Skip to main content. The French Revolution. Search for:. The Reign of Terror. The Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly, the legislature of revolutionary France from October 1, to September 20, , provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making.
Learning Objectives Explain the structure and role of the Legislative Assembly. The members were generally young, and since none had sat in the previous Assembly they largely lacked national political experience. Louis repeatedly vetoed decrees proposed by the Assembly and the war against Austria soon joined by Prussia intensified tensions. Soon, the King dismissed Girondins from the Ministry. When the king formed a new cabinet mostly of Feuillants, the breach with the king and the Assembly on one side and the majority of the common people of Paris on the other.
The Demonstration of June 20 followed. The Girondins made a last advance to Louis, offering to save the monarchy if he would accept them as ministers. On the night of August 10, , insurgents and popular militias, supported by the revolutionary Paris Commune, assailed the Tuileries Palace and massacred the Swiss Guards assigned for the protection of the king.
By the same token, the Legislative Assembly ceased to exist. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and the National Convention. It became insurrectionary in the summer of , essentially refusing to take orders from the central French government.
It took charge of routine civic functions but is best known for mobilizing extreme views. It lost much power in and was replaced in Demonstration of June 20 : The last peaceful attempt made by the people of Paris during the French Revolution to persuade King Louis XVI of France to abandon his current policy and attempt to follow what they believed to be a more empathetic approach to governing. The demonstrators hoped that the king would withdraw his veto and recall the Girondin ministers.
It was the last phase of the unsuccessful attempt to establish a constitutional monarchy in France. It threatened that if the French royal family were harmed, French civilians would be harmed. This measure was intended to intimidate Paris,but instead helped further spur the increasingly radical French Revolution. September Massacres : A wave of killings in Paris September , and other cities in late summer , during the French Revolution.
It was tolerated by the city government, the Paris Commune, which called on other cities to follow suit. Learning Objectives Evaluate the decision to execute the king and queen. Key Takeaways Key Points The Insurrection of August 10, , led to the creation of the National Convention, elected by universal male suffrage and charged with writing a new constitution. On September 20, the Convention became the new de facto government of France, and the next day it abolished the monarchy and declared a republic.
Louis XVI heard 33 charges. For punishment, voted for death without conditions, just carrying the vote by a marginal majority. In France, the Reign of Terror followed. The formal end of the monarchy six weeks later was one of the first acts of the new National Convention. It became insurrectionary in the summer of , refusing to take orders from the central French government. Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety The period of the Jacobin rule known as the Reign of Terror, under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, was the first time in history that terror became an official government policy with the stated aim to use violence to achieve a higher political goal.
Learning Objectives Break down the politics of fear and how Robespierre used them to control France. Its power peaked between August and July under the leadership of Robespierre, who established a virtual dictatorship.
On June 24, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, the French Constitution of It was ratified by public referendum, but never put into force.
In June , Robespierre, who favored deism over atheism, recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of his god. The next day, the worship of the deistic Supreme Being was inaugurated as an official aspect of the revolution. Shortly after that, following a decisive military victory over Austria at the Battle of Fleurus, Robespierre was overthrown on July 27, It succeeded the Legislative Assembly and founded the First Republic after the insurrection of August 10, Committee of Public Safety : A committee created in April by the National Convention and then restructured in July to form the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror —94 , a stage of the French Revolution.
Portrait of Maximilien de Robespierre by an unknown artist. The National Convention The National Convention , the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, transitioned from being paralyzed by factional conflicts to becoming the legislative body overseeing the Reign of Terror and eventually accepting the Constitution of Learning Objectives Recall the composition and role of the National Convention.
It was the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage without distinctions of class. Most historians divide the National Convention into two main factions: the Girondins and the Montagnards. The Montagnards were much more radical and held strong connections to the sans-culottes of Paris. Traditionally, historians have also identified a centrist faction called the Plain, but many historians tend to blur the line between the Plain and the Girondins.
The political deadlock, which had repercussions all over France, eventually drove both major factions to accept dangerous allies. In June , under the pressure of armed sans-culottes, the Girondins ceased to be a political force. The new Convention, occupied mostly with matters of war, did little to remedy the problem until late spring of Its dominance marked the Reign of Terror. In June, the Convention drafted the Constitution of , which was ratified by popular vote but not enacted.
Simultaneously, the Committee of Public Safety carried out thousands of executions against supposed enemies of the young republic. Its laws and policies took the revolution to unprecedented heights—they introduced the revolutionary calendar in , closed churches in and around Paris as a part of a movement of dechristianization, tried and executed Marie Antoinette, and instituted the Law of Suspects, among other initiatives.
Members of various revolutionary factions and groups were executed. In July , Robespierre was overthrown, the Jacobin club was closed, and the surviving Girondins were reinstated. They reestablished freedom of worship, began releasing large numbers of prisoners, and initiated elections for a new legislative body.
On November 3, , a bicameral parliament called the Directory was established and the National Convention ceased to exist. Committee of Public Safety : A committee created in April by the National Convention and then restructured in July that formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror —94 , a stage of the French Revolution.
It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, and several other leading members of the revolutionary government. It ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution.
It was influenced by the doctrine of natural right, stating that the rights of man are held to be universal. It became the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by law. The Marseillais volunteers departing, sculpted on the Arc de Triomphe. Learning Objectives Describe the events of the Thermidorian Reaction. With Robespierre the sole remaining strongman of the Revolution, his apparent total grasp on power became increasingly illusory.
Not all of the conspiratorial groupings were ideologically motivated. The prime mover for the events was a Montagnard conspiracy, which was gradually coalescing and came to pass when the Montagnards finally swayed the deputies of the right over to their side. In the end, Robespierre himself united his enemies when he gave a speech to the Convention in which he railed against enemies and conspiracies, some within the powerful committees.
The Thermidorian regime that followed proved unpopular, facing many rebellions after the execution of Robespierre and his allies. The people who were involved with Robespierre became the target, including many members of the Jacobin club, their supporters, and individuals suspected of being past revolutionaries. In addition, the sans-culottes were violently suppressed by the Muscadin, a group of street fighters organized by the new government.
Meanwhile, French armies overran the Netherlands and established the Batavian Republic, occupied the left bank of the Rhine and forced Spain, Prussia and several German states to sue for peace, enhancing the prestige of the National was drawn up, which eased back some of the democratic elements of the Constitution of and the Thermidorian regime ended. It formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror —94 , a stage of the French Revolution.
White Terror : A period of political violence during the French Revolution following the death of Robespierre and the end of the Reign of Terror. It was started by a group in the south of France calling themselves The Companions of Jehu.
They planned a double uprising to coincide with invasions by Great Britain in the west and Austria in the east. Structure of the Directory The Directory, a five-member committee that governed France from November to November , failed to reform the disastrous economy, relied heavily on army and violence, and represented another turn towards dictatorship during the French Revolution.
Learning Objectives Explain the structure and role of the Directory. Besides functioning as legislative bodies, the Council of Five Hundred proposed the list from which the Council of Ancients chose five directors who jointly held executive power.
The new Constitution sought to create a separation of powers, but in reality power was in the hands of the five members of the Directory. In October , the elections for the new Councils decreed by the new constitution took place, with the universal male suffrage of replaced by limited suffrage based on property.
To assure that the Directory did not abandon the Revolution entirely, the Council required all members of the Directory to be former members of the Convention and regicides, those who had voted for the execution of Louis XVI.
Only one out of the five original members served on the Directory throughout its entire existence. Censer, James A. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford Reference Online.
Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, Instructor Log In. British Broadcasting Corporation Home. He was educated in Paris and entered the same profession as his father. He was elected a deputy of the estates-general a form of parliament, but without real power that met in May , and subsequently served in the National Constituent Assembly.
Robespierre became increasingly popular for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms. In April , was elected president of the powerful Jacobin political club.
After the downfall of the monarchy in August , Robespierre was elected first deputy for Paris to the National Convention. The convention abolished the monarchy, declared France a republic and put the king on trial for treason, all measures strongly supported by Robespierre. In the orgy of bloodshed, Robespierre succeeded in purging many of his political opponents. On June 4, , Robespierre was almost unanimously elected president of the National Convention.
In just a month, 1, enemies of the Revolution were guillotined. The Terror was being escalated just when foreign invasion no longer threatened the republic, and an awkward coalition of the right and the left formed to oppose Robespierre and his followers.
On July 27, 9 Thermidor in the Revolutionary calendar , Robespierre and his allies were placed under arrest by the National Assembly. Robespierre was taken to the Luxembourg prison in Paris, but the warden refused to jail him, and he fled to the Hotel de Ville.
Armed supporters arrived to aid him, but he refused to lead a new insurrection. When he received word that the National Convention had declared him an outlaw, he shot himself in the head but only succeeded in wounding his jaw. Shortly thereafter, troops of the National Convention attacked the Hotel de Ville and seized Robespierre and his allies.
The next evening—July 28—Robespierre and 21 others were guillotined without a trial in the Place de la Revolution. During the next few days, another 82 Robespierre followers were executed. The Reign of Terror was at an end.
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