French Revolution: Phase 2

1792-1799

1792: Start of Second Phase

• Reorganization of clergy created national division over revolution and “refractory priests”

• Louis XVI attempted to flee, showing his lack of support for constitutional monarchy

• “Jacobins” pressed for republicanism, not constitutional monarchy

• “Girondists:” a subset of the Jacobins, were determined to oppose counterrevolution

Louis XVI apprehended at Varennes, as he attempts to escape France, in disguise

1792: War with Austria

• Assembly declared war on Austria; Louis XVI agreed

• War radicalized the revolution, creating the Second Revolution

• September Massacres: 1,200 jailed criminals executed by Paris mob who thought them counterrevolutionaries

• Many of the executed were refractory priests

Danton’s oratory spurred mob to storm jails and try prisoners as counter-revolutionaries

Major Political Groups

• Sans-culottes: working people, demanded social equality, refused to wear stockings of aristocracy

• Girondins: moderate reformers, by this phase opposed violence and execution of king (named for Gironde region where leaders originated)

• Jacobins: increasingly radicalized, sought representative government, hated nobility but not wealth; encouraged violence and execution of king (named for monastery building in which they met)

• “The Mountain:” Jacobins allied with sans-culottes to overthrow monarchy

Execution of Louis XVI

• Louis XVI: symbol of ancien regime; feared to be colluding with foreign enemies

• The Mountain tried Louis XVI for conspiring against liberty

• Girondins argued against execution

• Louis XVI executed 1793; Marie Antoinette executed several months later

• Jacobins also executed 22 Girondins to consolidate power

Death of Marat, Painted by David

• Marat: highly popular journalist, who

• Sided often with Jacobins, as Parisians became more radical

• In response to Jacobin execution of Girondin leaders, Girondin sympathizer killed Marat in his bathtub

Committee of Public Safety• Europe universally at war

with France: defeat mob rule and threat to monarchy

• Assembly created powerful executive committees to protect revolution and defend France

• Committee of Public Safety: Dozen members included Danton, Robespierre, Carnot, but Danton was replaced by St. Just a few months later

• Levée en Masse to raise an army

Convention to De-Christianize France

• New Calendar: holidays every 10 days, instead of 7

• Notre Dame as “Temple of Reason”

• Clergy persecuted, churches closed

• Antagonized rural areas and created rift between Paris and rural France

Reign of Terror

• Tribunals to try the “enemies” of the republic, first in Paris then throughout France

• Victims were at first aristocrats, then Girondists, and even sans-culottes

• Robespierre used The Terror to consolidate his power, by executing all who could oppose him, including Danton

• Robespierre finally executed by members of the Convention who feared being next victim

Thermidorian Reaction, 1794

• 1794: the tempering of the revolution due to belief that revolution had become too radical

• Former terrorists were themselves executed

• Traditional non-virtuous life returned to Paris

• Catholic worship revived

The Directory

• Constitution of the Year III: bicameral, with propertied electors, not pure democracy

• Thermidorians repealed price controls as to deregulate the economy: riots

• National army artillery, under Napoleon, fired on rioters to end uprising

• The five-person executive “Directory” ruled France, intent on preventing new change

Cartoon lampooning the Directory, and its supposed frequent mistakes