french revolution: phase 2
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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
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