The Revolution and Europe: The War and the Second Revolution, 1792

1
The Revolution and Europe The War and the
Second Revolution, 1792

• Ideas of Revolution were highly exportable
• On the other hand, Edmund Burke preached war
  against the French denouncing a political
  philosophy that rested on abstract principles of
  right and wrong, declaring that every people must
  be shaped by its own national circumstances

2
Europe becomes divided over Revolution

• Divisions overran all frontiers
• Emigres abroad led by the Count of Artois (kings
  brother)
• Catherine the Great was appalled

3
The Coming of War , April 1792

• Habsburg emperor, Leopold II of Austria, was
  alarmed by the tendency of French government to
  settle international affairs unilaterally
  (eg.Avignon and Alsace)
• Declaration of Pillnitz depended on the big if,
  Leopold would take military action IF the other
  nations would join him

4
liberty

• The French were enraged collectively at the
  monarchs of Europe

5
Girondins become the party of international
revolution

• Dominant faction of Jacobins
• Argued for war to preserve the gains of the
  revolution
• Moderates under Lafayette also preached war
  hoping it would help stablize the constitutional
  monarchy and help put down continuing Jacobin
  agitation

6
The Second Revolution

• War declared on Austrian monarchy on April 20
  1792
• Working classes rallied to the war but not to the
  revolutionary government in power
• War goes badly for France leading to Brunswick
  Manifesto of July 25
• Radical forces establish the Commune in Paris and
  usurps the power of Legislative Assembly
• September massacres
• Tuileries stormed

7
The Emergency Republic, 1792-1795 The Terror

• The insurrection of August 10 1792 begins the
  most advanced stage of revolution
• The newly established National Assembly
  proclaimed the Year One of the French Republic
• War turns and National Convention decreed
  assistance to all peoples wishing to recover
  their liberty. p. 368

8
Infant French Republic saved by weak Coalition

• France declares war on British, Dutch, Prussia
  and Austria Feb. 1, 1793
• Republic annex Savoy and Nice as well as Belgium
  (Austrian Netherlands) and controlled the German
  Rhineland
• Austria and Prussia too involved in Second
  Partition of Poland (Jan. 1793) to commit troops
  against French
• Infant France was saved by weakness of the
  Coalition

9
Jacobin split

• National Convention became dominated by by new
  group known as the Montagnards (Mountain)
• Drew their support from Paris rather than the
  Girondins, whose main support came from the
  provinces
• Called themselves sans-culottes and considered
  themselves representatives of the preindustrial
  working class of Paris

10
Mountain drive revolution

• For two years their militancy and activism
  pressed Revolution on
• Pushed for direct democracy in neighborhood clubs
  and assemblies
• Girondins (moderates) started to dismiss them as
  anarchists
• Convention tries king for treason, and he is
  found guilty and sentenced to death by one vote

11
The Terror

• War turns against French and they are driven out
  of Belgium (April 1793)
• Allies threaten to invade and working classes are
  increasing restless
• Mountain/san culottes turn on bourgeosie and
  arrest Girondin leaders, other Girondins fled to
  provinces
• Convention widely challenged as authority
• Convention had to deal with Vendéans (in western
  France) and the federalists both who resented the
  ascendency of Paris
• Also attacked by enragés who declared that
  parliamentary methods were useless

12
Girondins fall to guillotine
13
Republic of Virtue

• Maximilian Robespierre becomes the dominant voice
  in Convention
• Known as the Incorruptable
• Determined to bring about a democratic republic
  made up of good, virtuous, and honest citizens

14
Program of the Terror (1793-1794

• Wide powers granted to Committee of Public Safety
• Reign of Terror was popular term used to
  describe attempts to repress counterrevolution
• Struck at those who were in league against the
  republic through revolutionary courts

15
The Reign of Terror
16
The Committee of Public Safety

• Established the Bulletin des loix
• Instituted economic controls to placate the
  enrages and other working class
• June 1793 the Committee produced and the
  Convention adopted, a republican constitution
  which provided for universal male suffrage, but
  suspended as France declared revolutionary until
  the peace
• Last of manorial regime was done away with
• Price controls stablized prices and wages
• Levee en masse instituted

17
Abolition of Slavery

• In 1794, the National Convention decreed the
  abolition of slavery in the French colonies
• Slavery was reestablished by Napoleon under
  pressure from slave owning interests and sugar
  plantation owners

18
Hérbertists push extreme revolutionary demands

• Launched a movement of Dechristianization and the
  cult of reason
• Responsible for drownings in Nantes
• Republican calendar adopted
• Catholics alienated from Committee
• Robespierres attempt to introduce the cult of
  the Supreme Being was unsuccessful in reconciling
  Catholics and agnostic anticlericals
• Robespierres critics now call him reactionary
  mystery monger

19
Drownings in Nantes
20
Revolution devours its young

• Hérbertists sent to guillotine in March 1794
• Paris Commune destroyed
• Mountain purged of right wing Dantonists
• Finally military success brought stability to
  Paris and French turn on Terror
• Less tolerance for the excesses of Committee
• Robespierre and followers guillotined
• 40,000 die during Terror, fully 80 were
  peasants, sans-culottes, and bourgeoisie

21
Danton

• Dont forget to show my head to the people. Its
  well worth seeing.

22
Thermidorian Reaction

• Terror subsided
• Radical phase was now over
• Convention reduces powers of Committee
• Jacobin club closed
• bourgeois were political victors
• Convention set aside the democratic constitution
  and produced the Directory (1795)

23
Bourgeoisie dominate Directory 1795