s3.2: the terror feb 1793-95 white terror

October 1792

Committee of General Security established

February 1793

levy of 300,000 men - draft for war

March 1793

• Revolutionary tribunal- try counter-revs in Paris

• Comités de surveillance- look for suspicious behaviour

• 82 rep-en-mission- ensure loyalty to rev

April 1793

Committee of Public Safety created - war cabinet

12th April 1793

Girondins put Marat on trial, but is acquitted 12 days later

• Marat blamed Girondins for food shortages in L'Ami du People

2nd June 1793

29 Girondin deputies purged

• R called for a rising against corrupt deputies

• 80k-100k crowd assembled wanted Girondins gone

June 1793

Revolt in the Vendee

• 60/83 departments protested against Girondin expulsion

• pose real threat of civil war

24th June 1793

Jacobin constitution

• never put into practise due to wartime situation

• society > individual

• all adult males had the right to vote

23rd August 1793

Levee en masse

• by Bertrand Barère

• all men 18-25 military service

• France needed weapons more than men

13th July 1793

Marat assassinated by Charlotte Corday

• agitation of s-c worse- demanded all 'suspects' be arrested

• marched on Convention on 5th September

5th September 1793

Convention promised action after march

• 9th Sept: armées revolutionaires

• 17th Sept: Law of Suspects

• 29th Sept: Law of General Maximum

9th September 1793

Armées revolutionnaires

• sans-culottes paramilitary forces

17th September 1793

Law of Suspects

• new definition of suspect

29th September 1793

Law of General Maximum

• max price for grain

4th December 1793

Law of Frimaire

• highly centralised structure

• CPS had supreme authority

10th June 1794

Law of 22 Prairial

• simplify judicial process

• 1284 deaths after this under Thermidor

• denied the accused any effective right to self-defense and eliminated all sentences other than acquittal or death

Terror examples

Fouché 'Butcher of Lyon'

• burns Lyon down, from Sept 1793

Carrier

• drowns priests in the Loire "National Bathtub"

• execution of 4k civilians in Nantes

October 1793

Dechristianisation becomes official policy of Paris commune

• all churches closed in November

• 7th Nov: Archbishop of Paris resigned

• Notre Dame -> Temple of reason

• street names changed, church bells melted for weapons

26th June 1794

Battle of Fleurus

• broke the war of the 1st coalition, French won

• TP- France no longer on offensive

• Crossroads, do they need Terror anymore as external and internal threats gone

• 75k Francehmen led by Jourdan

Coup of Thermidor

8-10 Thermidor 1794

Robespierre decreasing support

• dissolution of popular societies

• raising of maximum in March- inflation

• Cult of Supreme Being too catholic

8 Thermidor 1794 (26th July)

R claimed people traitor to gov in speech, but didn't name them

• all felt threatened and plotted against him

9 Thermidor 1794

R arrested by Convention

• decree passed unanimously

• Paris commune tried to raise support to liberate but only 1/3 responded

• arrested R, Saint-Just, Le Bas, Couthon and Augustin

10 Thermidor 1794 (28th July)

R

• all prisoners retrieved except Le Bas (suicide)

• 87/95 Commune members were executed in days after

31st July 1794

CPS and CGS filled with moderates

1st August 1794

Law of 22 Prairial repealed

10th August 1794

Reorganisation of government and administration

• no longer centralised

• central gov. controlled by 16 committees

31st August 1794

powers of the Paris Commune reduced

18th September 1794

Church and state separated

• ended constitutional church

12th November 1794

Jacobin Club closed

24th December 1794

Law of Maximum repealed

February 1795

Toleration for all religions proclaimed

April 1795

representants-en-mission abolished

May 1795

Revolutionary Tribunal abolished

October 1795

Law of Suspects repealed

1795

White Terror

• attacked Terror supporters (Jacobins and s-c)

• May: violent massacre in prison in Lyon

• Muscadins and jeunesse dorée

• Compagnies de Jehu- Lyon

• Compagnies du Soleil- Nîmes