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French Revolution > Government by Terror 1793-1794 > Flashcards

Government by Terror 1793-1794 Flashcards

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1
Q

Thermidorians

A

The name given to the group of people responsible for the overthrow of Robespierre

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2
Q

Who were the Thermidorians?

A
  • Deputies of the Plain:
    • Gained from the Revolution through buying land or winning government contracts
    • Involved in the trial and execution of Louis, did not want to see the return of monarchy
    • Disliked the Jacobins for giving too much power to the sans-culottes and imposing the Maximum laws
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3
Q

Virtue

A

Behaviour which shows high moral standards

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4
Q

Baneful

A

Harmful or destructive

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5
Q

What is the context of 1793?

A
  • France are at war with most of Europe
  • Vendee rebellion, anti-republican opposition were internal threats that exist to the republic
  • Economic and political crisis were other internal problems France were facing
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6
Q

What was the Machinery of Terror?

A
  • A range of measures were passed to tackle the growing crises and ensure the survival of the Republic.
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7
Q

What were the three objectives of the Machinery of Terror?

A
  • To identify, place under observation and punish suspects (CGS)
  • To make government more effective and ensure that its orders were carried out (CPS)
  • To meet at least some of the economic demands of the sans-culottes
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8
Q

What two committees were given huge powers to achieve the aims of the machinery of terror?

A
  • The Committee of General Security (CGS)

- The Committee of Public Safety (CPS)

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9
Q

When and why was the CGS set up?

A
  • 10 March 1793 a Revolutionary Tribunal was set up in Paris to try counter-revolutionary suspects
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10
Q

What did the CGS intend to do?

A
  • Intended to prevent massacres like those of September 1792
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11
Q

Why were the representatives on mission sent to the powers? (CGS)

A

As a result of owing to the resistance to conscription and the suspicion of generals after Demouriez’s defection, the representatives-on-mission were sent to the provinces (CGS)

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12
Q

What powers did the representatives-on-mission have? (CGS)

A

They had almost unlimited powers over the department administrations and the armies and were intended as the first stage in reasserting central control over the provinces (CGS)

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13
Q

What was the comités de surveillance? (CGS)

A

Comités de surveillance were set up in each commune and all major towns and provided many victims for the Revolutionary Tribunal (CGS)

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14
Q

What was the summary execution decree? (CGS)

A

The summary execution decree provided for the trial and execution of armed rebels within 24 hours of capture - trials were held without a jury and there was no appeal. They condemned many more victims than the Revolutionary Tribunal did. Harsh laws were passed against émigrés; their property was confiscated by government officials and they were to be executed if they returned to France

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15
Q

Why did terror emerge?

A
  • War
  • Economic crisis
  • Political crisis
  • Influence of the sans culottes
  • Threat of counter revolution
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16
Q

When was the CPS set up and by who?

A
  • Set up on 6 April 1793

- By the Convention

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17
Q

What was the purpose of the CPS?

A

Purpose was to supervise and speed up the activities of ministers

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18
Q

Was the CPS a dictatorship? Why/Why not?

A
  • Not a dictatorship

- It depended on the support of the convention, who approved its powers each month

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19
Q

How important were the CPS?

A
  • Was a vital part of the machinery of the Terror

- At first they were applied only partially, if at all, outside the Vendée

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20
Q

What were the dates of the events of the overthrow?

A
  • 26th May 1793
  • 31st May 1793
  • 2nd June 1793
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21
Q

What happened on 26th May 1793?

A

Robespierre came down on the side of the sans culottes when he invited ‘the people to place themselves in insurrection against the corrupt (Girondin) deputies’

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22
Q

What happened on 31st May 1793?

A

A rising began which spread rapidly when news of the overthrow of the Jacobins in Lyon reached Paris on 1 June

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23
Q

What happened on 2nd June 1793?

A

80,000 National Guardsmen surrounded the convention and directed their cannon at it. They demanded the expulsion of the Girondins from the Assembly and a maximum price imposed on all essential goods. When the deputies trued to leave they were forced back. For the first time armed force was being used against an elected assembly

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24
Q

How did the provinces react to the overthrow of the Girondins?

A
  • Would spread the terror
  • Could start a war
  • Provinces felt betrayed
  • Government will become note extreme
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25
Q

Who was responsible for the overthrow of the Girondins?

A

The Jacobins were primarily responsible for this chain if events however so were the sans culottes

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26
Q

How was a massacre or a seizure of power by a revolutionary commune avoided?

A

The convention was compelled to agree to the arrest of 29 Girondin deputies and two ministers. Following the purge of the Girondins a young royalist, Charlotte Corday, assassinated Marat in the vain belief that it would end the Revolution

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27
Q

What were the consequences of the overthrow of the Girondins?

A
  • Between July and September a new CPS was established
  • All the members came from either the Montagnards or the Plain. Most were young, the average age was just 30
  • The new CPS was more extreme
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28
Q

How did the Sans-Culottes have power in Paris?

A
  • Local government in Paris was divided into 48 Sections. Each section was run by a Revolutionary Committee and these were dominated by sans-culottes
  • The Commune had overall control in Paris and again this was heavily influenced by sans-culottes
  • The Commune and Revolutionary Committees used the National Guard to keep control in Paris, from 1792 this had been mostly made up of sans-culottes
  • The Revolutionary Committees exercised power in their sections through their own institutions, they were not responsible to the government
  • The Committees issued certificates of citizenship - this proved you were a ‘good citizen’ who supported the republic, without one you couldn’t work
  • The sans-culottes in Paris had the power to overthrow the Convention but they preferred to use that power persuade or intimidate it
29
Q

What are the main characteristics of the sans-culottes?

A
  • Hatred of the aristocracy and anyone of great wealth
  • Egalitarianism - they addressed everyone as citizen and ancien regime titles were rejected
  • The wearing of red caps, originally associated with freed slaves, symbolising the equality of all citizens, to which they were firmly committed
  • Passionate anti-clerical - strong dislike of the church and members of the clergy
  • A belief in direct democracy
  • Urban working class
  • Very strong supporters of the revolution
  • Anti-monarchy
30
Q

How did the power of the sans-culottes grow?

A
  • Largely a consequence of the war
  • They had played an important role in the Revolution in 1789 by storming the Bastille, and bringing the King to Paris during the October Days
  • After that the bourgeois National Guard kept them under control, as at the Champs de Mars
31
Q

How did the sans-culottes militants grow in influence?

A
  • When the National Guard was opened up to ‘passive citizens’ in July 1792 the sans-culottes militants grew in influence
  • Their power and domination was important in the overthrow of the monarchy and from the summer of 1792 to the spring of 1794 no one could control Paris without obtaining their support
  • They were responsible for the journee of 31 May to 2 June 1793, which brought the Jacobins to power
32
Q

What did the sans-culottes believe in?

A

They believed that the people had the right to control and change their elected representative at any time, and if they were betrayed they had the right of insurrection

  • Political life must take place in the open: the patriot had no reason to hide his opinions
  • The meetings of the Assembly must therefore be open to the public and deputies must vote aloud
33
Q

What were the concessions made to the sans-culottes?

A
  • A new constitution and Declaration of rights
  • The levee en masse
  • Economic concessions
34
Q

Why were concessions made to the sans-culottes?

A

As the sans-culottes had put the Jacobins in power and because of the power and influence of the sans-culottes in general, the CPS made a number of concessions to meet their demands

35
Q

What were the new constitution and declaration of rights concession?

A
  • Presented to the people on 24 June 1793
  • It said people had the right to work, have assistance in times of need and be educated
  • The right to insurrection (revolt) was agreed
  • All adult males were given the vote and would choose their representatives through direct elections
36
Q

What were the economic concessions?

A

The maximum legislation to fix prices, making the hoarding of goods a capital offence, anti-hoarding laws. (hoarding was made a capital offence)

37
Q

What was the levee en masse?

A
  • This put the whole of France on a war footing
  • All the resources of the nation were to be used to help France win the war. This included conscription of nearly 500,000 men aged between 18 and 25
38
Q

What role have the sans-culottes played in the revolution?

A
  • Storming of the Bastille
  • October Days
  • Control of Paris
  • Overthrow of the Girondins
  • War-filling the army
39
Q

Who were the Enrages?

A
  • An extreme revolutionary group led by a priest named Jacques Roux
  • With the deteriorating economic situation in Paris (inflation and reduced grain supplies) Roux was shocked by some people’s living standards
  • His followers were made up of wage earners, the poor and unemployed
40
Q

What was the impact of the Enrages?

A

Under Roux’s encouragement his followers took to the street on 5th September marched on the Convention. They forced it to accept a range of radical measures. The Armee Revolutionnaire was instantly formed and would be used to secure food supplies to Paris and confront anti-revolutionary forces

41
Q

Who were the Armee Revolutionnaire?

A
  • Almost exclusively made up of sans-culottes they became one of the main weapons during the Terror. Their purpose was to:
  • Ensure food supplies to Paris
  • Round up deserters, hoarders, refractory priests, political suspects and royalist rebels
  • Mobilise the country’s war effort
  • Establish revolutionary ‘justice’
    They took action in over 25 departments including savagely suppressing the uprising in Lyon
42
Q

What was the impact of the Armee Revolutionnaire?

A

Successfully secured food supplies which helped preserve the revolution. Their methods were disliked by the convention because their brutality turned people against the revolution

43
Q

What did the Economic terror look like?

A
  • Imposed the death penalty for hoarding food and other supplies - July
  • 29th September 1793 the law of the General Maximum was passed to control prices - it fixed the price of bread and many essential goods and wages were also fixed at 50% above the level of 1790
  • When peasants refused to sell grain at the maximum price, the government was compelled to requisition supplies
44
Q

What was the impact of the Economic Terror?

A
  • It set the common people against each other
  • Peasants hated it because the rate was often below the cost of production
  • Sans-culottes wanted it so they could afford bread
  • Sans-culottes went into the countryside with the armee revolutionnaire to enforce the Maximum they clashed with the peasants
  • Farmers would simply stop producing if they couldn’t make a profit
  • Co-operation of wealthy peasants was necessary for the government
45
Q

How successful were the governments actions to the Economic Terror?

A

In the short term they were successful. The towns and armies were fed and the assignat, worth 22% of its face value in August, rose to 48% in December 1793

46
Q

What did the Political Terror look like?

A
  • The official Terror, controlled by the CPS and CGS, centred in Paris and whose victims came before the Revolutionary Tribunal
  • The Terror in the areas of federal revolt such as the Vendee and Lyon, where the worst atrocities took place
  • The Terror in other parts of France, under the control of watch committees , representatives-on-mission and the revolutionary armies
  • Constitution was suspended
  • Troops in the Vendee killing the population
  • Mass acts of violence against suspected enemies of the revolution. 16,600 official victims, but hundreds of thousands more killed
  • Official terror (tribunal). Terror in the provinces
47
Q

What was the impact of the Political Terror?

A
  • Internal enemies crushed
  • Makes the Jacobin government unpopular
  • Feeling of fear throughout France
48
Q

What was the most important impact of the Political Terror?

A

Internal enemies crushed

49
Q

What did the Religious Terror look like?

A
  • Sans Culottes drove dechristianisation
  • Closed churches/rob them
  • Force Priests to renounce their oaths and marry
  • Notre Dame is renamed Temple of Reason
50
Q

What was the impact of the Religious Terror?

A

For many ordinary people outside the civil was zones, dechristianisation, which left large areas of France without priests, was the aspect of the Terror that had most affected them

51
Q

What was the Revolutionary Calandar?

A
  • Introduced on 5 October 1793
  • Aim was; first to emphasise the complete break with the past and its institutions, particularly the Church, and second to remove any surviving traces of the ancien regime
  • It was dated from 22 September 1792, when the Republic was proclaimed
52
Q

How was the year divided under the Revolutionary Calandar?

A
  • Into 12 months of 30 days, with 5 supplementary days
  • Each month was divided into 3 periods of 10 days, every 10th day being a rest day
  • It ignored Sundays and Festivals of the Church
53
Q

What were the problems facing the Republic in 1793?

A
  • The Federal Revolts
  • Conflict over food prices
  • Inflation of the assignat
  • War of the First Coalition
  • Rebellion in the Vendee
    These were severely reduced by the end of 1793 thanks to the sans-culottes
54
Q

How did the government take back control from the sans-culottes?

A
  • The constitution of 1793 was suspended
  • The Law of Frimaire gave full executive powers to CPS and CGS
  • The chief officials of the communes and departments were made directly answerable to the CPS
  • All revolutionary armies, except those in Paris were disbanded
55
Q

What was the result of the government actions in trying to take back control from the sans-culottes?

A
  • The sans-culottes had had their power and influence limited
  • The CPS and CGS had gained lots of power - strong centralised government
  • An end to anarchy
56
Q

What was the reason for opposition to Jacques Hebert?

A
  • Demanded that more hoarders should be executed and property redistributed
  • Wanted more extreme opposition and more terror
57
Q

What was the extent of opposition to Jacques Hebert?

A
  • Few supporters in the Convention but many in the Cordeliers Club, the Commune, the Paris revolutionary army and the popular societies
58
Q

What was the reaction of the government to Jacques Hebert?

A
  • Hebert was guillotined on 24 March 1794
  • The Parisian revolutionary army was disbanded
  • The Cordeliers club was was closed
  • All popular societies were forced to disband
  • The commune was purged and filled with supporters of Robespierre
  • Representatives-on-mission, responsible for some of the worst atrocities in the provinces were recalled to Paris
  • He was arrested - accused of being a foreign agent who wanted a military dictatorship that would restore the monarchy
59
Q

What was the reason for opposition to George Jacques Danton?

A
  • Danton wanted the war to end, as it was largely responsible for the Terror
  • Wanted to halt the terror and the centralisation imposed in December
60
Q

What was the extent of opposition to George Jacques Danton?

A
  • Had a large following in the Convention, and was regarded a much more serious threat by the CPS, as he demands for a return of the monarchy
61
Q

What was the reaction of the government to George Jacques Danton?

A
  • Brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and on 5th April 1794 was executed with many of his followers, including Desmoulins
62
Q

What was the Great Terror?

A
  • It was centred around Paris
  • All enemies of the Republic would now face trial in front of this cities Revolutionary Tribunal
  • During the Great Terror 1594 were executed
  • Following assassination attempts on Robespierre and Couthon the Law of Prairial was passed on 10 June 1794
  • Under this law no witnesses could be called and judgements were based on the conscience of the jurors
  • Many of the victims were nobles and clergymen, while nearly half were wealthier bourgeoisie
  • The result of the Great Terror was that no one dared criticise the CPS
63
Q

What was the Law of Prairial?

A

The most severe of the laws passed by the revolutionary government. The purpose of the law was to reform the Revolutionary Tribunal to secure more convictions. The law paved the way for the Great Terror

64
Q

Who did Robespierre lose support from?

A
  • Among Catholics
  • Among the sans-culottes
  • On the CPS and CGS
65
Q

Why did the Catholics turn against Robespierre?

A
  • Robespierre didn’t like dechristianisation, and wanted to upset the Catholics and not the sans-culottes, as he didn’t want to lose their support
  • He set up the Cult of the Supreme Being, this pleased no one, Catholics were distressed because it ignored Catholic doctrine, ceremonies and the Pope
  • CGS thought it was a step towards reintroducing Catholicism
66
Q

Why did the sans-culottes turn against Robespierre?

A
  • They liked Hebert - the execution of the Hebertistes
  • The dissolution of the popular societies
  • The end of direct democracy in the Sections
  • The raising of the Maximum on prices
  • The imposing of the Maximum on wages
67
Q

Why did the CPS and CGS turn against Robespierre?

A
  • CPS set up its own police bureau with Robespierre in charge to prosecute dishonest officials, in April
  • The 2 committees became rivals
  • Some members disliked Saint-Just’s Law of Ventose and made sure they were never put into practise
  • Two members of the CPS had been close to Hebert and so felt threatened by Robespierre
  • Robespierre was especially critical of Collot because of the extreme measures he had used to restore order in Lyon
  • Many on the CPS were becoming suspicious of Robespierre after the introduction of the Cult of the Supreme Being and he was losing support among former allies
68
Q

What actions effectively ended the Terror?

A
  1. The Paris Commune was abolished
  2. 16 committees were set up to take over most of the work of the CPS and CGS
  3. Abolished the Revolutionary Tribunal
  4. Power in local government passed to moderates and property owners
  5. Decreed that one quarter of the CPS and CGS had to change every month
  6. In February 1795 the government restored freedom of worship, formally ending dechristianisation and the Cult of the Supreme Being
  7. Released all suspects who had been arrested during the Terror
  8. The constitutional Church was renounced and the convention would no longer pay clerical salaries
  9. Closed the Jacobin club
  10. Ended the Law of Prairial

French Revolution (8 decks)

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