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124-420:   The Mountain (302)   The Mountain (disputed members) (7)   Girondins (178)   Girondins (disputed members) (49)   The Plain (153) The National Convention (French: Convention nationale ) was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution , following

248-593: A Committee of Public Safety . Social and economic difficulties exacerbated the tensions between the groups. The final showdown was precipitated by Jean-Paul Marat 's trial and the arrest of sectional activists. On 25 May, the Paris Commune marched to the Convention to demand the release of the activists. In reply, Maximin Isnard , who was presiding over the Convention, launched into a diatribe reminiscent of

372-542: A balance that was destroyed in July by the worsening of the crisis. The Convention rapidly approved the new constitution in the hope to clear itself of the charge of dictatorship and calm the anxieties of the departments. The Declaration of Rights, which precedes the text of the Constitution, solemnly reaffirmed the nation's indivisibility and the great principles of equality, liberty, security, and property. In contrast to

496-588: A few days the Girondins launched a bitter attack on their Montagnard opponents. Conflict continued without interruption until the expulsion of the Girondin leaders from the Convention on 2 June 1793. The Girondins had relied on votes from the majority of the deputies, many of whom were alarmed as well as scandalized by the September massacres , but their insistence on monopolising all positions of authority during

620-717: A friend and ally of Danton, was expelled from the Committee of Public Safety, arrested and tried alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to the guillotine. The elimination of the Hébertists and the Dantonists made evident the strength of the Committees to control and silence opposition. The creation in March 1794 of a General Police Bureau—reporting nominally to the Committee of Public Safety—served to increase

744-533: A government take shape. Danton resigned from it on 10 July. Couthon , Saint-Just , Jeanbon Saint-Andre , and Prieur of the Marne formed a nucleus of resolute Montagnards who rallied Barère and Lindet , then successfully added Robespierre on 27 July, Carnot and Prieur of Cote-d'Ore on 14 August, and Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne on 6 September. They had a few clear ideas to which they clung: to command, to fight, and to conquer. Their work in common,

868-530: A host of others, backed by officers who combined abilities as soldiers and their political sense. For the first time since the Roman Empire, a government succeeded in arming and feeding great numbers of soldiers. The technical innovations resulted chiefly from its sheer size as well the strategy that developed from it. The old system of cordons lost its prestige. Moving between the armies of the Coalition,

992-588: A journalist, gained a following as a radical patriot Montagnard (members who identified with him became known as the Hébertists ) while Danton led a more moderate faction of the Mountain (followers came to be known as Dantonists ). Regardless of the divisions, the nightly sessions of the Jacobin club, which met in the rue Saint-Honoré , can be considered to be a type of caucus for the Mountain. In June 1793,

1116-486: A moderate political faction created during the Legislative Assembly period. They were the political opponents of the more radical representatives within the Mountain. The Girondins had wanted to avoid the execution of Louis XVI and supported a constitution which would have allowed a popular vote to overturn legislation. The Mountain accused the Girondins of plotting against Paris because this caveat within

1240-505: A network of institutions set up haphazardly since spring in March, the Revolutionary Tribunal and representatives on missions in the departments and was followed the next month by the Convention's representatives to the armies, also armed with unlimited powers; and enforced acceptance of assignat as the sole legal tender, price controls for grain and the forced loan of a billion livres from the rich. At last, France saw

1364-557: A new republican constitution, drafted by the National Assembly. The French Constitution of 1793 and its subsequent government would bring sweeping reforms to French politics and the French social order. Major reforms included comprehensive education, the recognition of rights for illegitimate children and improved rights for married women. The French Constitution of 1793 outlined the prevailing Enlightenment era ideology of

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1488-513: A policy concession to the people. But the situation which united them in the summer of 1793 was stronger than those differences of opinion. The Committee had to set itself above all, and choose those popular demands which were most suitable for achieving the Assembly's aims: to crush the enemies of the Republic and dash the last hopes of the aristocracy. To govern in the name of the Convention, at

1612-545: A potential war with Austria, enabled the Montagnards to take over the administrative power of the National Convention under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre who openly advocated for a more peaceful external policy and rather focusing on the issues within the newly-founded First French Republic . This sharp transition of power from Girondins to Montagnards was proceeded after Robespierre accused

1736-479: A prominent member of the Mountain, announced on 10 June the "good citizens demanded a constitution" and the "Constitution will be the reply of patriotic deputies, for it is the work of the Mountain". However, this constitution was never actually enacted. The Constitution of 1793 was delayed due to the situation in the war, and due to the Thermidorian Reaction that purged much of the government, it

1860-632: A republic because it no longer had a king. When the Convention met the military situation was undergoing an extraordinary transformation that seemed to confirm the Girondin prophecies of easy victory. After Valmy, the Prussians withdrew to the frontier, and in November, French troops occupied the left bank of the Rhine . The Austrians , who had besieged Lille in October, were defeated by Dumouriez at

1984-562: A speech to the Jacobin Club that night, he attacked Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, who had refused to allow the printing and distribution of his speech to the convention. On the following day, 27 July 1794 ( 9 Thermidor according to the Republican calendar ), Saint-Just began to speak before the Convention. However, he was almost immediately interrupted by Tallien and by Billaud-Varenne, who accused him of intending to "murder

2108-419: Is less well known than the first, which was the true executive authority and was armed with immense prerogatives. It dated from April, but its composition was thoroughly reshuffled during the summer of 1793. The summer of 1793 saw sans-culotte disturbances reach a peak under a double banner: price fixing and terror. On top came the news of unprecedented treason: Toulon and its squadron had been handed over to

2232-685: The Battle of Jemappes on 6 November and evacuated the Austrian Netherlands . Nice was occupied and Savoy proclaimed its union with France. The successes made it safe to quarrel at home. The Girondins were more conservative than the Montagnards, although they were still democrats . The Girondins drew their name from the Gironde , a region of France from which many of the deputies of this faction were elected (although many "Girondins" were actually Parisian by origin) and were also known as

2356-590: The Brunswick Manifesto : "If any attack made on the persons of the representatives of the nation, then I declare to you in the name of the whole country that Paris would be destroyed". On the next day, the Jacobins declared themselves in a state of insurrection. On 28 May, the Cité section called the other sections to a meeting in order to organize the insurrection. On 29 May, the delegates representing 33 of

2480-753: The Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security . The Convention held legislative and executive powers during the first years of the French First Republic and had three distinct periods: Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin, and Thermidorian . The National Convention was made up of three major factions: The Montagnards ( the Mountain ), the Marais ( the Plain ) and the Girondins , also called Brissotins. Historians are divided on

2604-684: The Cordeliers Club , filled Bouchotte 's offices, and could generally carry the Commune with them. The other wing was the Dantonists , which formed in response to the increasing centralization of the Revolutionary Government and the dictatorship of the Committees. The Dantonists were led predominately by deputies of the Convention (rather than the sans-culottes), including Danton , Delacroix , and Desmoulins . Putting

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2728-472: The Declaration of 1789 , the 1793 added rights to public assistance, work, education and insurrection. The chief aim of the Constitution was to ensure the major role of the deputies in the Convention, which was seen as being the essential basis for political democracy. The Legislative Assembly was to be elected by direct vote cast for a single member, deputies were elected on receiving a simple majority of

2852-652: The First Coalition , Charles François Dumouriez 's defection to the enemy and the War in the Vendée , which began in March 1793, were all used as arguments by Montagnards and sans-culottes to portray Girondins as soft. The Montagnards proposed measures, but the Girondins were reluctant to take such measures. The Girondins were forced to accept the Montagnards' creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal and

2976-495: The Girondins , which caused a break with Robespierre. After the trial of Girondins in 1793, Danton became strongly moderate while Robespierre and his allies continued their more radical policies. The moderates of Danton were also rival to the followers of Jacques Hébert who wanted the persecution of all non-Montagnards and the dechristianisation of France. When the Robespierrist and unaligned Montagnards eliminated first

3100-615: The Hébertists (March 1794) and then the Dantonistes (April 1794), these groups held the most influence in The Mountain. This was until the Thermidorian Reaction , when several conspirators supported by The Plain instituted a coup d'état . They executed Robespierre and his supporters and split from The Mountain to form the Thermidorian Left . The Montagnards that survived were arrested, executed or deported. By 1795

3224-579: The Legislative Assembly . The full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris in time. Thomas Paine and Anacharsis Cloots were appointed in the Convention by Girondins. Besides these, however, the newly formed départements annexed to France from 1782 to 1789 were allowed to send deputations. According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President every fortnight, and

3348-648: The War of the Pyrenees . The Piedmontese took advantage of the diversion of republican forces at Lyons in order to invade France from the east. In Corsica , Paoli 's revolt expelled the French from the island with British support. British troops opened the Siege of Dunkirk in August, and in October, the Allies invaded Alsace . The military situation had become desperate. In addition were other incidents that compounded

3472-532: The trial of the king , and the Parisian dominance of politics. Antagonism between Paris and the provinces created friction among the people that served as a propaganda tool and combat weapon for the two groups. The departments and districts resisted the idea of centralization. They saw the idea being symbolised by the desire to reduce the capital of the Revolution to a minuscule share of influence. Much of

3596-627: The "foreign plot". All were executed on 4 Germinal (24 March). This move largely silenced the Hébertists, now without their leadership. Having succeeded in stifling dissent on the left, the Committee then turned on the Dantonists, several members of which were implicated in financial corruption. The Committee forced the Convention to lift the parliamentary immunity of nine Dantonist deputies, allowing them to be put on trial. On 5 April Dantonist leaders Danton , Delacroix , Desmoulins , and Philippeaux were executed. The Mountain The Mountain

3720-430: The 29th), on the 14th reorganized the Revolutionary Tribunal , on the 17th voted in the law on suspects, and on the 20th gave the local revolutionary committees the task of drawing up lists of them. The dictatorship of the Convention and the committees, simultaneously supported and controlled by the Parisian sections, representing the sovereign people in permanent session, lasted from June to September. It governed through

3844-574: The Austrians and their allies was feared. A widespread belief held that revolutionary France was in immediate peril, threatened not only by foreign armies and by recent revolts in the Vendée , but also by foreign agents who plotted the destruction of the nation from within. Dumouriez's defection lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed

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3968-594: The Brissotins after their most prominent speaker, Jacques Pierre Brissot . The Montagnards drew their support from the Paris Commune and the popular societies such as the Jacobin Club and the Cordeliers , they got their name from the high bleachers on which they sat while the Convention was in session. Three issues dominated the first months of the National Convention: revolutionary violence ,

4092-687: The Committee due to illness (he all but ceased to attend meetings in June 1794) created the impression among some members that he was isolated and out of touch. Charlotte Robespierre reported in her memoirs that Robespierre had come into conflict with several of the representatives on mission due to their excessive use of violence, which likely also led to the unity of the Committee devolving. When it became suspected in mid-July 1794 that Robespierre and Saint-Just were planning to strike against their political opponents Joseph Fouché , Jean-Lambert Tallien and Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier (the latter two members of

4216-501: The Committee of General Security), the fragile truce within the government was dissolved. Saint-Just and his fellow Committee of Public Safety member Bertrand Barère attempted to keep the peace between the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. However, Robespierre delivered a speech to the National Convention on 26 July 1794 in which he emphasized the need to "purify" the Committees and "crush all factions". In

4340-420: The Committee of Public Safety itself had grown so violent that it relocated its meetings to a more private room to preserve the illusion of agreement. On 21 May 1794 the revolutionary government decided that the judicial system would be centralised, with almost all the tribunals in the provinces closed and all the capital trials held in Paris. The Law of 22 Prairial , proposed by the committee and enacted by

4464-424: The Committee of Public Safety was created on 6 April 1793 by the National Convention . It was charged with protecting the new republic against its foreign and domestic enemies, fighting the First Coalition and the Vendée revolt . As a wartime measure, the committee was given broad supervisory and administrative powers over the armed forces, judiciary and legislature, as well as the executive bodies and ministers of

4588-431: The Committee proved conciliatory. The Convention voted 10 million livres for relief, on 3 Ventôse , Barère presented a new general Maximum, and on the 8th Saint-Just obtained a decree confiscating the property of suspects and distributing it to the needy ( Ventôse Decrees ). The Hébertists felt that if they increased the pressure, they would triumph once and for all. Although the call appeared like one for insurrection it

4712-584: The Convention ordered the entire National Guard to line both sides of the route to the scaffold. Louis was beheaded at the Place de la Revolution . Within the nation, "voters" and "appellants", those against or for the execution of Louis, swore undying hatred of each other. The rest of Europe, fearing the outcome of the French Revolution in their own countries, decreed a war of extermination against regicides. The Assembly began harmoniously, but within

4836-446: The Convention". Barère, Vadier and Stanislas Fréron joined the accusations against Saint-Just and Robespierre. The Convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre, his brother Augustin , and Saint-Just, along with that of their supporters, including Philippe Le Bas and Georges Couthon . A period of intense civil unrest ensued, during which the members of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security were forced to seek refuge in

4960-483: The Convention, and their attacks on the Montagnard leaders, soon irritated them and caused them to regard the party as a faction. One by one, deputies such as Couthon , Cambon , Carnot , Lindet and Barère began to gravitate towards the Montagnards, and the majority, The Plain, as it was called, held itself aloof from both sides. Girondins were convinced that their opponents aspired to a bloody dictatorship, but

5084-410: The Convention, was postponed until peace had been made. Indeed, the Montagnards faced dramatic circumstances: federalist insurrection, war in the Vendée, military failures and a worsening economic situation. Despite everything, a new civil war could not be avoided. By the middle of June, about 60 departments were in more or less open rebellion . However, the frontier departments had remained faithful to

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5208-450: The Convention. The rising was widespread, rather than deep. It was essentially the work of the departmental and district administrations. The communes, which were more popular in composition, showed themselves in general lukewarm or hostile, and federalist leaders soon became divided among themselves. Sincere republicans among them could not fail to be uneasy about the foreign invasion and the Vendée. Those who were seeing themselves rejected by

5332-480: The Danton Committee. Danton steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June 1793 journées that saw the violent expulsion of the Girondins and through the intensifying war in the Vendée. When the committee was recomposed on 10 July 1793, Danton was not included. Nevertheless, he continued to support the centralization of power by the committee. On 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to

5456-427: The French coast. The Mountain also enacted policies restricting and granting religious freedom. These policies varied but began with a ban on religion, allowing only for "the worship of Reason" in 1793 and progressing to religious freedom with the separation of Church and State in 1795. The fall and exclusion of the Montagnards from the National Convention began with the collapse of the Revolution's radical phase and

5580-571: The French common classes such as the Sans-Culottes turned to radicalism and inspired militant activism among the French populace. On 5 April 1793, the French military commander and former minister of war General Charles François Dumouriez defected to Austria following the publication of an incendiary letter in which he threatened to march his army on the city of Paris if the National Convention did not accede to his leadership. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by

5704-421: The French could maneuver along interior lines, deploy part of their troops along the frontiers and take advantage of the inaction of any one of their enemies to beat the others. Acting en masse , and overwhelming the foe by sheer numbers were Carnot's principles. They were still untried and not until Bonaparte appeared did they enjoy any great success. As late as September 1793, there were two distinct wings among

5828-513: The French government at this stage of the revolutionary period. The constitution outlines a right to the resistance of oppression as well as the right to personal liberty. The equality of all French men is detailed as is the structure of the French Republic . The new constitution and the shift into a republican government centered on the National Assembly created the atmosphere for a radicalized governing authority to take power. Members of

5952-494: The Gironde wished to remove the Assembly from a city dominated by "agitators and flatterers of the people" but did not yet encourage an aggressive federalism , which would have run counter to its political ambitions. The Plain was a third faction during the Convention. It derived its name from their place on the floor of the Convention. During the start of the Convention, they sided with the Girondins, however, as it progressed and

6076-462: The Girondins and the Plain were much more divided with only 70% of Girondins voting similarly on the same issues and only 58% of the Plain voting similarly on the same issues. The first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, the assembly agreed to the proposition " That royalty be abolished in France " and was carried with cheers. On the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy . On

6200-501: The Girondins were divided concerning Louis's fate, with some arguing for royal inviolability, others supporting clemency and still others advocating lesser punishment or banishment. On 13 November, Robespierre stated in the Convention that a Constitution which Louis had violated himself, despite declaring his inviolability, could not be used in his defence. Robespierre had been taken ill and had done little other than support Saint-Just , who gave his first major speech, in his argument against

6324-473: The Girondins. They used tactics previously employed by the Girondins to denounce them as liars and enemies of the Revolution. They also formed a legislative committee in which Nicolas Hentz proposed a limitation of inheritances, gaining more support for the Montagnards. Girondin members were subsequently banned from the Jacobin club and excluded from the National Convention on 31 May – 2 June 1793. Through attempted land redistribution policies,

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6448-414: The Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a National Convention to draw up a new constitution with no monarchy. The other major innovation was to decree that deputies to that Convention should be elected by all Frenchmen twenty-one years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labor. The National Convention was, therefore,

6572-442: The Montagnards began to push for the execution of Louis XVI , The Plain began to side with them. The Convention's unanimous declaration of a French Republic on 21 September 1792 left open the fate of the former king. A commission was therefore established to examine the evidence against him while the Convention's Legislation Committee considered legal aspects of any future trial. Most Montagnards favoured judgment and execution, but

6696-434: The Montagnards believed that the Girondins were ready for any compromise with conservatives and even royalists to guarantee their remaining in power. The bitter enmity soon reduced the Convention to a state of limbo. Debate after debate degenerated into verbal brawling from which no decision could emerge. The political deadlock, which had repercussions all over France, eventually drove men to accept dangerous allies: royalists in

6820-528: The Mountain had effectively been obliterated. Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety (French: Comité de salut public ) was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror , a violent phase of the French Revolution . Supplementing the Committee of General Defence, created early January 1793,

6944-425: The Mountain showed some support for the rural poor. In August 1793, Montagnard member Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès drafted a piece of legislation which dealt with agricultural reform; in particular, he urged "relief from rent following harvest loss, compensation for improvements and fixity of tenure". This was in part to combat restlessness of share-croppers in the southwest. This draft never made it into law, but

7068-474: The Mountain successfully ousted most of the moderate Gironde members of the Convention with the assistance of radical sans-culottes. Following their coup, the Mountain, led by Hérault de Séchelles , quickly began construction on a new constitution which was completed eight days later. The Committee of Public Safety reported the constitution to the Convention on 10 June and a final draft was adopted on 24 June. The process occurred quickly because as Robespierre,

7192-414: The Mountain was sensitive to the motivations of the city and responded strongly to demands from the working class sans-culottes . The Mountain operated on the belief that what was best for Paris would be best for all of France. Although they attempted some rural land reform, most of it was never enacted and they generally focused on the needs of the urban poor over that of rural France. The Girondins were

7316-517: The arrest of suspects and a purge of the committees. It was probably the key day in the formation of the revolutionary government: the convention yielded, but kept control of events. It put Terror on the agenda on 5 September, on the 6th elected Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne to the Committee of Public Safety, on the 9th created the revolutionary army, on the 11th decreed the Maximum for grain and fodder (general controls for prices, and wages on

7440-459: The case of Girondins, sans-culottes in that of the Montagnards. Thus, the struggle within the Convention continued without results. The decision was to come from outside. Since the king's trial, the sans-culottes had been constantly assailing the "appealers" ( appelants ), quickly came to desire their expulsion from the Convention and demanded the establishing a Revolutionary Tribunal to deal with supposed aristocratic plots. Military setbacks from

7564-604: The command was reconstituted. The purge ended with most of the nobles excluded. The new generation reached the highest ranks, and the War College ( Ecole de Mars ) received six young men from each district to improve the staff. Army commanders were to be appointed by the Convention. What gradually emerged was a well-equipped military command. François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers , Lazare Hoche , Jean Baptiste Kléber , André Masséna , Jean-Baptiste Jourdan , and

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7688-557: The committee were codified by the Law of 14 Frimaire (also known as the Law of Revolutionary Government) on 4 December 1793. On 5 December 1793, journalist Camille Desmoulins began publishing Le Vieux Cordelier with the approval of Robespierre and the Committee . This newspaper was initially aimed against the ultrarevolutionary Hébertist faction, whose extremist demands, anti-religious fervor and propensity for sudden insurrections troubled

7812-434: The committee. At this time, the committee was entering a more powerful and active phase, alongside its partner, the Committee of General Security . The role of the Committee of Public Safety included the governance of the war (including the appointment of generals), the appointing of judges and juries for the Revolutionary Tribunal, the provisioning of the armies and the public, the maintenance of public order and oversight of

7936-544: The committee. However, Desmoulins quickly turned his pen against the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security, comparing their reign to that of the Roman tyrants chronicled by Tacitus and expounding the indulgent views of the Dantonist faction. Consequently, though the Hébertists were arrested and executed in March 1794, the Committees had Desmoulins and Danton arrested as well. Hérault de Séchelles ,

8060-409: The contours of political groups presented an ever-evolving reality that shifted in response to events. Would-be prominent Montagnard leaders like Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet and Jean Bon Saint-André were tempted by early Girondin proposals and soon many moderates—even anti-radicals—felt the need to push for radical endeavors in light of threats both within and without the country. It was only after

8184-485: The convention on 10 June 1794, went further in establishing the control of the Revolutionary Tribunal and above it the Convention and Committees of Public Safety and General Security. The law enumerated various forms of public enemies, required their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes covered under this law was death; from its inception to its removal, more people were condemned to death in Paris than in

8308-482: The convention. As the committee, restructured in July, raised the defense ( levée en masse ) against the monarchist coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within France, it became more and more powerful. In December 1793, the Convention formally conferred executive power upon the committee . Among the members, the radical Montagnard Jacobin Maximilien Robespierre was one of

8432-526: The convention. The Robespierre brothers, Saint-Just, Le Bas and Couthon ensconced themselves in the Hôtel de Ville , attempting to incite an insurrection. Ultimately, faced with defeat and arrest, Le Bas committed suicide, while Saint-Just, Couthon, and Maximilien and Augustin Robespierre were arrested and guillotined on 28 July 1794. The ensuing period of upheaval, dubbed the Thermidorian Reaction , saw

8556-404: The creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by Georges Danton , who declared: "This Committee is precisely what we want, a hand to grasp the weapon of the Revolutionary Tribunal ". After a proposal by Bertrand Barère on 18 March the committee was created on 6 April 1793. Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was initially known as

8680-523: The danger, the taste of and pride in power created solidarity that made the Committee an autonomous organism. The committee was always managed collegially, despite the specific nature of the tasks of each director: the division into "politicians" and "technicians" was a Thermidorian invention, intended to lay the corpses of the Terror at the door of the Robespierrists alone. Many things, however, set

8804-462: The death of Robespierre on 10 Thermidor (28 July 1794). While the Montagnards celebrated unity, there was growing heterogeneity within the group as the Committee of Public Safety extended themselves with their tight control over the military and their extreme opposition to corruption in the government. Their extension drew the ire of other revolutionary leaders and a number of plots coalesced on 9 Thermidor ( Thermidorian Reaction ) when collaborators with

8928-462: The death penalty without condition, 26 voted for death on condition that the Mailhe amendment be applied, 334 were opposed (incl. 44 who voted for death with reprieve), 5 abstained or recused. On 19 January, the question of reprieve was put to a vote: 380 votes were cast against and 310 for (2 voted on condition, 10 abstained or recused). Each time, the Girondins had split. On the morning of 21 January,

9052-450: The disposal of the nation: forests, mines, quarries, furnaces, forges, tanneries, paper mills, large cloth factories and shoe making workshops. The labor of men and the value of things were subject to price controls. No one had a right to speculate at the cost of Patrie while it was in danger. Armaments caused more concern. As early as September 1793 efforts were made to create a large factory in Paris for rifles and sidearms. A special appeal

9176-521: The drastic reforms suggest the Mountain's awareness of the need to please their base of support, both the rural and urban poor. Other policies aimed at supporting the poor included price controls enacted by the Mountain in 1793. This law, called the General Maximum , was supported by a group of agitators within the Mountain known as the Enragés . It fixed prices and wages throughout France. At

9300-754: The emergency required. It was necessary to develop war production, revive foreign trade, and find new resources in France itself, and time was short. Circumstances gradually compelled it to assume the economic government of the country. Along with organization of the army, this was the most original feature of its work. All material resources were subjected to requisitioning. Farmers surrendered their grain, fodder, wool, flax, and hemp. Artisans and merchants gave up their manufactured products. Raw materials were carefully sought out: metal of all kinds, church bells, old paper, rags and parchments, grasses, brushwood, and even household ashes for manufacturing of potassium salts, and chestnuts for distilling. All businesses were placed at

9424-520: The end of 1794 the Mountain largely devolved into a group called The Crest ( French : crête ), which lacked any real power. The Mountain was born in 1792, with the merger of two prominent left-wing clubs: the Jacobins and Cordeliers . The Jacobins were initially moderate republicans and the Cordeliers were radical populist. In late 1792, Danton and his supporters wanted a reconciliation with

9548-432: The enemy. In the name of the wretched poverty of the people, the leaders of the enragés , with Jacques Roux at their head, called for a planned economy from a Convention, which had no liking for the idea. However, the revolutionary logic of the mobilization of resources by national dictatorship was infinitely more powerful than economic doctrine. In August, a series of decrees gave the authorities discretionary powers over

9672-568: The entire previous history of the Revolutionary Tribunal. However, this statistic is accentuated by the fact that, as noted previously, all capital trials and sentences were carried out in Paris rather than being scattered across the provinces. Robespierre, a fervent supporter of the theistic Cult of the Supreme Being , found himself frequently in conflict with anti-religious Committee members Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne . Moreover, Robespierre's increasingly extensive absences from

9796-402: The exact make up of the Convention but the current consensus is that the Mountain was the biggest faction with around 302–309 deputies. The Girondins were represented by 178–227 deputies and the Plain was represented by 153–250 deputies. Of the three groups the Mountain was the most cohesive and the Plain was the least cohesive. Over 94% of The Mountain voted similarly on core issues, comparatively

9920-401: The favorable conditions that a great war always offers the labor force. Still Paris became calmer because the sans-culottes were gradually finding ways to subsist; the levée en masse and the formation of the revolutionary army were thinning their ranks; many now were working in arms and equipment shops or in the offices of the committees and ministries, which were expanded enormously. During

10044-494: The federalist revolt gained strength, the popular movement, roused to fury by high prices, was increasing the pressure it exercised on the government. Meanwhile, the Government was proving incapable of controlling the situation. In July 1793, the nation appeared to be on the point of falling apart. In June the Montagnards played for time. On 3 June the sale of the property of emigrants, in small parcels and payable in ten years,

10168-410: The first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class . Although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively delegated by the Convention and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. The eight months from the fall of 1793 to the spring of 1794, when Maximilien Robespierre and his allies dominated the Committee of Public Safety, represent

10292-408: The former group of traitorous and counter-revolutionary activities as well as betraying the Republic, which resulted in the execution of fellow Revolutionists including considerably influential figures Jacques Pierre Brissot and later, the former Montagnard Georges Jacques Danton . The Mountain was composed mainly of members of the middle class, but represented the constituencies of Paris. As such,

10416-454: The fury of the revolutionaries and convinced them that their opponents had abandoned all restraint of civilized behavior. On 13 July, Charlotte Corday murdered the sans-culotte idol Jean-Paul Marat . She had been in touch with Girondin rebels in Normandy , and they were believed to have used her as their agent. The lack of forethought displayed by the Convention during the first few days

10540-544: The king as figurehead. While the Girondins hesitated, the Montagnards took a united stand during the trial in December 1792–January 1793 and favored the king's execution. On 24 February the Convention decreed the first albeit unsuccessful Levée en Masse , triggering uprisings in rural France as the Montagnards' influence waned in Marseille, Toulon, and Lyon. Riding on this victory, the Montagnards then sought to discredit

10664-407: The king's inviolability. On 20 November, opinion turned sharply against Louis following the discovery of a secret cache of 726 documents consisting of Louis's personal communications with bankers and ministers. At his trial, he claimed not to recognise documents that had been clearly signed by himself. The trial began on 10 December. The Montagnards put the debate on the ideological level. Louis XVI

10788-469: The more moderate group the Dantonists acted in response to fears that Robespierre planned to execute them. The purge of Robespierre was strongly similar to previous measures employed by the Montagnards to expel factions, such as the Girondins. However, as Robespierre was widely considered the heart of the Montagnards, his death symbolized their collapse. Few desired to take on the name of Montagnards afterwards, leaving around only about 100 men. Finally, at

10912-505: The most radical and bloodiest phase of the French Revolution, known as the Reign of Terror . After the fall of Robespierre , the Convention lasted for another year until a new constitution was written, ushering in the French Directory . The indirect election took place from 2 to 10 September 1792 after the election of the electoral colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Despite the introduction of universal male suffrage,

11036-429: The most well-known, though he did not have any special powers or privileges. After the arrest and execution of the rival factions of Hébertists and Dantonists , sentiment in the Convention eventually turned against Robespierre, who was executed in July 1794. In the following Thermidorian Reaction , the committee's influence diminished after 26 months and it disappeared on the same day as the National Convention , which

11160-442: The needs of national defense above all other considerations, the Committee of Public Safety had no intentions of giving in to the demands of either the popular movement or the moderates. Following the Hébertists would jeopardize revolutionary unity, and giving in to the demands of the moderates would have undermined both the Terror and the controlled economy. However, unity, centralization and the Terror were all considered essential to

11284-549: The outgoing President was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily, the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, often extending late into the night. Sometimes in exceptional circumstances, the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with powers more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these committees included

11408-578: The people sought support from the moderates, the Feuillants and even the aristocrats. July and August were bad months on the frontiers. Within three weeks Mainz , the symbol of previous successes, capitulated to the Prussians, and the Austrians captured the fortresses of Condé and Valenciennes and invaded northern France. Spanish troops crossed the Pyrenees and began advancing on Perpignan in

11532-511: The power of the Committee of Public Safety. However, even as the period later known as the 'Terror' reached its height and with it the committee's political power, discord was growing within the revolutionary government. Members of the Committee of General Security resented the aggressive behavior of the Committee of Public Safety and particularly the encroachment of the General Police Bureau upon their own brief. Arguments within

11656-443: The production and circulation of grain and ferocious punishments for fraud. "Granaries of plenty" were prepared, to stock corn requisitioned by authorities in each district. On 23 August, the decree on the levée en masse turned able-bodied civilians into soldiers. On 5 September, Parisians tried to repeat the revolt of 2 June. Armed sections again encircled the Convention to demand the setting up of an internal revolutionary army,

11780-544: The proposed constitution would have allowed rural areas of France to vote against legislation that benefits Paris, the main constituency of the Mountain. However, the real discord in the Convention occurred not between the Mountain and the Gironde, but between the aggressive antics of the minority of the Mountain and the rest of the Convention. The Mountain was not unified as a party and relied on leaders like Maximilien Robespierre , Georges Danton and Jacques Hébert , who themselves came to represent different factions. Hébert,

11904-430: The provisioning of the population. The Commune of Paris, a famous sans-culotte bastion, was neutralized by coming under its control. Administrative and economic centralization went hand in hand. The state of siege forced France into autarky ; to save the Republic the government mobilized all the nation's productive forces and reluctantly accepted the need for a controlled economy, which it introduced extemporaneously, as

12028-563: The public and bad acoustics. From 10 May 1793 it met in the Salle des Machines , an immense hall in which the deputies were loosely scattered. The Salle des Machines had galleries for the public who often influenced the debates with interruptions or applause. The members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. 75 members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly , 183 in

12152-722: The repeal of many of the previous year's most unpopular laws and the restriction of the Committees of General Security and Public Safety. The Committees ceased to exist under the Constitution of the Year III (1795), which marked the beginning of the Directory . During the May 1958 crisis in France , an army junta under General Jacques Massu seized power in Algiers on the night of 13 May 1958 and General Salan assumed leadership of

12276-409: The revolutionaries. Firstly, those who were later called Hébertists although Jacques Hébert himself was never the official leader of a party that advocated war to the death and adopted the program of the enragés , ostensibly because the sans-culottes approved it. The Hébertists preferred to side with the Montagnards so long as they could hope to control the Convention through them. They dominated

12400-523: The same day, it was decreed that "in future the acts of the assembly shall be dated First Year of the French Republic ". Three days later, the corollary that "the French republic is one and indivisible" was added to guard against federalism. A republic had been proclaimed but remained to enact a republican government. The country was little more republican in feeling or practice than it had been before at any time since Varennes but now had to become

12524-405: The same time controlling it, and to restrain the people without quenching their enthusiasm—this was a gamble. The ensemble of institutions, measures and procedures which constituted it was codified in a decree of 14 Frimaire (4 December) which set the seal on what had been the gradual development of centralized dictatorship founded on the Terror. In the center was the Convention, whose secular arm

12648-429: The same time, bread prices were rising as the commodity became scarce, and in an initiative spearheaded by Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne , a law was enacted in July 1793 that forbade the hoarding of "daily necessities". The hoarding of grain became a crime punishable by death. Other economic policies enacted by the Mountain included an embargo on the export of French goods. As a result of this embargo, France

12772-474: The sections formed an insurrectionary committee of nine members. On 2 June, 80,000 armed sans-culottes surrounded the Convention. After an attempt of deputies to leave was stopped with guns, the deputies resigned themselves to declare the arrest of 29 leading Girondins. In that way, the Gironde ceased to be a political force. Scarcely had the Gironde been eliminated when the Convention, now under Montagnard leadership, found itself caught between two threats. While

12896-540: The state bureaucracy. The committee was also responsible for interpreting and applying the decrees of the National Convention and thus for implementing some of the most stringent policies of the Terror—for instance, the levée en masse passed on 23 August 1793, the Law of Suspects passed on 17 September 1793 and the Law of the General Maximum passed on 29 September 1793. The broad and centralized powers of

13020-469: The summer the requisition of the levy was completed and by July the total strength of the army reached 650,000. The difficulties were tremendous. The war production just started in September. The army was in the middle of the purge. In the spring of 1794, the amalgamation was undertaken. Two battalions of volunteers joined one battalion of regulars to constitute a demi-brigade, or regiment. At the same time,

13144-402: The trial of Louis XVI in December 1792, which united the Montagnards on a position of regicide, that the ideals and power of the group fully consolidated. The rise of Montagnards corresponds to the fall of the Girondins. The Girondins hesitated on the correct course of action to take with Louis XVI after his attempt to flee France on 20 June 1791. Some of the Girondins believed they could use

13268-418: The turn-out was low, though the election saw an increase in comparison to the 1791 elections—in 1792 11.9% of a greatly increased electorate votes, compared to 10.2% of a much smaller electorate in the 1791. The low turn-out was partly due to a fear of victimization; in Paris, Robespierre presided over the elections and, in concert with the radical press, managed to exclude any candidate of royalist sympathies. In

13392-464: The twelve committee members at loggerheads; Barère was more a man of the Convention than of the committee and was a link with The Plain. Robert Lindet had qualms about the Terror which, by contrast, was the outstanding theme of Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, latecomers to the committee, forced on it by the sans-culottes in September; unlike Robespierre and his friends, Lazare Carnot had given his support only provisionally and for reasons of state to

13516-481: The two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly . Created after the great insurrection of 10 August 1792 , it was the first French government organized as a republic, abandoning the monarchy altogether. The Convention sat as a single-chamber assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 (4 Brumaire IV under the Convention's adopted calendar ). The Convention came about when

13640-405: The votes cast, and the assembly would sit for one year. The executive council of 24 members was chosen by the Legislative Assembly from among the 83 candidates chosen by the departments on the basis of universal male suffrage, and in that way, ministers were made responsible to the representatives. The exercise of popular suffrage was widened through the institution of the referendum. The Constitution

13764-419: The war effort. In order to balance the contradictory demands of these two factions, the Revolutionary Government attempted to maintain a position halfway between the moderate Dantonists ( citras ) and the extremist Hébertists ( ultras ). But at the end of the winter of 1793–94, the shortage of food took a sharp turn for the worse. The Hébertists incited sans-culottes to demand stringent measures, and at first,

13888-431: The whole of France, only eleven primary assemblies wanted to retain the monarchy. The electoral assemblies all tacitly voted for a "republic", though only Paris used that word. The elections returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791. On 20 September the Convention held its first session in the "Salle des Cent-Suisses", the next day it moved to the Salle du Manège , which had little room for

14012-447: Was 25 October 1795, but it probably continued till the end of the month. The French Revolution brought about an immense shift in society in which citizens desired to bring about a new age of critical rationality, egalitarianism , and patriotism amongst French men. Revolutionary ideals were spread throughout France and a belief in democracy and civilian government was heralded as the new era of French civilization. 1793 would bring

14136-402: Was classified as an enemy, who was alien to the body of the nation and as a "usurper". Balloting began on 15 January 1793. Each deputy explained his vote at the rostrum. The vote against the king was unanimous. There was to be no popular referendum, as Girondins had hoped. The fatal vote started on 16 January and continued until the next day. Of the 726 deputies present, 361 declared themselves for

14260-408: Was decreed; on the 10 June, the optional division of common lands by head; and on 17 July, the abolition, without compensation, of all that remained of manorial rights. The Montagnards attempted to reassure the middle classes by rejecting any idea of terror, by protecting property rights and by restricting the popular movement to very narrowly-circumscribed limits. It was a delicate balance to achieve,

14384-409: Was essentially unable to trade with foreign markets and the import of goods effectively ended. In theory, this protected French markets from foreign goods and required French people to support French goods. In addition to the embargo against foreign goods, Act 1651, passed by the Mountain in October 1793, further isolated France from the rest of Europe by forbidding any foreign vessels from trading along

14508-510: Was eventually abandoned. It is difficult to pinpoint the conception of the Montagnard group because the lines which defined it were themselves quite nebulous early on. Originally, members of The Mountain were the men who sat in the highest rows of the Jacobin Clubs , loosely organized political debate clubs open to the public. Though members of the Montagnards were known for their commitment to radical political resolutions prior to 1793,

14632-673: Was identified with the Republic, and royalism, which was the ally of the enemy. The royalist insurrection in the Vendée had already led the Convention to take a long step in the direction of the Terror: that is to say, the dictatorship of central power and the suppression of liberties. The Girondin insurrection now prompted it to take a decisive step in the same direction. The Constituent Assembly had legislated through its commissions. The Convention governed by means of its committees . Two of them were of essential importance: Public Safety and General Security . The second, which had formidable powers,

14756-485: Was made to scientists. Monge , Vandermonde , Berthollet , Darcet , Fourcroy perfected metallurgy and manufacture of arms. Only to the wage earners did the Maximum seem thoroughly advantageous. It increased wages by one-half in relation to 1790, and commodities by only one-third. But since the Committee did not ensure that it was respected (except for bread), they would have been duped had they not been benefiting from

14880-420: Was probably just for a new demonstration, like the one in September. However, the Committee of Public Safety decided on 22 Ventôse Year II (12 March 1794) that the Hébertists posed too serious a threat. The Committee linked Hébert, Charles-Philippe Ronsin , François-Nicolas Vincent , and Antoine-François Momoro to the émigrés Proli, Anacharsis Cloots and Pereira, so as to present the Hébertists as parties to

15004-417: Was redeemed by its vigor and skill in organizing measures of repression. Warrants were issued for the arrest of the rebellious Girondin leaders. The members of the revolting departmental administration were deprived of their office. The regions in which the revolt was dangerous were precisely those in which a large number of royalists had remained. There was no room for a third party between the Mountain, which

15128-523: Was the Committee of Public Safety, vested with immense powers: it interpreted the Convention's decrees and settled their methods of application; under its immediate authority it had all state bodies and all civil servants (even ministers would disappear in April 1794); it directed military and diplomatic activity, appointed generals and members of other committees, subject to ratification by the Convention. It held responsibility for conducting war, public order and

15252-649: Was the left-leaning radical group and opposed the more right-leaning Girondins . Despite the fact that both groups of the Jacobin Club had virtually no difference with regard to the establishment of the French Republic, the aggressive military intentions of the rich merchant class-backed Girondins such as conquering the Rhineland, Poland and the Netherlands with a goal of creating a protective ring of satellite republics in Great Britain, Spain and Italy and

15376-407: Was to be ratified by the people, as were laws in certain precisely defined circumstances. The Constitution was submitted for popular ratification and adopted by a huge margin of more than 1,801,918 in favour to some 17,610 against. The results of the plebiscite were made public on 10 August 1793, but the application of the Constitution, the text of which was placed in an ark in the debating-chamber of

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