1. Thermidorian Reaction
France:
Legislative Assembly
National Convention
Reign of Terror
Thermidorian Reaction

2. What factors prevented the resolution of the revolutionary fervor?
Why didn’t the French Revolution end with the creation of a new Constitution and Government in 1791?
What factors prevented the resolution of the revolutionary fervor?

3. Why?: International Phase
Emigres abroad
Girondins (party of international revolution)
Marquis de Condorcet
Declare war on Austria April 1792 Expansion (Avignon, German lands)
Treaty of Pillnitz (Prussian allies with Austria)
Conservatism – Edmund Burke
Reflections on the Revolution in France

4. The Political Spectrum
TODAY:
1790s:
The Plain (swing votes)
Montagnards (“The Mountain”)
Girondists
Monarchíen (Royalists)
Jacobins
Source: Susan Pojer HGHS

7. European Reaction

8. Sans-Culottes: Parisian Working class
The Jacobins
Robespierre
Sans-Culottes: Parisian Working class

9. Paris Commune – Aug 1792 Revolutionary municipal government
Demanded greater democracy
September Massacres (prompted by propaganda)
Worsening economic conditions fueled civil unrest
Losses on the battlefield (Brunswick Manifesto- July 1792) stirred patriotic excitement

10. The Radical “Second” French Revolution: Overview
The National Convention:
Girondin Rule
Jacobin Rule
Reign of Terror
Thermidorian Reaction
The Directory

11. What sparked the radical turn of the French Revolution in 1792?

12. “The Death of Marat” by Jacques Louis David, 1793

13. Paul Jacques Aimee Baudry, 19c
The Assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday
Paul Jacques Aimee Baudry, 19c

14. National Convention

15. Executed the King and Queen
January 1793
Marie Executed in October 1793

16. New Government, Again! New Constitution
National Convention
“real” democratic reforms
Universal male suffrage, abolition of slavery, end of all manorial policies (as liberal as it will become!)
Military Success (Levee in Masse)
Differing views intenstify

17. Maximillian Robespierre (1758 – 1794)
The Incorruptible?
To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is barbarity.” —
Maximilien Robespierre, 1794

18. Georges Danton

19. Gave republicanism a bad name!
Reign of Terror:
Committee of Public Safety (12 members)
Revolutionary Courts
Guillotine
De-Christianization (New Calendar)
Law of General Maximum: Economic Controls
Law of Suspects: restrictions liberties (speech, press, assembly)
Gave republicanism a bad name!

20. Temple of Reason

21. “Let terror be the order of the day!”
The Reign of Terror
“Let terror be the order of the day!”
“The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. “
Estimates have …
16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris),
another 25,000 in summary executions across France.

22. Different Social Classes Executed7% 8%
28%
25%
31%

23. Thermidorian Reaction
July 1794
Executed Robespierre and 83 associates
Began the reversal radical democratic policies (universal male suffrage, abolition of slavery)
Established the Directory in October 1795
Enter Napoleon…