revolutionary government was facing invasion from abroad and opposition from within
- the need for greater control over resources, prices, stricter security measures, lead to the terror with stringent measures enforced by harsh punishment
- May 1793: Grain price controls imposed by the national convention lead to a black market of grain. Supply fell and price rose. Hording grain became a capital offence but this didn’t help
- Extremists (Enrages) called for higher taxation of the rich, death for horders and arrest of political suspects . They surrounded the national convension domanting these and the formation of a sans-coulotte revolutionary army
- the deputies agreed to the enrages and enforced the law of general maximum enforcing wage and price controls throughout france
- personal attacks on national convension members caused more terror
Political terror
- 17th September 1793: law of suspects - widened the defenition of those against the revolution to Incl royalists, fedralists, relations of emigrees and anyone without a certification of loyalty from their local watch committee
- watch commettees could arrests anyone suspected and send their charges to the Committee of general security. Prison population rose significantly
- trial process was sped up
Executions
- March - sept 1793: 70 guillotined
- Oct - Dec 1793: 178
- By 1794: 2,639 in paris, 16,594 nationally
- total killings was higher due to mob violence
- victims were prodominantly the poor (nobles made up 8%, the clergy 6%, middle class 14%, the poor 72%)
- there were many revolts and in the Vendee region Guerrilla attacks and scorched earth reprisals continued into 1794 and by the end of the revolt, 200,000 people had died and Lyons was made an example
Religious terror
- dechristianisation driven by the sans culottes, revolutionary army and representetives on mission, rather than the national convention
- revolutionary hatred of the catholic church led to the removal of thousends of preists and the closure of churches
- Robespierre wanted a new revolutionary religion
Who was Robespierre?
- Lawyer from Arras
- Came to the national assembly 1789 as deputy for the estates general and became well known for his radical views, belief in democracy and opposition to capital punishment and slavery
- 5th September 1792: Elected to the National convention
Journee of the 2nd June 1793
- There was a struggle for power between the Montagnard’s and Girondin’s
- Robespierre had support of the sans culotte who wanted harsher revolutionary measures and control of bread prices
- Robespierre called for an insurrection against ‘corrupt deputies’ and the national convent was surrounded 2nd June by national guards demanding the arrest of 29 Girondins
- 24th October 1793 the trials of 21 Girondins began
- 31 Oct: Girondins were guillotined
Dictatorship of the CPS and Robespierre
- by the end of 1793, revolts had been defeated, foreign troops driven from France
- Robespierre could use the CPS to control the Sans Culottes and rise to power
- September: National assembly decreed the sections of the Paris commune should meet twice a week to limit sans culotte ability to organise
- October: deputies passed a decree that suspended the constitution with it’s ‘one man one vote’ system
Law of Frimaire
- 4th December 1793
- established a revolutionary government which:
- Confirmed the CGS and CPS had full executive powers incl control of local government, so they could break the power of the Paris commune and S-C
- Disbanded all revolutionary armies except that in Paris
The Jacobins had become a dictatorship
Challenge to the CPS
- 1794: two challenges:
- the Indulgents, lead by Danton and campaigning to end the terror
- The Herbertists, led by Herbert, who wanted more terror
- Robespierre first moved against the Herbertists, who were arrested and guillotined then the Indulgents who were convicted and guillotined 5th April 1794
The great terror
- 10th June - 27th July
- 11 remaining members of the CPS continued with control and repression and passed new laws:
- Law on General police: allowed CPS to set up a police Bureau to catch counter revolutionaries and identify suspects
- enforced by Saint-Just
- mostly nobles, clergy and ex Herbertists sent to revolutionary tribunal
-
Law of 19 Floréal: Gave revolutionary tribunal jurisdiction over all counter revolutionary offences
law of Prairial: 10th June. Widened definition of revolutionary crimes to include almost anyone - Defence witness didn’t have to be heard or evidence produced
- verdicts were death or acquittal
- Acquittal dropped to just 20%
- batch trials were used
Robespierre and religion
- Robespierre had disliked the dechristianisation
- May 1794: linked his beliefs to the ‘cult of the supreme being’
Thermador
- 26th July 1794: Robespierre told the convention there was a conspiracy against public liberty. He wouldn’t say who and people were worried they might be on the list
- 27th July 1794
- The wartime measures became too extreme as the French armies were no longer a threat and policies like the cult of the supreme being seemed eccentric
- Robespierre was overthrown
factors in Robespierre’s fall:
- been ill and had withdrawn from the CPS and the National Convention
- had long-standing quarrels with the supporters of dechristianisation and the more extreme supporters of the Terror, notably Fouché
- become a figure of ridicule over his recent role as high priest of the Cult of the Supreme Being - lost sans-culotte support because of his attacks on the Hébertists and threatened wage reductions
- given other revolutionaries reason to fear that he might accuse them of conspiracy.
After the events of Thermidor the surviving members of the CPS tried to continue the Terror but the deputies of the National Convention reasserted their control to end it.
Thermidorian reaction
- Robespierre and his associates were labelled as terrorists and blamed for the terror
- They moved to end the terror and disperse the centralised power by:
- ensuring members of the CPS and CGS changed often
- set up new committees to share government responsibilities
- reorganise the revolutionary tribunal
- repealed the law of Prairial
- released suspects from prisons
- abolished the Paris Commune
- closed the Jacobin club
- established freedom of worship for all religions
The white terror
- 1795
- Gangs attacked Jacobins, militants and sans culottes
- violence was worse in the provinces. Massacres in the streets in the south cost around 2000 lives
- Guerrilla warfare flared in the Vendee with the Chouan (royalist) movement
1795 Parisian risings
- Thermidorians abolished price controls leading to high inflation and a harsh winter lead to food shortages
1st April 1795, Germinal - Huge demonstrations in Paris
- National guard stayed loyal to the convention and the crowd was dispersed
- ex-terrorists were exiled to Guiana
20th-22nd May, Prairial - serious Journee as some demonstrators were armed and joined by National Guards
- Loyal army managed to regained control
- leaders were arrested, tried and executed, others imprisoned, thousands disarmed
- finally broke the sans culottes
