The following day, the Convention’s president Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac presented it with the indictment and decreed the interrogation of Louis XVI. On September 5, 1793, the Convention decreed that “terror is the order of the day” and resolved that opposition to the Revolution needed to be crushed and eliminated so that the Revolution could succeed. The patronage of the directors was ill-bestowed and the general maladministration heightened their unpopularity. The war declared on April 20, 1792, against Austria (soon joined by Prussia) started as a disaster for the French. Tensions between Louis XVI and the Legislative Assembly intensified and the blame for war failures was thrown first upon the king and his ministers and the Girondins party. Napoleon had seen the massacre of the King’s Swiss Guard there three years earlier and realized that artillery would be the key to its defense. The National Convention was a single-chamber assembly in France from September 20, 1792, to October 26, 1795, during the French Revolution. By the spring of 1793, the war was going badly, and France found itself surrounded by hostile powers while counterrevolutionary insurrections were spreading outward from the Vendée. Not all of the conspiratorial groupings were ideologically motivated. They reestablished freedom of worship, began releasing large numbers of prisoners, and initiated elections for a new legislative body. This was the largest mass execution that ever took place in Paris and led to a fragile situation in France. Eventually headed by Maximilien Robespierre, this committee was given the monumental task of dealing with radical movements, food shortages, riots and revolts (most notably in the Vendée and Brittany), and recent defeats of its armies. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. In early 1799, he moved an army into the Ottoman province of Damascus (Syria and Galilee). For both legislative and administrative purposes, the Convention used committees, with powers regulated by successive laws. To assure that the Directory did not abandon the Revolution entirely, the Council required all members of the Directory to be former members of the Convention and regicides, those who had voted for the execution of Louis XVI. In August, the British fleet under Horatio Nelson captured or destroyed all but two French vessels in the Battle of the Nile, defeating Bonaparte’s goal to strengthen the French position in the Mediterranean. According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President, who was eligible for re-election, every fortnight. He also authorized the French to loot treasures. The government's violence during the Terror may have been an effort to prevent the 'sans-culottes' from taking violence into their hands. When the elections of 1798 and 1799 were carried by the opposition, it used the Army to imprison and exile opposition leaders and close opposition newspapers. In October, however, there was a counterattack accusing the instigators of being terrorists. The sans-culottes, exasperated by the inadequacies of the government, invaded the Convention and overthrew the Girondins. It annexed Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, while Napoleon Bonaparte conquered a large part of Italy. Find the best stories, opinion, pictures and video on the day's events. The National Convention was a single-chamber assembly in France from September 20, 1792, to October 26, 1795, during the French Revolution. After the Reign of Terror, a new government was formed called the Directory. Despite growing discontent with the National Convention as a ruling body, in June the Convention drafted the Constitution of 1793, which was ratified by popular vote in early August. During the Reign of Terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested; 17,000 were officially executed, and perhaps 10,000 died in prison or without trial. The Montagnards were much more radical and held strong connections to the sans-culottes of Paris. An execution by guillotine during the Reign of Terror, depicted in, France: The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789–1815. The Directory established six short-lived sister republics modeled after France in Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Following the fall of Robespierre and the Thermidorian Reaction in July 1794, Napoleon, although closely associated with Robespierre, was released from the arrest within two weeks and asked to draw up plans to attack Italian positions in the context of France’s war with Austria. The Directory denounced the arbitrary executions of the Reign of Terror, but also engaged in large-scale illegal repressions and even massacres of civilians (War in the Vendée). Its achievements were minor and the approach reflected another turn towards dictatorship and the failure of liberal democracy. Robespierre came to power on the back of street violence. Recall the composition and role of the National Convention. On the night of August 10, 1792, insurgents and popular militias supported by the revolutionary Paris Commune assailed the Tuileries Palace and massacred the Swiss Guards assigned for the protection of the king. Explain the structure and role of the Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, French armies overran the Netherlands and established the Batavian Republic, occupied the left bank of the Rhine, and forced Spain, Prussia and several German states to sue for peace, enhancing the prestige of the National Convention. Few were nobles, very few were clergymen, and the majority came from the middle class. He returned to Corsica and came into conflict with the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli, who decided to split with France and sabotage the French assault on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena. In the elections of 1797 for one-third of the seats, the Royalists won the great majority and were poised to take control of the Directory in the next election. He ordered a young cavalry officer named Joachim Murat to seize large cannons and used them to repel the attackers on October 5, 1795 (13 Vendémiaire in the French Republican Calendar). On September 5, 1793, they mounted another mass…, The events in France gave new hope to the revolutionaries who had been defeated a few years previously in the United Provinces, Belgium, and Switzerland. Reign of Terror, period of the French Revolution from September 5, 1793, to July 27, 1794, during which the Revolutionary government decided to take harsh measures against those suspected of being enemies of the Revolution (nobles, priests, and hoarders). In the spring of 1794, it eliminated its enemies to the left (the Hébertists) and to the right (the Indulgents, or followers of Georges Danton). 800px-Clu00f4ture_de_la_salle_des_Jacobins_1794.jpg. The Legislative Assembly first met on October 1, 1791, under the Constitution of 1791, consisting of 745 members. The Legislative Assembly was driven by two opposing groups. Following this, his army captured Milan and started the Siege of Mantua. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with Tipu Sultan, a Muslim enemy of the British in India. He supported the republican Jacobin movement and was promoted to captain in 1792, despite exceeding his leave of absence and leading a riot against a French army in Corsica. The next day the Convention abolished the monarchy and declared a republic. A year later, the National Convention adopted the Constitution of 1795. Bonaparte decided on a military expedition to seize Egypt and thereby undermine Britain’s access to its trade interests in India. In October 1795, immediately after the suppression of a royalist uprising in Paris, the elections for the new Councils decreed by the new constitution took place. The name Thermidorian refers to Thermidor 9, Year II (July 27, 1794), the date according to the French Republican Calendar when Robespierre and other radical revolutionaries came under concerted attack in the National Convention. The Directory reacted by purging all the winners in the Coup of 18 Fructidor, banishing 57 leaders to certain death in Guiana and closing 42 newspapers. The Directory ruled until Napoleon took control. In June 1794, Robespierre, who favored deism over atheism, recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of his god. A timeline exploring the events of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror. There was a murderer on the loose. Robespierre voted first and said “The sentiment that led me to call for the abolition of the death penalty is the same that today forces me to demand that it be applied to the tyrant of my country.” Philippe Égalité, formerly the Duke of Orléans and Louis’ own cousin, voted for his execution, a cause of much future bitterness among French monarchists. A combination of food scarcity and rising prices led to the overthrow of the Girondins and increased the popular support of the Montagnards, who created the Committee of Public Safety to deal with the various crises. He remains one of the most celebrated and controversial political figures in human history. Although the Girondins and the Jacobins were both on the extreme left and shared many of the same radical republican convictions, the Jacobins were more brutally efficient in setting up a war government. The foundation of the Terror was centered around the April 1793 creation of the Committee of Public Safety. With Robespierre the sole remaining strongman of the Revolution, his apparent total grasp on power became increasingly illusory. In the end, Robespierre himself united his enemies when he gave a speech to the Convention in which he railed against enemies and conspiracies, some within the powerful committees. The universal male suffrage of 1793 was replaced by limited suffrage based on property. The Directory was continually at war with foreign coalitions. Bonaparte was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 24. The "Thermidorian Reaction" was named … Owing to the abstention of aristocrats and anti-republicans and the fear of victimization, the voter turnout was low – 11.9% of the electorate. Power in this assembly was divided between the more moderate Girondins, who sought a constitutional monarchy and economic liberalism and favored spreading the Revolution throughout Europe by means of war, and the Montagnards, who preferred a policy of radical egalitarianism. Engraving by Berthault, based on a drawing by Girardet. The last prisoners awaiting execution during the Reign of Terror in 1794, undated engraving. His fall was brought about by conflicts between those who wanted more power for the Committee of Public Safety (and a more radical policy than he was willing to allow) and moderates who completely opposed the revolutionary government. To assure that the Directory did not abandon the Revolution entirely, the Council required all the members of the Directory to be former members of the Convention and regicides, those who had voted for the execution of Louis XVI. Historians have assessed the Directory as a government of self-interest rather than virtue that lost any claim on idealism. As the Committee tried to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, it became more and more powerful. As a result of Robespierre’s insistence on associating terror with virtue, his efforts to make the republic a morally united patriotic community became equated with the endless bloodshed. Execution of Louis XVI, German copperplate engraving, 1793, by Georg Heinrich Sieveking. Still uncertain of its position, the committee obtained the Law of 22 Prairial, year II (June 10, 1794), which suspended a suspect’s right to public trial and to legal assistance and left the jury a choice only of acquittal or death. At this time, he was a fervent Corsican nationalist. The climax of extreme anti-clericalism was reached with the celebration of the goddess Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral in November. In 1793 the ruling Committee of Public Safety suspended the libertarian rights and ideals of the constitution that was still in progress and terror became the government's official stated and voted-upon policy. The programme's earliest location work features in "Guests of Madame Guillotine". Throughout the winter of 1792 and spring of 1793, Paris was plagued by food riots and mass hunger. Joseph Fouché also played an important role as instigator of the events. Bonaparte was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 24. In response, the Committee of Public Safety instated a policy of terror and perceived enemies of the republic were persecuted at an ever-increasing rate. Very few among those who resigned during Year II did so of their own free will. However, for the most part, it destabilized the country, rather than solidifying the gains of the Revolution and leading to a virtuous and happy republic, as its authors had hoped. Men, women, and children were robbed and murdered for three days. Sent by Napoleon from Italy, Pierre Augereau and his troops storm Tuileries and capture Generals Charles Pichegru and Willot. Early examples of terrorism and terrorist in English come from familiar names from the American revolutionary period, all making clear reference to the French Reign of Terror:. He spent the early years of the Revolution in Corsica, fighting in a complex three-way struggle among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. The members were generally young, and since none had sat in the previous Assembly they largely lacked national political experience. Most Montagnards (radical republicans) favored judgement and execution, while the Girondins (moderate republicans) were divided concerning Louis’s fate. Likewise, all those who wanted changes in England, Ireland, the German states, the Austrian…, After the fall of the Girondins, the Montagnards were left to deal with the country’s desperate position. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI awoke at 5 a.m. and heard his last Mass. The Reign of Terror (September 5, 1793 – July 28, 1794), also known as The Terror, was a period of violence during the French Revolution incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins (moderate republicans) and the Jacobins (radical republicans), and marked by mass executions of “the enemies of the revolution.” The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine and another 25,000 in summary executions across France. Kristallnacht (German pronunciation: [kʁɪsˈtalnaχt] ()) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November Pogrom(s) (German: Novemberpogrome, pronounced [noˈvɛm.bɐ.poˌɡʁoːmə] ()), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. Little more than a third of the deputies were present, almost all of them Jacobins. Upon Father Edgeworth’s advice, he avoided a farewell scene with his family. The earlier atrocities had made confidence or goodwill between parties impossible. On 17 July 1794, sixteen nuns attracted much attention by singing a religious song as they were being executed for treason . In the provinces, representatives on mission and surveillance committees instituted local terrors. In October 1793, a new law made all suspected priests and persons who harbored them liable to summary execution. Corrections? As a result of Robespierre’s insistence on associating Terror with Virtue, his efforts to make the republic a morally united patriotic community became equated with the endless bloodshed. Some 17,000 people were killed in the Reign of Terror, and as many as 10,000 more died in prison or without trial. Most historians divide the National Convention into two main factions: the Girondins and the Montagnards. How to use during in a sentence. The attack on Jaffa was particularly brutal. The election took place in September 1792. Shortly after a decisive military victory over Austria at the Battle of Fleurus, Robespierre was overthrown in July 1794 and the reign of the standing Committee of Public Safety was ended. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria. On January 21, 1815 Louis XVI and his wife’s remains were reburied in the Basilica of Saint-Denis where in 1816 his brother, King Louis XVIII, had a funerary monument erected by Edme Gaulle. In October 1795, the elections for the new Councils decreed by the new constitution took place, with the universal male suffrage of 1793 replaced by limited suffrage based on property. This effectively led to Bonaparte’s dictatorship and in 1804 to his proclamation as emperor. Thermidorian Reaction also refers to the period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory (also called the era of the Thermidorian Convention). Despite the failures in Egypt, Napoleon returned to a hero’s welcome. However, conscription raised a large army that turned the tide of the war in France’s favor. It served to further highlight the convention’s fear of enemies of the Revolution. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Due to the rules established by the National Convention, a majority of members of the new legislature had served in the Convention and were ardent republicans, but many new deputies were royalists: 118 versus 11 from the left. The Girondins made a last advance to Louis offering to save the monarchy if he would accept them as ministers. The Austrians were alarmed by the French thrust that reached all the way to Leoben, not very far from Vienna, and finally decided to sue for peace. Omissions? The Legislative Assembly passed decrees sentencing any priest denounced by 20 citizens to immediate deportation, dissolving the King’s guard on the grounds that it was manned by aristocrats, and establishing a camp of 20,000 national guardsmen (Fédérés) near Paris. During the campaign, Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics. On Thermidor 8 (July 26), he gave a speech to the Convention in which he railed against enemies and conspiracies, some within the powerful committees. Upon graduating from the prestigious École Militaire (military academy) in Paris in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned as a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment. The execution of Louis XVI on January 21, 1793, radicalized the French Revolution at home and united European monarchies against revolutionary France.