5-Which posed the greater danger to the survival of the revolution in the summer of 1793, internal or external war?

Paragraph 1: Internal War posed the greater danger

  • Point: Internal divisions and revolts threatened the Revolution’s survival more immediately and fundamentally than external war.

  • Evidence #1: The Federalist revolts in Lyon, Bordeaux, and Marseille after the Girondins’ expulsion (June 1793) showed widespread resistance to Jacobin centralization.

  • Evidence #2: The Vendee uprising (March 1793 onwards), a violent rural royalist and Catholic rebellion, occupied large French military resources and posed a direct existential threat to revolutionary governance.

  • Evidence #3: The fall of the Girondins and the rise of the Montagnards, empowered by sans-culottes militancy, reflected deep political instability and radicalization that threatened revolutionary unity and governance.

Paragraph 2: External War posed a significant but less immediate danger

  • Point: External war was dangerous and placed the Republic under severe military pressure, but was less of an immediate threat to the Revolution’s survival than internal turmoil.

  • Evidence #1: Early French defeats at Neerwinden and loss of Aachen in early 1793 weakened France’s external position.

  • Evidence #2: Declaration of war on Britain and the United Provinces in February 1793 expanded the conflict, yet revolutionary armies grew via the levée en masse and showed successes at battles like Wattignies (October 1793).

  • Evidence #3: The siege and eventual retaking of Toulon (December 1793) from Anglo-Spanish forces highlighted the external threat but also the ability of revolutionary forces to recover.

Paragraph 3: Internal and external war were intertwined, but internal threats ultimately posed the greater existential danger

  • Point: While both internal and external wars endangered the Republic, internal divisions exacerbated by the war effort itself posed the greatest threat to revolutionary survival.

  • Explanation: The pressures of external war intensified internal conflict, leading to the Terror and centralization of power. The rise of the CPS and Robespierre’s dictatorship was driven by the need to suppress internal enemies as much as external invaders. Internal suspicion, purges, and violence weakened France politically more than battlefield defeats.

  • Evidence #1: The creation of the Committee of Public Safety and Law of Suspects (September 1793) focused on internal enemies, showing internal war became the priority threat.

  • Evidence #2: The Terror’s mass executions (including generals accused of treason) highlighted how internal paranoia and factionalism destabilized governance.

  • Evidence #3: Sans-culottes militancy and political purges after the expulsion of the Girondins (June 1793) indicate internal conflicts undermined unity more than foreign enemies.