The French Revolution

The Radical Phase McKay 704-711,

Section 9.44

Radical StageCharacteristics

• 1792-1794• Characterized by:

– Radical attack on traditional institutions

• Regicide

• Christianity outlawed

– New Calendar Created

– Republic of Virtue• Citizens with amour de soi

• Revolutionary Culture of Citizens

– Republic– Reign of Terror– Total War– Nationalism

Major Playas

• Maximillian Robespierre• Committee of Public

Safety• Marat• The Jacobins

– The Mountain

• The Girondins• The Sans Culottes

Radical Phase

1792 1793 1794

-Tuileries Palace

attacked-Monarchy deposed

Reign of Terror

Citizen Capet

executed

Committee of Public Safety formed (April)

-September Massacres-Convention

formed-Year 1 of Republic

Proclaimed

Robespierre executed

9 Thermidor (July 28)

Constitution of 1793

CPS proclaims Levee en masse.

Maximum price laws

Vendee Counterrevolution

breaks out in (March)

Second Revolution

First Coalition declare war with

France (April)

Flight to Varennes

• "Externally all the despots surround you; internally all the friends of tyranny conspire...It is necessary to annihilate both the internal and external enemies of the republic or perish with its fall. Now, in this situation your first political maxim should be that one guides the people by reason, and the enemies of the people by terror...terror is the only justice that is prompt, severe, and inflexible; it is thus an emanation of virtue"----- Maximilien Robespierre's "Republic of Virtue."

• Many members of the excluded classes (Silesian weavers, peasant farmers, even Prussian army officers) around Europe identified with the spirit of the revolution

• Mary Wollstonecraft– A Vindication of the Rights of Man (1790)– English writer who traveled to France to witness

events– Said that Declaration of the Rights …should

include women too– Called for education of women

• Would make them better wives, mothers, citizens

• Edmund Burke– Father of Conservatisms & Anti- Revolutionary

voice– Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790

• Said that every people must be shaped by its own national circumstances, history, character

• Said French had unnaturally forgotten their history, tradition

• Predicted anarchy and dictatorship in France

Foreign Reaction to the Revolution

The Jacobins• AKA: The Mountain or Montagnards• Most radical left winged members of the

Legislative Assembly (later the Convention)– Named for where they sat in the Assembly

room• Developed radical ideas as members of the

Jacobins– Intellectual club

• Favored Republicanism• Lead by Robespierre, Marat, Danton• Supported by Sans Culottes• Favored Regicide• Wanted centralized control of economy, culture,

etc.• Wanted to continue Revolution within France• Wanted to DeChristianize France of all Catholic

vestiges

Girondins• Moderate War Hawks of the

Legislative Assembly/ Convention• Named from a region in S.W.

France• Favored Republicanism• Wanted War to spread the French

Revolution to other nations• Favored moderation of

Revolutionary ideals in France Believed Rev. had gone far enough

• -Favored Laissez-Faire• Against Regicide

• Radical working class of Paris• wore long trousers and not breeches or

culottes as middle and upper classes did

• were pre-industrial shopkeepers, shop assistants, skilled artisans

• Anti-monarchial, anti-nobility• Paris Commune (government of Paris

after Bastille) was their vehicle• Favored

– price controls– direct democracy– Small land owners– Small business

• Girondins saw them as anarchists• Montagnards used them for intimidation • Fueled by Marat’s newspaper

The Sans-culottes

Maximillian Robespierre• Leader of the Jacobins

(Montagnard)• Nicknamed “the Incorruptible”

– Rigid and dogmatic in his beliefs• Loved Rousseau• Republic of Virtue

– Wanted to create a France of good citizens

– Rousseauian Emiles• Led the Committee of Public Safety

– 12 member committee with dictatorial power

– Saved the Revolution during most critical period

• Orchestrated the Reign of Terror– To stop enemies of the

Revolution during the War– To scare unvirtuous citizens

straight

Declaration of Pillnitz• European powers supported Rev. at 1st

– Hoped it would weaken France• Declaration of Pillnitz

– Warning by Austria King Leopold II and Prussian King Frederick William II

– Threatened war with France– Hoped that it would have a sobering effect

on France & quiet the demands of the émigrés

• Instead it outrage French– Pushes the Girondins to leadership of

France• called for “a war of peoples against

kings”– “Liberty, equality, and fraternity” became

mantra of Revolution• France declared war on Austria April ‘92

Leopold II

War of the First Coalition Begins• War goes badly at 1st (for

France)• Routed after they invaded

Austrian Netherlands (Belgium)

• Road to Paris wide open• Conflict of partitioning of

Poland saves France– Poland “The Christ of

the Nations”• King and Queen are held

as prisonersConcierge prison in Paris

War Begins

Brunswick Manifesto July 1792• French army lacks many

experienced officers– Many Emigres were military

officers• War is going very badly for France• Royal family being held under

house arrest• Brunswick Manifesto

– New warning issued by Prussia and Austria

– Threaten severe punishment on the citizens of Paris if anything happens to Louis XVI

• Fuels radical mood of Revolution • Thousands of new volunteers

stream into Paris singing Marseillaise

September Massacre• First Coalition armies rout

French August of 1792 • Aug 10, 1792

– Sans culottes storm Tuileries, massacre Swiss Guard

• Royal family escapes to the Legislative Assembly in Tuileries Hall

• Rumors spread that monarchial prisoners are planning to break out of prison and attack army from the rear

• San Cullottes storm prisons in September (2-7)

• Massacre the “enemies of the revolution”– 1, 100 people (refractory

priests, royalists)British cartoon portrayal of Sans-Culottes after September Massacre

September Massacre

Republic Proclaimed (9/21/1792)• Battle of Valmy (9/20/1792)

– First victory of French armny– halted Austrian advance

• Legislative Assembly (National Assembly) declared:– monarchy dissolved– Constitution of 1791 dissolved– universal male suffrage– National Convention to draft a more

democratic constitution– Republic Proclaimed (9/21/1792)– Declare Year 1 of the French

Republic• The Decree of Fraternity

– offered French assistance to any subject peoples who wished to overthrow their governments

Execution of the King• Louis XVI was placed on

trial for treason• Citizen Capet

– Because monarchy was no more, he was addressed as Citizen Capet

• Secret letters discovered• proved King wanted

foreign intervention• Jacobins dominated

Convention• Wanted the king to die• Girondins voted to spare

his life• Vote 387 to 334 to

execute the monarchs

Execution of the King

Vendee Rebellion (1793)• Hardships of War greatly affected

peasants– Wages, prices, food shortages

getting worse• Vendee (Nantes) peasants staged a

major revolt– Egged on by refractory clergy,

émigrés, royalist against the revolution

– Rebels against• Conscription to fight 1st Coalition• Civil Constitution of Clergy• Lack of land

– Revolts spread to Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseilles

• French Republic– At war with 1st Coalition and itself– Created Committee of Public

Safety to save the Revolution

Counterrevolutionaries

Committee of Public Safety• 12 man committee with dictatorial power• Led by Robespierre• Launched total war

– Mandatory conscription– levee en masse– Drafted all able bodied men– Create an army of over 800 thousand men– Four times as large as 1st coalition– Enlisted scientists to develop technologies for

the war– Planned economy

• Price, production controls• Law of General Maximum (9/1793)

– Set ceiling for prices, wages– Hoarders rooted out and punished

• Food supplies would be secured by the army

• Create 1st modern nationalism– Emotional attachment to nation

• Reign of terror– Eliminate enemies of Revolution

– “From this moment until such time as its enemies shall have been driven from the soil of the Republic, all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the services of the armies. The young men shall fight; the married men shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn linen into lint; the old men shall betake themselves to the public squares in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic"

Reign of Terror (July ‘93-July ‘94)• Period of intense marshal law• Original Purpose

– strike fear into counterrevolutionaries, traitors, etc.– Law of Suspects (9/1793)

• Could be denounced & arrested for unrevolutionary behavior

• Using “Madame” or not expressing enthusiastic support for the revolution

– Later used by Robespierre to terrorize unvirtuous citizens

• Law of 22 Prairial [June 10, 1794]• Robespierre dreamed of building a “Republic of

Virtue”• trials to deciding only on liberty OR death, with defendants

having no right• Began with “Are you an “enemy of the people?”

• Guillotine– Symbol of reign of terror– Also symbol of the equality of the Revolution– Victims included: Marie Antoinette, royalists, old

Jacobins, Girondins, Mountain, peasants (70 percent)• Marat Murdered by Charlotte Corday

Reign of Terror

Republic of Virtue• Robespierre vision of France

– Nation of unselfish, patriotic, civic-minded, enlightened citizens

– Based on Rousseau’s Emile of Social Contract

– Republic of Virtue speech equates virtue with democracy (General Will)

– Says virtue is empty without terror

• Terror= frighten enemies & unpatriotic into Emiles

• Program involved dechristianization, revolutionary calendar

• Enforced by the terror

Robespierre Republic of Virtue

• If the strength of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the strength of popular government in revolution is both virtue and terror; terror without virtue is disastrous, virtue without terror is powerless. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a particular principle than a consequence of the general principle of of democracy applied to the most urgent needs of the fatherland. It is said that terror is the strength of despotic government. Does ours then resemble the one with which the satellites of tyranny are armed. Let the despot govern his brutalized subjects through terror; he is right as a despot. Subdue the enemies of liberty through terror and you will be right as founders of the Republic. The government of revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.

Revolutionary Culture• Convention wanted new Revolutionary culture• Program included:• De-Christianization

– Created Revolutionary Calendar– Purpose was to eliminate saints’ days– Renamed days of the week, months of the

year– Renamed Notre Dame the Temple of Reason

• Citizens addressed each other with Citizen instead of Old Regime monsieur

• Create the Constitution of 1793– Known as the Montagnard Constitution– proclaimed

• superiority of the popular sovereignty• right to public education• right of rebellion• abolition of slavery

– Suspended because of the state of emergency (never instituted)

Sans Culottes wearing Phrygian cap

The New Republican The New Republican CalendarCalendar

New Name Meaning Time Period

Vendemaire Vintage September 22 – October 21

Brumaire Fog October 22 – November 20

Frimaire Frost November 21 – December 20

Nivose Snow December 21 – January 19

Pluviose Rain January 20 – February 18

Ventose Wind February 19 – March 20

Germinal Budding March 21 – April 19

Floreal Flowers April 20 – May 19

Prairial Meadow May 20 – June 18

Messidor Harvest June 19 – July 18

Thermidor Heat July 19 – August 17

Fructidor Fruit August 18 – September 21

A New Republican A New Republican Calendar YearCalendar YearI 1792 – 1793

II 1793 – 1794

III 1794 – 1795

IV 1795 – 1796

V 1796 – 1797

VI 1797 – 1798

VII 1798 – 1799

VIII 1799 – 1800

IX 1800 – 1801

X 1801 – 1802

XI 1802 – 1803

XII 1803 – 1804

XIII 1804 – 1805

XIV 1805

The Gregorian System returned in 1806.

French Revolution Calendar

I wish Lance were here.

Backlash to theDe-Christianization Program

Robespierre never really favored deChristinization

Believed people needed something to worship

created the Cult of the Supreme Being

Worship of “Reason” in the form of the goddess of liberty (instead of Mary)

Notre Dame renamed Temple of Reason

Despised by most of the population (especially in the rural areas) Paintings of the Festival of the Supreme

Being, June 8, 1794

DeChristianization

The “Thermidorean Reaction,” 1794• French army began to win the war by

summer of ‘94• People less tolerant of Committee of

Public Safety’s strict policies• Robespierre dreamed on Republic of

Virtue• “The Great Terror”• 800 executions per month in Paris• gave speech claiming he had a list of

traitors in the Convention on July 26, 1794

• Would not reveal names until next day• Terrified Convention

• Convention arrested Robespierre • Tried & guillotined on the 9th of

Thermidor (July 28, 1794)• Marks the end of the radical stage!!

Robespierre Lies Robespierre Lies WoundedWounded

Before the Revolutionary Before the Revolutionary Tribunal that will order Tribunal that will order him to be guillotined, him to be guillotined,

1794.1794.

Republic of Virtue & the Great Terror