Terror Timeline Flashcards
January 1793
France appeared secure from Austrian and Prussian invasion and declared it wish to expand to its ‘natural frontiers’
• 21 January – Execution of Louis XVI
February 1793
1 February – France declared war on Britain and Netherlands
• Draft of 300,000 men ordered
• Start of unrest in Paris, encouraged by the enragés,
over the price of basic commodities
February 1793
1 February – France declared war on Britain and Netherlands
• Draft of 300,000 men ordered
• Start of unrest in Paris, encouraged by the enragés,
over the price of basic commodities
March 1793
Convention declared war on Spain
• Rebellion began in the Vendée. The ‘Catholic and
Royal Army of the Vendée’ formed (14th March).
• 82 représantants-en-mission appointed to travel
across France and ensure loyalty and effective
government
• Revolutionary Tribunal was established to try counter
revolutionaries.
• 19 March – Summary execution decree – rebels
bearing arms could be executed without appeal
within 24 hours
• Comités de surveillance established in every
commune or town section
• Austrian counter-offensive led to French defeat at
Neerwinden
• French forces lost Belgium and the left bank of the
Rhine.
April 1793
6 April - Committee of Public Safety (CPS) established – responsibility for conduct of war, diplomacy, supplies, army and revolutionary laws. Authority over the CGS
• Arrest, trial and acquittal of Marat for inciting murder, pillage and attacking the convention
• General Dumouriez defected to the Austrians
May 1793
• 3 May – 8000 sans-culottes surrounded Convention demanding price controls. Robespierre won a vote to establish the ‘First Law of General Maximum’
• 26 May – Robespierre called for a rising against all corrupt deputies
• 29 May – Jacobin leaders in Lyons were forced out of office
• 31 May – 2 June – thousands of s-c, supported by National Guards besieged the Convention to demand expulsion of the Girondins
June 1793
• 2 June – crowd of 80,000-100,000 s-c surrounded the Convention. 29 Girondin deputies were expelled and arrested.
• British blockade of ports began
• Jacobin leaders in Avignon, Bordeaux, Caen,
Marseilles and Toulon were forced out of office. Protests in 60 out of 83 départements against the explulsions, serious conflicts in 8.
• 24 June – publication of the Montagnard Constitution (this was never implemented but would have allowed all adult males to vote, legitimised direct political action and entitled all to public
July 1793
• 13 July – Murder of Marat
September 1793
• French lifted siege at Dunkirk but French forces were defeated by Spain in the Battle of Trouillas
• Upto this point the Revolutionary Tribunal had heard 260 cases, between September and December it heard 500,000.
• 5 September – s-c force marched on Convention demanding lower bread prices, higher wages and an attack on hoarders and counter-revolutionaries (influenced by Jacques Roux and enragés)
• 9 September – s-c paramilitary armée révolutionnaire established to force farmers to surrender grain and attack hoarders
• 17 September – Law of Suspects passed – new definition of ‘suspects’ – could be arrested because of actions, relationships, words or writings, hoarders, nobles, relatives of émigrés, etc.
• 29 September – Law of General Maximum – set maximum price for grain, flour, meat, oil, onions, soap, firewood, leather and papers and imposed wage regulations.
October 1793
• Lyons surrenders to the Republican army
• French victory against Austro-Prussian army at
Wattignies
• Dechristianisation became an official policy of the
Paris Commune
• 5 October – new revolutionary calendar introduced
• 10 October – Saint-Just delivered his speech in
which he declared that government would be ‘revolutionary until there is peace’ – led to intensified campaign across the departments.
• 16 October – Marie-Antoinette was guillotined
• 24 October – trial of 21 expelled Girondin ministers
(all were executed on 31 October)
November 1793
• Duc d’Orléans (6 November) and Madame Roland (8 November) were executed
• French defeated by Prussian forces in the Rhineland
• All churches in Paris closed
• ‘Festival of Reason’ held at the ‘Temple of Reason’
(Notre Dame)
December 1793
• Siege of Toulon ended in defeat for the rebels
• Robespierre persuaded the Convention to pass the
decree on the ‘liberty of cults’ which promised
religious toleration’
• 4 December - Law of 14 Frimaire II – CPS direct
power over ministers, generals, representatives on mission and local government. Popular societies were closed down and revolutionary armies to be disbanded from March 1794.
Armées revolutionaires
Brigade of citizen – soldiers drawn from the sans – culottes; had responsibility for food supplies in the towns during the Terror
Chouan Rebellion
Uprising by counter – revolutionary royalists in Brittany after 1792
Committee of General Security
Small group of Convention members who were responsible for foreign policy/ security
