1. Did the Jacobins help or hurt the French people?
French Revolution day 4
Did the Jacobins help or hurt the French people?
Progress and Decline, Turning Points

2. Weighing the evidence Help the French people: who progressed?
Hurt the French people: who declined?
Help the French people: who progressed?

3. Republic of virtue?
“virtue, without terror is fatal; terror, without virtue is powerless”
“Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice.”
Robespierre: Jacobin leader, admirer of Rousseau, executed by guillotine in 1794
BBC History, Historic Figures, Maximilien Robespierre, 2013, (Oct. 17, 2013).

4. Horrors of war The Noyades, horrific drownings.
Novopress France, Commemoration de Noyades de Nantes, 2006, (Oct. 16, 2013).

5. The Vendee Vendee = West of France
Jacobins feared counter-revolution in deeply religious and conservative/ royalist part of France
They thought the Vendeen Catholic and Royal army might even have been in contact with the British to get arms (internal fears)
They suppressed the Vendee as an example to the rest of France: 100, 000 may have died

6. The Vendee Con’t… The Revolutionary Tribunals were very strict there:
Tried and executed people within 24 hours without appeal
Tried people in batches of 20-30
People were drowned: naked men, women, and children (prisoners of war) were tied together, towed out the Loire river in Nantes, and drowned in boats specially constructed for this  5,000 killed this way: called Noyades

7. The vendee con’t…
When it was over, French General Joseph Westermann wrote a letter to the Committee of Public Safety saying:
“There is no more Vendee… According to the letters that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all.”
Samuel, H. (2008, Dec. 26). Vendee French call for revolution massacre to be termed “genocide.”
Telegraph. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from
europe/france

8. Psd: “Jacobins” Revolutionary Tribunal Committee of Public Safety
Law of 22 Prairial
Meeting of a Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris – jury but no appeal
Mount Holyoke College, French Revolution II, A session of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris, N.d., (Oct. 17, 2013).

9. Law of 22 prairial
“The excesses of the Revolutionary Tribunal increased with the growth of Robespierre’s ascendancy in the Committee of Public Safety. On June 10, 1794, there was promulgated, at his instigation, the Law of 22 Prairial, which forbade prisoners to employ counsel for their defense, suppressed the hearing of witnesses, and made death the sole penalty. Before 22 Prairial the Revolutionary Tribunal had pronounced 1,220 death sentences in 13 months; during the 49 days between the passing of the law and the fall of Robespierre, 1,376 persons were condemned, including many innocent victims.”
Revolutionary Tribunals, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, N.d., (Oct. 17, 2013).

10. Find the Matching Lines in “Jacobins” PSD
The result of disobeying this court’s rule is death.
The laws will be changed if they aren’t for the good of the whole community/country.
Whoever wants a king back in power is a traitor.
The conversations and decisions of this group will take place behind closed doors.
Majority decisions are implemented ASAP.
No second chances after the verdict.
People who use violence or trickery to destroy the freedom of everyone are enemies of the people.

11. Counterrevolutionary loophole
Who would have been seen as counter- revolutionaries by the Revolutionary Tribunals (by the Jacobins)?

12. Evidence about jacobins
Food prices (which group or groups are affected)
Rule by emergency decree
Revolutionary tribunals
Peasant land purchases
Education
Citizen
Conscription
Democratization
Abolition of slavery in colonies
Deism
Reorganization of local government
Food requisition
Intolerance of opposition
Other?

13. The directory
Third phase of the revolution
Will cooler heads prevail?

14. Phase 3 It was called the Directory
The Jacobins self-destructed after the excesses of the Terror (even Robespierre is executed)
After this… no support for a third revolution
Moderates got back in control of government
Wrote the constitution of 1795
5 Directors chosen by parliament
It was called the Directory

15. Directory, con’t Was a very weak gov’t Had enemies on both sides
On the right the enemies were the royalists and the church
On the left enemies were radical republicans (ex- Jacobins)
It relied on the army to hold onto power – esp. a young officer rising through the ranks named Napoleon
Directory held onto power until 1799
Groups gaining strength at this time in France:
Royalists (emigres coming back – they have many supporters)
Constitutional monarchists ( won the majority of seats in the 1797 election)

16. Napoleon Napoleon From Corsica Rises in the Jacobin Army
Victories under the Directory
in Italy
Not exactly in Egypt
Eventually led a coup against the Directory
Became First Consul, then Emperor
Was eventually defeated by France’s external enemies (Britain, Russia, etc.)
Napoleon, French general serving the Directory
How Stuff Works, How the French Revolution Worked: The Directory and the War Hero, , (Oct. 17, 2013).

17. France: empires and republics
1815: back to monarchy
1848: back to republic
1852: back to monarchy
: back to republic
Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830