Conventions and the Terror, Destruction of the Girondins, Ascendency and fall of Robespierre

Question 1

What was the National convention?

Answer 1

• The National Convention was a parliament of the French Revolution.
• first French government organized as a republic, abandoning the monarchy altogether.
• came about when the Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI.
• It created a new constitution with no monarchy.

Question 2

When did the convention last until?

Answer 2

1795

Question 3

Where was power located?

Answer 3

Concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793 and the Committee of General Security.

Question 3

Where was power located?

Answer 3

Concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793 and the Committee of General Security.

Question 4

When was the most radical and bloodiest phase of the French Rev - ‘reign of terror’?

Answer 4

The eight months from the Autumn of 1793 to the spring of 1794, when Maximilien Robespierre and his allies dominated the Committee of Public Safety.

Question 5

What oversaw the terror which the convention created?

Answer 5

The Convention created the Committees,
the Committees oversaw the Terror.

Question 6

What was September Massacres?

Answer 6

Series of killings of prisoners in Paris - occurred in 1792.
- 1600 killed

Question 7

What are the causes of the Sept Massacres?

Answer 7

• April 1792: Prussia joins Austria in the First Coalition against France;
• July 1792: Brunswick Manifesto;
• August 1792: Storming of the Tuileries Palace;
• August 1792: The Prussians had captured the eastern town of Verdun.

Question 8

What was the Committee of Public Safety?

Answer 8

Formed the de facto, interim, and executive government in France during the Reign of Terror (1793-1794).
- created in April 1793 by the National Convention.

Question 9

What was the role of the committee of Public safety?

Answer 9

• 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 the state bureaucracy.

Question 10

Law of 22 Prairial:

Answer 10

(1794), passed in June 1794 by the Robespierre-dominated Committee of Public Safety, sought to expand the Terror by removing the rights of
accused persons.

Question 11

What did the Law of 22 P do?

Answer 11

• placed an active obligation on all citizens to denounce and bring justice to those suspected
• limited trials in the revolutionary tribunal to three days
• It required the Tribunal to come to one of only two possible verdicts - acquittal or death
• Law cancelled all previous legislation on same subject

Question 12

committee of general security:

Answer 12

• was established as a committee of the National Convention in October 1792
• not large, originally 12, and never exceeded 16 members.

Question 13

What was the committees main responsibility?

Answer 13

internal security of France and to protect the Republic from both external and internal enemies.

Question 14

When was it dissolved?

Answer 14

November 4th 1795 - along with National convention

Question 15

Why was Robespierre so unpopular?

Answer 15

The intensification of the ‘Reign of
Terror’ and Robespierre’s
autocracy made him increasingly
unpopular.

Question 15

Why was Robespierre so unpopular?

Answer 15

The intensification of the ‘Reign of
Terror’ and Robespierre’s
autocracy made him increasingly
unpopular.

Question 16

When was he arrested and what happened?

Answer 16

On 27 July 1794, he was arrested after a
struggle. The following day Robespierre, wounded from a bullet to the jaw, and 21 of his
closest supporters were executed at the guillotine.

Question 17

What was Robespierre up to when he was younger?

Answer 17

• In school, he learned to admire the idealised Roman Republic and the rhetoric of Cicero, Cato and other figures from classical history.

Question 18

What did he study at Uni?

Answer 18

Robespierre studied law for three years at the
University of Paris. Upon his graduation on 31 July 1780, he received a special prize of 600 lives for exemplary academic success and personal good conduct.

Question 19

When was R admitted to the bar?

Answer 19

May 15 1781 - appointed as one of five judges.

Question 20

When was Robespierre left wing?

Answer 20

• 1789: Advocate of Universal Suffrage
• 1790: Jacobin (wanting Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)
• 1791: Robespierre’s declared that he (himself) was “neither monarchist nor republican” (Context: one month after
  the flight to Varennes), Supported the new Constitution

Question 21

When was he politically central?

Answer 21

1792: Opposed war with Austria (Jan.)

Question 22

When did he convert to right wing views?

Answer 22

Robespierre sated,
“A revolutionary war must be waged to free
subjects and slaves from unjust tyranny, not for the traditional reasons of defending dynasties and expanding frontiers…
Robespierre argued, such a war could only favour the forces of counter-revolution, since it would play into the hands of those who opposed the sovereignty of the people. He said that a
revolutionary nation, constantly at war, risks handing power to its generals.

Question 23

what was the petition that he presented demanding? 1792 (August)

Answer 23

Robespierre presented a
petition to the Legislative Assembly from
the Paris Commune to demand the
establishment of a provisional
Revolutionary Tribunal that had to deal with
the “traitors” and “enemies of the people”.

Question 24

What did he argue about the King in 1792?

Answer 24

Robespierre argued that the king, now dethroned, could function only as a threat to liberty and national peace and that the members of the Assembly were not fair judges, but rather statesmen with responsibility for public safety.

Question 25

What arrest did he support in 1793?

Answer 25

Arrest of the members of the Girondins

Question 26

What was he added to in 1793?

Answer 26

Robespierre was added to the Committee of Public Safety.

Question 27

What was terror instituted as by the convention (1793)?

Answer 27

Terror was formally instituted as a legal policy by the convention.

Question 28

What happened on the 8 Thermidor?

Answer 28

Robespierre talked about plots and counter-
revolutionaries within the National Convention. He only named 3 conspirators, but his broad language suggested a far wider plot.

Question 29

What happened on the 9 Thermidor?

Answer 29

The National Convention voted to arrest
Robespierre. Many of them feared he would denounce them as being counter-revolutionaries.

Question 30

What happened on the 9 Thermidor?

Answer 30

The National Convention voted to arrest
Robespierre. Many of them feared he would denounce them as being counter-revolutionaries.

Question 31

What happened on the 10 Thermidor?

Answer 31

• arrested with broken jaw.
  2 accounts of how Robespierre was wounded:
  1. Tried to kill himself
  2. Shot by Charles-Andre Meda.

Question 32

Death of Robespierre:

Answer 32

He and other loyal Roberpierrists brought to revolutionary trial and condemned to death.
Guillotined.

Question 33

Limitations to his tyrannical character:

Answer 33

• In 1791 Robespierre argued passionately in the National Assembly against the Colonial Committee, dominated by slaveholders in the Caribbean. Robespierre was furious that the assembly gave “constitutional sanction to slavery in the colonies”.
• He was one of 25 men on the Committee of Public Safety in 1793.
• France was still theoretically governed by the National Convention,
  not Robespierre or the Committee of Public Safety.
• He was removed legally, proving that France was still democratic rather than dictatorial.

Question 34

Limitations to his tyrannical character:

Answer 34

• In 1791 Robespierre argued passionately in the National Assembly against the Colonial Committee, dominated by slaveholders in the Caribbean. Robespierre was furious that the assembly gave “constitutional sanction to slavery in the colonies”.
• He was one of 25 men on the Committee of Public Safety in 1793.
• France was still theoretically governed by the National Convention,
  not Robespierre or the Committee of Public Safety.
• He was removed legally, proving that France was still democratic rather than dictatorial.

Question 35

Why was he considered to be chief architect of
the Terror?

Answer 35

During the Reign of Terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested: over 16,000 were
officially executed, and perhaps 10,000 died in prison or without trial.

Question 36

Who were the Girodins?

Answer 36

• From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention.
• initially were part of the Jacobin movement.
• campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiralling momentum of the Revolution, which caused à conflict with the more radical Montagnards.

Question 37

Who were the Girodins?

Answer 37

• From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention.
• initially were part of the Jacobin movement.
• campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiralling momentum of the Revolution, which caused à conflict with the more radical Montagnards.
• group of loosely affiliated individuals rather than an organized political party

Question 38

What did Thomas Paine write?

Answer 38

The rights of man - 18 century

Question 39

What does Paine outline the revolution to attack?

Answer 39

The principles of French monarchy not the king himself.

Question 40

Who was Paine an ally with?

Answer 40

Girondins.

Question 41

What did this lead Robespierre to pass a decree on?

Answer 41

1793 - excluding foreigners from their places in the convention.

Question 42

When did the girondins dominate the legislative assembly?

Answer 42

in 1791

Question 43

What was Brissot accused of and by who?

Answer 43

By Robespierre and Marat - counterrevolutionary activity ie. being in pay of GB and not immediately voting for death of former king.

Question 44

What is the destruction of the girondins said to mark the beginning of?

Answer 44

Reign of Terror.

Question 45

Who was excecuted?

Answer 45

• Brissot
• Madame Roland