DID THE JACOB INS HELP OR HURT THE FRENCH PEOPLE?

FRENCH REVOLUTION DAY 4

Progress and Decline, Turning Points

WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE

Help the French people: who progressed?

Hurt the French people: who declined?

REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE?

• “virtue, without terror is fatal; terror, without virtue is powerless”

• “Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice.”

Robespierre: Jacobin leader, admirer of Rousseau, executed by guillotine in 1794

BBC History, Historic Figures, Maximilien Robespierre, 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/robespierre_maximilien.shtml (Oct. 17, 2013).

HORRORS OF WAR

Novopress France, Commemoration de Noyades de Nantes, 2006, http://archives-fr.novopress.info/6159/commemoration-des-noyade-de-nantes/ (Oct. 16, 2013).

The Noyades, horrific drownings.

THE VENDEE• Vendee = West of France• Jacobins feared counter-revolution in

deeply religious and conservative/ royalist part of France

• They thought the Vendeen Catholic and Royal army might even have been in contact with the British to get arms (internal fears)

• They suppressed the Vendee as an example to the rest of France, 100, 000 may have died

THE VENDEE CON’T…

• The Revolutionary Tribunals were very strict there:• Tried and executed people within 24 hours

without appeal• Tried people in batches of 20-30• People were drowned: naked men, women,

and children (prisoners of war) were tied together, towed out the Loire river in Nantes, and drowned in boats specially constructed for this 5,000 killed this way: called Noyades

THE VENDEE CON’T…

• When it was over, French General Joseph Westermann wrote a letter to the committee of public safety saying:• “There is no more Vendee… According to the

letters that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all.”

Samuel, H. (2008, Dec. 26). Vendee French call for revolution massacre to be termed “genocide.”

Telegraph. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from http://www.telegraph.ca.uk/news/worldnews/

europe/france

SYMBOL OF THE VENDEE

• Biggest symbol of the Vendee came to be Charlotte Corday, the woman who murdered revolutionary leader Marat.

• She was deeply religious and unhappy with the Jacobins. Marat became a revolutionary martyr

• Corday was guillotined.Bastille Day and the French Revolution. Acessed March 26 2013. http://bastille-day.com/biography/Marat-Biography

PSD: “JACOBINS”

• Revolutionary Tribunal • Committee of Public Safety • Law of 22 Prairial

Mount Holyoke College, French Revolution II, A session of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris, N.d., https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist151/French%20Revolution%20II/album/slides/revolutionary%20tribunal.html (Oct. 17, 2013).

Meeting of a Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris – jury but no appeal

LAW OF 22 PRAIRIAL

“The excesses of the Revolutionary Tribunal increased with the growth of Robespierre’s ascendancy in the Committee of Public Safety. On June 10, 1794, there was promulgated, at his instigation, the Law of 22 Prairial, which forbade prisoners to employ counsel for their defense, suppressed the hearing of witnesses, and made death the sole penalty. Before 22 Prairial the Revolutionary Tribunal had pronounced 1,220 death sentences in 13 months; during the 49 days between the passing of the law and the fall of Robespierre, 1,376 persons were condemned, including many innocent victims.”Revolutionary Tribunals, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, N.d., http://

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/500659/Revolutionary-Tribunal (Oct. 17, 2013).

FIND THE MATCHING LINES IN “JACOBINS”

1. The result of disobeying this court’s rule is death.

2. The laws will be changed if they aren’t for the good of the whole community/country.

3. Whoever wants a king back in power is a traitor. 4. The conversations and decisions of this group

will take place behind closed doors.5. Majority decisions are implemented ASAP. 6. No second chances after the verdict. 7. People who use violence or trickery to destroy

the freedom of everyone are enemies of the people.

COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY LOOPHOLE

• Who would have been seen as counter- revolutionaries by the Revolutionary Tribunals (by the Jacobins)?• • • • •

EVIDENCE ABOUT JACOBINS• Food prices (which group or groups are affected)• Rule by emergency decree• Revolutionary tribunals• Peasant land purchases• Education• Citizen• Conscription• Democratization• Abolition of slavery in colonies• Deism• Reorganization of local government• Food requisition• Intolerance of opposition• Other?

THE DIRECTORY

• Third phase of the revolution• Will cooler heads prevail?• Look who is coming…

HOMEWORK

• Read pages 174-175 in text and take notes on the rise of Napoleon. Use these headings:• Corsica • in Jacobin Army• under Directory • in Italy • Egypt and England • coup

How Stuff Works, How the French Revolution Worked: The Directory and the War Hero, 1998-2013, http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/french-revolution9.htm (Oct. 17, 2013).

Napoleon, French general serving the Directory