Thermidorian reaction / Directory

Question 1

Who were the thermadorians

Answer 1

Those who helped overthrow Robespierre- mixed - CPS/CGS terrorists - plain etc

Question 2

What was the conventions goal at the end of the terror

Answer 2

Abolish Rev tribunal
Release suspects in prison
Closed the Jacobin club and repeal the law of prarial (10 June)
Abandoning centralising
25% of member of 2 comi tees had to be changed each month
16 new committees of convention set up

Question 3

When/ what was the separation of the church from the state

Answer 3

21ST FEB 1795 freedom of worship- the government was religiously neutral

Question 4

What did thermadorians want to do with price controls and what happened

Answer 4

Get rid of price controls because 
Wanted a free market 
Abolish maximum aug 1794
Price controls dec 1794
Printed more assignats 
Price of bread high and bad harvests and assignat value at 4%

Question 5

What/ when was Germinal

Answer 5

1st April 1795
Popular demonstration
10.000 unarmed demanded bread and constitution of 1793
Stopped by nat guard w out resistance

Question 6

What / when was prarial

Answer 6

20th may 1795
Serious armed rebellion demanding bread 
Army stopped the uprising but could have been very serious with out 
Failed for sc because 
Workers were divided 
No institution eg commune to stop 
Politically inexperienced 
Lost support from Radical bourgeoisie 
Army used first time since 1789

Question 7

What did the thermadorians want?

End of terror

Answer 7

Price controls abolished - free market favoured
Abandon CPS centralisation
Dismantle machinery of terror eg Rev tribunal local power
Cut all ties with religion eg freedom or worship Feb 21st 1795

Question 8

What did the thermadorians want?

Self preservation

Answer 8

CGSmembers who resented loss of power to CSP
Terrorists who feared for their lives eg fouche
Just to stay alive eg surviving dantonists eg legendre
CPS members who felt threatened eg barere
Members of the plain

Question 9

What did the thermadorians want?

Revenge

Answer 9

White terror
Violence in France - NWSE and guerilla in vedee
CHOUAN- cotterau leader- Brittany - in control from 1794-6 with English help - royalist activity - Quiberon bay June 1795 3000 emigrees land and thousands of chouans help. Hoche defeated them. 6000 arrests including 1000 emigrees.
Jeunesse doree- reactionary movement - gangs of youth

Question 10

What did the thermadorians want?

Primacy of the bougeiosie

Answer 10

New constitution guarantee principles of 1789
All males 21+ can vote if pay taxes vote for electors - electors choose deputies- electors 30.000 of them, had to pay taxes for 150 days of labour so had to be rich to be one
Separated executive and legaslative power
Ensure no return to Monarch, dictator or sc rule

Question 11

What was the legaslative power

Answer 11

2 chambers
Council of 500- 500 men over the age of 30 initiate legislation and pass to ancients

Council of ancients - 250 men- 40 years and above approve or object bills

Annual elections - 1/3rd of men retire

Question 12

What was executive power

Answer 12

Directory of 5
Chosen by ancients from a list drawn up by the 500
5 directs hold office for 5 years
Could not initiate or veto laws
In charge of military. Diplomacy . Law enforcement

Question 13

What were the weakness in the constitution

Answer 13

Annual elections = instability
No way to resolve conflict between the 2 councils
Councils could paralyse the directory

Question 14

What was the 2/3rd decree

Answer 14

A decree by the gment stating that 2/3rds of the new councils must be chosen from the convention deputies to prevent royalist majority

Question 15

When was the new constitution agreed to and what did it show

Answer 15

22nd August 1795

4 million didn’t vote - showed public apathy

Question 16

What was the Verona declaration

Answer 16

After Louis XV1 son killed in prison in June 1795 the Kings bother immediately announced himself king of France and said he was going to restore the anciem regieme - he was in exile in Italy
It was a very reactionary document

Question 17

What affects did the Verona declaration have

Answer 17

Turned some constitutional monarchists away from that idea and more towards a republic - exact opposite to what it intended to do

Question 18

What and when was the vendiemiare uprising ?

Answer 18

5TH OCTOBER 1795
Large crowd 25.000 gathered outside convention to sieze power triggered by the 2/3rd decree- but also due to economic problems

Napoleon crush the uprising with a ‘whiff of grapeshoot’

300 killed in journee

Question 19

What was the directory

Answer 19

The new 1/3 of the council or 500 after vendiemiare and the dissolution of the convention
Stable and liberal gment

Survived because 
Commited to restoring rule of law 
Opponents eg jacobin terror defeated 
Royalists divided 
Public apathy 
Army supported them

Question 20

What and when was the babeuf plot

Answer 20

1796 MARCH 
 Radical pamphleteer in tribun de ppl 
First communists- no private land 
Disliked the new constitution 
Overthrow directory by coup 
Arrested and killed in May 1796

Question 21

What was the coup de fructidor

Answer 21

September 3/4 1797- 17-18 fructidor
Stopped a royalist majority by cancelling elections in most the sections and deporting deputies to guina. Used troops
Ended parliament government and a victory for the executive over legislative

Question 22

What happened to emigrees and refractory persist after the coup

Answer 22

Royalists had 2 weeks to leave or they were executed and priests had to take an oath rejecting royalty of they were to be deported- many didn’t - created an enemy for the directory in Catholics

Question 23

What did the directors do with financial reform

Answer 23

Feb 1796- new currency Mondat terratoux introduced- due to falling assignat- these failed and were worthless within a year too - coins only money - deflation

2/3rd of the national debt was wiped out by ramel ‘bankruptcy of 2/3rd’ helped to stabilise the French currency - only 80 million debt

Increasing government revenue
Direct and indirect taxes were introduced eg on widows and doors
New methods of collection of tax put in place
Plunder of other countries

October 1797- balance the budget for the first time since the revolution began

Question 24

The war ?

Answer 24

Austria - the defeat
Napoleon defeated piedmont then Vienna in Feb 1797
Armistice with Austria in April
Campo formio 18th October 1797 - napoleon ignored directors instruction and gave Austria Venice - directors do nltbing cos they knew they may need him

May 1798 Nap goes to Egypt to attack Brits empire but was defeated by nelson in the battle on Egypt in 1798- this defeat encouraged other countries to take up arms against France again - lead to a second co aliton