1.
French Revolution
–
Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
French Revolution
–
The
August Insurrection in 1792 precipitated the last days of the monarchy.
French Revolution
–
The French government faced a fiscal crisis in the 1780s, and King Louis XVI was blamed for mishandling these affairs.
French Revolution
–
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back.
French Revolution
–
The meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 at Versailles.
2.
Valery Jacobi
–
Valery Ivanovich Jacobi was a Russian painter and an older brother of Pavel Jacobi, a notable revolutionary and ethnographer. Valery Jacobi was born to a family of an owner and started his education in the Kazan University. In 1856 after retirement from the Army he decided to abandon his University studies, in 1856-1861 he studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts, receiving a small gold medal for his painting Serene Holiday of a Beggar. In 1861 he painted what may be his most notable painting The Prisoners Rest, in 1861-1869 Jacobi traveled to Europe with an Academy grant, visiting Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy. In 1870 Jacobi became one of the members of the Peredvizhniki art society. But in 1872 he was excluded for his failure to participate in a society exhibition, later he was considered a conservative, sceptical to the Peredvizhnikis ideas. Jacobi was a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts after 1868, became a professor in 1871 and he lived mostly in Saint Petersburg creating historical paintings like Jesters at the Court of Anna Ioanovna, Ice Palace, etc. His works were criticized as purely decorative and lacking in substance, after a major reorganization of the Academy in 1891, he was dismissed and began dividing his time between Saint Petersburg, Algeria and France. Jacobi died in Nice in 1902, media related to Valery Jacobi at Wikimedia Commons
Valery Jacobi
–
Valery Jacobi
Valery Jacobi
–
Serene Holiday of a Beggar, 1860
Valery Jacobi
–
The Prisoners Rest, 1861
Valery Jacobi
–
Jesters at the Court of Empress
Anna, 1872
3.
Paris
–
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
Paris
–
In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, making it literally "The City of Light."
Paris
Paris
–
Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
Paris
–
The
Palais de la Cité and
Sainte-Chapelle, viewed from the Left Bank, from the
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (month of June) (1410)
4.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
5.
The Mountain
–
The Mountain was a political group during the French Revolution whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly. They were the most radical group and opposed the Girondists, the term, which was first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into general use in 1793. Led by Maximilien Robespierre, the Montagnards unleashed the Reign of Terror in 1793 and it is difficult to pinpoint the conception of the Montagnard group, because the lines which defined it were themselves quite nebulous early on. Originally, members of The Mountain were the men who sat in the highest rows of the Jacobin Clubs, loosely organized political debate clubs open to the public. It was only after the trial of Louis XVI in December 1792, which united the Montagnards on a position of regicide, the rise of Montagnards corresponds to the fall of the Girondins. The Girondin party hesitated on the course of action to take with Louis XVI after his attempt to flee France on 20 June 1791. Some elements of the Girondin party believed they could use the king as figurehead, while the Girondins hesitated, the Montagnards took a united stand during the trial in December 1792 – January 1793 and favored the kings execution. Riding on this victory, the Montagnards then sought to discredit the Girondins and they used tactics previously employed by the Girondins to denounce them as liars and enemies of the Revolution. They also formed a committee in which Nicolas Hentz proposed a limitation of inheritances. Girondin members were banned from the Jacobin club and excluded from the National Convention on 31 May-2 June 1793. Maximilien Robespierre then continued to consolidate his power over the Montagnards with the use of the Committee of Public Safety, the fall and exclusion of the Montagnards from the National Convention began with the collapse of the Revolutions radical phase and the death of Robespierre on 10 Thermidor 1794. The purge of Robespierre was strongly similar to previous measures employed by the Montagnards to expel disagreeable factions, however, as Robespierre was widely considered the heart of the Montagnards, his death symbolized the collapse of the party. Few desired to take on the name of Montagnards afterwards, leaving only about 100 men. Finally, at the end of 1794, the Mountain largely devolved into a party called The Crest, the Mountain was born in 1792, with the merger of two prominent left-wing clubs, the Jacobins and Cordeliers. After the trial of Girondists in 1793, Danton became strongly moderate while Robespierre continued his authoritarian policies, the Moderates of Danton were also rival to the Jacques Héberts Enragés, that wanted the persecution of the all non-montagnards and the dechristianisation of France. The Montagnards that survived were arrested, executed or deported, from 1794 to 1795, the Mountain was effectively obliterated. A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, jeremy D. Popkin, A Short History of the French Revolution, 5th ed. Marisa Linton, Choosing Terror, Virtue, Friendship, and Authenticity in the French Revolution. The Making of an Insurrection, Parisian Sections and the Gironde, N. F. Dryhurst The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793
The Mountain
–
Arrest of Robespierre and his followers. At the centre of the image, gendarme
Merda fires at
Robespierre. (Colour engraving by
Jean-Joseph-François Tassaert after the painting by
Fulchran-Jean Harriet -
Musée Carnavalet).
6.
Reign of Terror
–
The Reign of Terror or The Terror, is the label given by some historians to a period of violence during the French Revolution. Different historians place the date at either 5 September 1793 or June 1793 or March 1793 or September 1792 or July 1789. Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, but the total number of deaths in France in 1793–96 in only the civil war in the Vendée is estimated at 250,000 counter-revolutionaries and 200,000 republicans. During 1794, revolutionary France was beset with conspiracies by internal, within France, the revolution was opposed by the French nobility, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Catholic Church opposed the revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state, in addition, the French First Republic was engaged in a series of wars with neighboring powers, and parts of France were engaging in civil war against the loyalist regime. The latter were grouped in the parliamentary faction called the Mountain. Through the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Terrors leaders exercised broad powers, the Reign was a manifestation of the strong strain on centralized power. Many historians have debated the reasons the French Revolution took such a turn during the Reign of Terror of 1793–94. The public was frustrated that the equality and anti-poverty measures that the revolution originally promised were not materializing. Jacques Rouxs Manifesto of the Enraged on 25 June 1793, describes the extent to which, four years into the revolution, the foundation of the Terror is centered on the April 1793 creation of the Committee of Public Safety and its militant Jacobin delegates. Those in power believed the Committee of Public Safety was an unfortunate, according to Mathiez, they touched only with trepidation and reluctance the regime established by the Constituent Assembly so as not to interfere with the early accomplishments of the revolution. Similar to Mathiez, Richard Cobb introduced competing circumstances of revolt, counter-revolutionary rebellions taking place in Lyon, Brittany, Vendée, Nantes, and Marseille were threatening the revolution with royalist ideas. Cobb writes, the revolutionaries themselves, living as if in combat… were easily persuaded that only terror, Terror was used in these rebellions both to execute inciters and to provide a very visible example to those who might be considering rebellion. Cobb agrees with Mathiez that the Terror was simply a response to circumstances, at the same time, Cobb rejects Mathiezs Marxist interpretation that elites controlled the Reign of Terror to the significant benefit of the bourgeoisie. Instead, Cobb argues that social struggles between the classes were seldom the reason for actions and sentiments. Widespread terror and a consequent rise in executions came after external and internal threats were vastly reduced, with the backing of the national guard, they persuaded the convention to arrest 29 Girondist leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot. On 13 July the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat – a Jacobin leader, georges Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the king, was removed from the committee. The Jacobins identified themselves with the movement and the sans-culottes
Reign of Terror
–
Nine emigrants are executed by guillotine, 1793
Reign of Terror
–
Heads of aristocrats, on spikes (pikes)
Reign of Terror
–
Maximilien Robespierre had others executed via his role on the
Revolutionary Tribunal and the
Committee of Public Safety
Reign of Terror
–
A
satirical engraving of
Robespierre guillotining the executioner after having
guillotined everyone else in France
7.
National Convention
–
The National Convention was the third government of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic. The Convention sat as an assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class, although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively stripped from the elected deputies and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention lasted for year until a new constitution was written. The election took place from 2 to 6 September 1792 after the election of the colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Therefore, the increased suffrage had very little impact, the electorate returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791. In the whole of France, only eleven primary assemblies wanted to retain the monarchy, of the electoral assemblies, all tacitly voted for a republic – though only Paris used the word. None of the deputies stood as a royalist for elections, out of the five million Frenchmen able to vote, only a million showed up at the polls. The Salle des Machines had galleries for the public who often influenced the debates with interruptions or applause, the members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. 75 members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly,183 in the Legislative Assembly, the full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris in time. Besides these, however, the newly formed départements annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations, according to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President every fortnight, and the outgoing President was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these included the Committee of Public Safety. The Convention held legislative and executive powers during the first years of the French First Republic and had three periods, Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin, and Thermidorian. The abolition of the royalty is a matter you cannot put off till tomorrow, the first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, on the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy
National Convention
–
Autel de la Convention nationale or Autel républicain
François-Léon Sicard Panthéon de Paris, France, 1913
National Convention
–
The trial of Louis XVI
National Convention
–
Journées des 31 Mai 1er et 2 Juin 1793
National Convention
–
Constitution du Peuple Française du 6 Messidor l'an I (24 June 1793)
8.
National Guard (France)
–
The National Guard was originally a French militia which existed from 1789 until 1872, including a period of official disbandment from 1827 to 1830. It was separate from the French Army and existed both for policing and as a military reserve, for most of its history the National Guard, particularly its officers, were widely viewed as loyal to middle-class interests. This had rapidly spread anger and violence throughout Paris, the National Assembly declared the formation of a Bourgeois Militia on 13 July. In the early morning of the day, the search for weapons for this new militia led to the storming of the Hotel des Invalides. Lafayette was elected to the post of commander in chief of the Bourgeois Militia on 15 July, similar bodies were spontaneously created in the towns and rural districts of France in response to widespread fears of chaos or counter-revolution. When the French Guards mutinied and were disbanded during the same month, the officers of the National Guard were elected. Under the law of 14 October 1791, all active citizens and their role was the maintenance of law and order and, if necessary, the defence of the territory. Following a nationwide scheme decided on in September 1791, the National Guard was organised on the basis of district or canton companies, five of these neighbourhood units made up a battalion. Eight to ten battalions comprised a legion, districts might also provide companies of veterans and young citizens, respectively drawn from volunteers of over 60 or under 18. Where possible, there was provision for mounted detachments and artillerymen, the citizens kept their weapons and their uniforms at home, and set forth with them when required. This combination of colours matched those of the revolutionary tricolour, the former Guet royal had held responsibility for the maintenance of law and order in Paris from 1254 to 1791, when the National Guard took over this role. In fact, the last commander of the Guet royal, de La Rothière, was elected to head the National Guard in 1791, in the summer of 1792, the fundamental character of the guard changed. After 9 Thermidor, year II, the new government of the Thermidorian Reaction placed the National Guard under the control of conservative leadership. The Paris National Guard thereafter ceased to play a significant political role, napoleon did not believe that the middle-class National Guard would be able to maintain order and suppress riots. Therefore, he created a Municipal Guard of Paris, a full-time gendarmerie which was strongly militarised, however, he did not abolish the National Guard, but was content to partially disarm it. He kept the force in reserve and mobilised it for the defence of French territory in 1809 and 1814, between 1811 and 1812 the National Guard, was organized in cohorts to distinguish it from the regular army, and for home defence only. By a skilful appeal to patriotism, and judicious pressure applied through the prefects, with the invasion of France by allied Austrian, Prussian, Russian and British armies in 1814, the National Guard was suddenly called on to provide support for regular Imperial forces. Existing National Guard units, such as those of Paris, were deployed as defence corps in their areas of recruitment, mass conscription was extended to age groups previously exempt from military service, to provide more manpower for the expanded National Guard
National Guard (France)
–
Philippe Lenoir, (1785–1867), French painter, in his National Guard uniform. By
Horace Vernet (1789–1863)
National Guard (France)
–
Mssr. Hepp, commander of the National Guard of Strasbourg in 1790
National Guard (France)
–
Soldiers of the Garde nationale of
Quimper escorting royalist rebels in
Brittany (1792). Painting by
Jules Girardet.
National Guard (France)
–
The national Guard of Paris at the
Battle of Paris, 1814
9.
Jacobin
–
Initially founded by anti-Royalist deputies from Brittany, the Club grew into a nationwide republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more. The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s, the radical Mountain and the more moderate Girondins, in 1792–93, the Girondins dominated the Jacobin Club and led the country. Believing that revolutionary France would not be accepted by its neighbours, they called for a foreign policy. The Girondins were the dominant faction when the Jacobins overthrew the monarchy, when the Republic failed to deliver the unrealistic gains that had been expected, they lost popularity. The Girondins sought to curb fanatical revolutionary violence, and were accused by the Mountain of being royalist sympathisers. The National Guard eventually switched its support from the Girondins to the Mountain, in May 1793, led by Maximilien de Robespierre, the leaders of the Mountain faction succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government was characterized by radically progressive legislation imposed with very high levels of political violence, in June 1793, they approved the Constitution of Year 1 which introduced universal male suffrage for the first time in history. In September 1793, twenty-one prominent Girondins were guillotined, beginning the Reign of Terror, in October, during the Terror, the new constitution was ratified in a referendum which most eligible voters avoided participating in. In 1794, the Thermidorian Reaction pushed the Mountain out of power, the Jacobin Club was closed and many of its leaders, including Robespierre, were executed. Today, Jacobin and Jacobinism are used in a variety of senses and it was so named because of the Dominican convent where they met, which had recently been located in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. The club originated as the Club Breton, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton representatives attending the Estates-General of 1789, when the Estates-General was convened in 1789, at Versailles, the club was initially composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany. However, they were joined by deputies from other regions throughout France. At this time, meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings were convened. By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly. The name Jacobins, given in France to the Dominicans, was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies and it occupied successively the refectory, the library, and the chapel of the monastery. Once in Paris, the club underwent rapid modifications, the first great change was its extension of membership to others besides deputies. All citizens were allowed to enter and even foreigners were welcomed, Jacobin Club meetings soon became a place for radical and rousing oratory that pushed for republicanism, widespread education, universal suffrage, separation of church and state, and other reforms. At the same time the rules of order of election were settled, by the 7th article the club decided to admit as associates similar societies in other parts of France and to maintain with them a regular correspondence
Jacobin
–
Seal of the Jacobin Club, 1789–1792.
Jacobin
–
The door of the Jacobin Club was in the Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris.
Jacobin
–
Engraving "Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27–28 July 1794, or 9–10 Thermidor, year 2 of the Republic"
10.
Committee of Public Safety
–
The Committee of Public Safety succeeded the previous Committee of General Defence and assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. As a wartime measure, the Committee—composed at first of nine, and later of twelve, members—was given broad powers over military, judicial. It was formed as a body to supervise and expedite the work of the executive bodies of the Convention. As the Committee tried to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, in July 1793, following the defeat at the Convention of the Girondins, the prominent leaders of the radical Jacobins—Maximilien Robespierre and Saint-Just —were added to the Committee. The power of the Committee peaked between August 1793 and July 1794, in December 1793, the Convention formally conferred executive power upon the Committee. The execution of Robespierre in July 1794 represented a period against the Committee of Public Safety. This is known as the Thermidorian Reaction, as Robespierres fall from power occurred during the Revolutionary month of Thermidor, the Committees influence diminished, and it was disestablished in 1795. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by the Austrians, the betrayal of the revolutionary government by Dumouriez lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by Georges Danton, who declared, This Committee is precisely what we want, the Committee was formally created on 6 April 1793. Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was known as the Danton Committee. Danton steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June 1793 journées that resulted in the fall of the Girondins, however, when the Committee was recomposed on 10 July, Danton was not included. Nevertheless, he continued to support the centralization of power by the Committee, on 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee. At this time, the Committee was entering a powerful and active phase, which would see it become a de facto dictatorship alongside its powerful partner. The broad and centralized powers of the Committee were codified by the Law of 14 Frimaire on 4 December 1793, Hérault de Séchelles—a friend and ally of Danton—was expelled from the Committee of Public Safety, arrested, and tried alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to the guillotine, certainly the strength of the committees had been made evident, as had their ability to control and silence opposition. The Law of 14 Frimaire was enacted in December 1793 to centralize, the law enumerated various forms of public enemies, made mandatory their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes under the Law of 22 Prairal was death, from the initiation of this law to the fall of Robespierre on 27 July, more people were condemned to death than in the entire previous history of the Revolutionary Tribunal
Committee of Public Safety
–
Lettre anglaise (English Letter) dated 29 June 1793 as published by the French National convention during the Revolution (1793). This document was used to prove English spying and conspiracy.
Committee of Public Safety
–
Maximilien Robespierre, spokesman and a radical voice behind the leadership of the Committee of Public Safety
11.
Sans-culottes
–
The sans-culottes, most of them urban labourers, served as the driving popular force behind the revolution. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the years of the French Revolutionary Wars. The most fundamental political ideals of the sans-culottes were social equality, economic equality, the height of their influence spanned from the original overthrow of the monarchy in roughly 1789 to the Thermidorian Reaction in 1794. Several important leaders of the Enragés and Hébertists were imprisoned and executed by the revolutionary tribunals they had supported. After the defeat of the 1795 popular revolt in Paris, the sans-culottes ceased to play any political role in France until the July Revolution of 1830. The term sans-culottism, sans-culottisme in French, refers to this idealized image, many public figures and revolutionaries who were not strictly working class styled themselves citoyens sans-culottes in solidarity and recognition. However, in the immediately following the Thermidorian Reaction the sans-culottes. According to Sally Waller, part of the sans-culottes mantra was permanent anticipation of betrayal, the members of the sans-culottes were constantly on edge and fearing betrayal, which can be attributed to their violent and radical rebellion tactics. Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm observes that the sans-culottes were a shapeless, mostly urban movement of the poor, small craftsmen, shopkeepers, artisans, tiny entrepreneurs. He further notes they were organised notably in the political clubs of Paris. Hobsbawm writes that these were the actual demonstrators, rioters and constructors of street barricades, the Marxist historian Albert Soboul emphasized the importance of the sans-culottes as a social class, a sort of proto-proletariat that played a central role in the French Revolution. That view has been attacked by scholars who say the sans-culottes were not a class at all. Indeed, as one historian points out, Sobouls concept has not been used by scholars in any period of French history. For example, currently, the term culottes in French is now used to describe womens underpants, the term sans-culottes has been used to refer colloquially to mean not wearing underpants. Enragés Hébertists Descamisado Andrews, Richard Mowery. in JSTOR Furet, François and Mona Ozouf, a Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, pp 393–99 Sonenscher, Michael. Sans-Culottes, An Eighteenth-Century Emblem in the French Revolution, a Revolution in Political Culture in McPhee, ed. A Companion to the French Revolution 435–453
Sans-culottes
–
Idealized sans-culotte by
Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845).
Sans-culottes
–
(left) Sans-culotte, compare figures wearing culottes right.
12.
Jean-Lambert Tallien
–
Jean-Lambert Tallien was a French political figure of the revolutionary period. He was the son of the maître dhôtel of the Marquis de Bercy, the family of Tallien was originally from Italy, and moved to the Northern France, near Paris. The marquis, noticing his ability, had him educated, supportive of the Revolution, he gave up his desk to enter a printers office, and by 1791 was overseer of the printing department of the Comte de Provence. This enterprise had its expenses paid by the Jacobin Club, and he became even more present in politics after organizing, together with Jean-Marie Collot dHerbois, the great Fête de la Liberté on 15 April 1792, in honour of the released soldiers of Chateau-Vieux. Tallien was one of the most active leaders in the storming of the Tuileries Palace on 10 August. He committed himself to his new mission, and habitually appeared at the bar of the Assembly on behalf of the Commune. He was a participant in the September Massacres of 1792. He announced the September Massacres in terms of apology and praise, at the same time, he had several people imprisoned in order to save them from the violence of the mob, and protected several suspects himself. After a short mission in the provinces he returned to Paris, and took an active part in the coups détat of 31 May and 2 June. For the next few months he kept a low profile, but on 23 September 1793 and this was the month in which the Reign of Terror was organized under the superintendence of the Committees of Public Safety and Committee of General Security. Tallien was of the most notorious envoys sent over to establish the Terror in the provinces, the young Tallien, who was barely 24, became notorious for his administration of justice in Bordeaux through his bloody affinity to “feed ‘la sainte guillotine’. However, after the days of his mission in Bordeaux. This tendency may be due to his involvement with Thérésa Cabarrús. Tallien not only spared her life but fell in love with her, Tallien suggested, “It is better to marry than to be beheaded. ”After Tallien became involved with Cabarrús, there was a notable decline in the number of executions in Bordeaux. Thérésa was an influence, and from the lives she saved by her entreaties she received the name of Notre-Dame de Thermidor after the onset of the Thermidorian Reaction. Tallien was even elected president of the Convention on 24 March 1794, maximillian Robespierre certainly took notice of Talliens “royalist” behavior and recalled him to Paris. Maximilien Robespierres own political ideas implied his readiness to strike at many of his colleagues in the committees, Robespierres rivals were determined to strike first. When Tallien was recalled, Thérésa Cabarrús was recaptured and imprisoned and she was set to face trial and likely would have been executed
Jean-Lambert Tallien
–
Tallien as deputy to the
National Convention, 1792.
Jean-Lambert Tallien
–
Signature
Jean-Lambert Tallien
–
Tallien during the
Parisian Revolt of 1789.
13.
Pierre-Louis Bentabole
–
Pierre Louis Bentabole was a revolutionary Frenchman, born in Landau Haut Rhin on 4 June 1756 and died in Paris on 22 April 1798. As lawyer, he presided practiced in the district of Hagenau and Saverne and he voted to execute Louis XVI. On 6 October 1794, he was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety, Bentabole was the son of a military contractor who made his fortune providing food for the military during the Seven Years War. He studied law and was a lawyer in Colmar before the French Revolution, on 4 September 1792, he was elected to the National Convention for the Bas-Rhin, by 293 votes out of 386 possible. In 1792, he stood with the revolutionaries in Paris. In October, he urged the Convention to seek the death penalty for the King. At the trial of Louis XVI, he voted for the Kings death, I see Louis stained with the blood of his victims, for the peace of my country, for his happiness. A bitter enemy of the Girondins, he attacked them vehemently during the question of a plebiscite on whether to execute the King, true to the revolutionary ideals, Bentabole aligned with the Montagnards and he was one of its most ardent enthusiasts. He was faithful friend of Jean-Paul Marat, through this friendship with the so-called LAmi du peuple, Bentabole acquired the nickname Marat Cadet. The death of Marat on 14 July 1793, brought some of the frictions of the Montagnards to head. On the day following Marats assassination, the Convention rushed to praise Marat for his fervor, Robespierre did not join in the praise, simply calling for an inquiry into the circumstances of his death. The dispute between Bentabole and Robespierre continued, Robespierre saw no need neither to bury the body need Mirabeau, at the beginning of the year 1794, he was elected member of the Committee of War. In August 1793, he sent as a representative on mission to the Northern army, among the opinions offered to the Tribunal, I noticed Durand-Maillanes, for which I request that he give us a report. Every honest man should want that the freedom of opinion never be jeopardized by unproven charges or invective and we should not swear at men whom we look upon as weak beings in order to shackle the opinions that they only want to express for the good of the People. If someone here believes that they should make a serious reproach toward one of his colleagues, let him explain himself and stipulate the facts, let the accused be heard, and let us not seek to make people fear from threats. Only the conspirators should be afraid, yet, while watching the Terror spread around him, Bentabole could do little to stop it, or thought as much, and sought as much time as he could away from Paris. In January 1794, he accepted an assignment into Sarthe, during this mission that he started a relationship with a wealthy aristocrat widow Adelaide Charlotte Chabot, when he returned to Paris in March 1795, she came with him, as his wife. When Danton, and his Bentaboles friend Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles, were brought to trial for their treason, Hérault was also of an aristocratic background, another suspicious trait
Pierre-Louis Bentabole
–
Plotting the downfall of Robespierre at the Jacobin Club
14.
Maximilien Robespierre
–
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician. He was one of the best-known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution, as a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club, Robespierre was an outspoken advocate for the poor and for democratic institutions. He campaigned for universal suffrage in France, price controls on basic food commodities. But although he was an ardent opponent of the penalty, he played an important role in arranging the execution of King Louis XVI. He is perhaps best known for his role in the French Revolutions Reign of Terror and he was named as a member of the powerful Committee of Public Safety launched by his political ally Georges Danton and exerted his influence to suppress the left-wing Hébertists. The Terror ended a few later with Robespierres arrest and execution in July. Robespierres personal responsibility for the excesses of the Terror remains the subject of debate among historians of the French Revolution. Influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau and Montesquieu, Robespierre was a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie and his steadfast adherence and defense of the views he expressed earned him the nickname lIncorruptible. Robespierres reputation has gone through cycles of re-appraisal. During the Soviet Era, Robespierre was used as an example of a Revolutionary figure and his reputation peaked in the 1920s with the influence of French historian Albert Mathiez. In more recent times, his reputation has suffered as historians have associated him with an attempt at a radical purification of politics through the killing of enemies, Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras in the old French province of Artois. His family has been traced back to the 12th century in Picardy and it has been suggested that he was of Irish descent, his surname possibly a corruption of Robert Speirs. His paternal grandfather, also named Maximilien de Robespierre, established himself in Arras as a lawyer and his father, François Maximilien Barthélémy de Robespierre, was a lawyer at the Conseil dArtois. He married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer, Maximilien was the oldest of four children and was conceived out of wedlock. His siblings were Charlotte, Henriette, and Augustin, on 7 July 1764, Madame de Robespierre gave birth to a stillborn son, she died nine days later. Devastated by his wifes death, François de Robespierre subsequently left Arras, the children would visit each other on Sundays. Already literate at age 8, Maximilien started attending the collège of Arras, in October 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he received a scholarship at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, University of Paris in Paris. Robespierre studied there until age 23, receiving his training as a lawyer, upon his graduation, he received a special prize of 600-livre for twelve years of exemplary academic success and personal good conduct
Maximilien Robespierre
–
Robespierre c. 1790, (
anonymous),
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Maximilien Robespierre
–
Signature
Maximilien Robespierre
–
Portrait of Robespierre by
Boilly, c.1791 (
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille).
Maximilien Robespierre
–
Terracotta bust of Robespierre by
Deseine, 1792 (
Château de Vizille)
15.
Capital punishment
–
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The sentence that someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence, etymologically, the term capital in this context alluded to execution by beheading. Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment,103 countries have abolished it de jure for all crimes, six have abolished it for ordinary crimes. Capital punishment is a matter of controversy in various countries and states. In the European Union, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment, also, the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, prohibits the use of the death penalty by its members. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007,2008,2010,2012 and 2014, non-binding resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions. Although most nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the population live in countries where executions take place, such as China, India. Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime, in most countries that practise capital punishment it is reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, defection or as part of military justice. In many countries use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty, in militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny. The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history, most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishment for wrongdoing generally included compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning, banishment, usually, compensation and shunning were enough as a form of justice. The response to crime committed by neighbouring tribes or communities included a formal apology, a blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails or an arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the emergence of a system based on state or organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour, acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies that injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished. However, in practice, it is difficult to distinguish between a war of vendetta and one of conquest. Elaborations of tribal arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in a religious context, compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might include material compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, the person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of the crime because the system was based on tribes, not individuals
Capital punishment
–
Anarchist
Auguste Vaillant guillotined in France in 1894
Capital punishment
–
Hanged, drawn and quartered: the execution of
Hugh Despenser the Younger, as depicted in the
Froissart of Louis of Gruuthuse
Capital punishment
–
The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883).
Roman Colosseum.
Capital punishment
–
Giovanni Battista Bugatti, executioner of the
Papal States between 1796 and 1865,
carried out 516 executions (Bugatti pictured offering
snuff to a condemned prisoner).
Vatican City abolished
its capital punishment statute in 1969.
16.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks. He spearheaded the movement to execute King Louis XVI and later drafted the radical French Constitution of 1793 and he became a close friend of Maximilien Robespierre, and served with him as one of the commissioners of the powerful Committee of Public Safety. Back in Paris, he supervised the consolidation of Robespierres power through a ruthless, in his relatively brief time on the historical stage, he became the enduring public face of the Reign of Terror and was dubbed the Angel of Death by later writers. Saint-Just organized the arrests and prosecutions of many of the most famous figures of the Revolution, Saint-Just was arrested in the violent episode of 9 Thermidor and executed the next day with Robespierre and their allies. In many histories of the Revolution, their deaths at the mark the end of the Reign of Terror. Louis Antoine de Saint-Just was born at Decize in the former Nivernais province of central France and he had two younger sisters, born in 1768 and 1769. A year after the move, Louis Antoines father died leaving his mother with the three children and she saved diligently for her only sons education, and in 1779 he was sent to the Oratorian school at Soissons. After a promising start, Saint-Just acquired a reputation as a troublemaker, augmented by infamous stories of how he led a students rebellion, nonetheless, he earned his graduation in 1786. His restive nature, however, did not diminish, as a young man, Saint-Just was wild, handsome, transgressive. Well-connected and popular, he showed a special affection toward a woman of Blérancourt. She was the daughter of another notary, a powerful and autocratic figure in the town. He is said to have proposed marriage to her, she is said to have desired it, though no hard evidence exists regarding their relationship, official records show that on 25 July 1786, Thérèse was married to Emmanuel Thorin, the scion of a prominent local family. Saint-Just was out of town and unaware of the event, and his venture turned short when his mother had him seized by police and sent to a reformatory where he stayed from September 1786 to March 1787. Chastened, Saint-Just attempted to begin anew, he enrolled as a student at the School of Law, after a year, however, he drifted away from law school and returned to his mothers home in Blérancourt penniless, without any occupational prospects. At a young age Saint-Just had shown a fascination with literature and he published it anonymously more than two years later, in May 1789, at the very outbreak of the Revolution. The 21-year-old Saint-Just thereby added his own touch to the tumult of the times with Organt. The poem, an epic fantasy, relates the quest of young Antoine Organt
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Saint-Just by
Prud'hon, 1793 (
Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon)
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Saint-Just's home in
Blérancourt is now a museum and tourist center.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Saint-Just became a member of the
Committee of Public Safety on 30 May 1793.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Order of the Revolutionary Tribunal condemning the
Hébertists
17.
Augustin Robespierre
–
Augustin Bon Joseph de Robespierre was the younger brother of French Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. He was born in Arras, the youngest of four children of the lawyer Maximilien-Barthelemy-François de Robespierre and Jacqueline-Marguerite Carraut and his mother died when he was one year old, and his grief-stricken father abandoned the family to go to Bavaria, where he died in 1777. He was brought up by an aunt and trained as a lawyer, like his brother, he was a radical during the Revolution. At the outset of the Revolution, he was prosecutor-syndic of Arras, in 1791, he was appointed Administrator of the département of Pas-de-Calais. In September 1792, he was elected to the National Convention, where he joined his brother in The Mountain, becoming Député-en-Mission to the Army of Italy in 1794, he used his influence to advance Napoleon Bonapartes career, after reading Napoleons pro-Jacobin pamphlet titled Le souper de Beaucaire. With the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in the coup détat of 9 Thermidor, Augustin was one of the five most famous victims of 9 Thermidor. He demanded to be arrested with his brother in the National Convention, saying, I am as guilty as him, I share his virtues, I ask also to be charged. After taking refuge in the Hôtel de Ville, he tried to capture by leaping out of a window. He failed, however, breaking both his legs, and was guillotined on the day as his brother. Alexandre Cousin, Philippe Lebas et Augustin Robespierre, deux météores dans la Révolution française, marisa Linton, Choosing Terror, Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution. Sergio Luzzatto, Bonbon Robespierre, la terreur à visage humain, martial Sicard, Robespierre jeune dans les Basses-Alpes, Forcalquier, A. Crest. Mary Young, Augustin, the Younger Robespierre, lenfance de Maximilien, in L’association Maximilien Robespierre pour l’Idéal Démocratique bulletin n°45
Augustin Robespierre
–
Augustin de Robespierre (Album du Centenaire)
18.
Paris Commune (French Revolution)
–
The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, the Paris Commune became insurrectionary in the summer of 1792, 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 and actions among the people and for its campaign to dechristianize the churches and it lost much power in 1794 and was replaced in 1795. In 1792, the Commune was dominated by those Jacobins who were not in the Legislative Assembly due to the Self-Denying Ordinance, the all-powerful Commune demanded custody of the royal family, imprisoning them in the Temple fortress. A list of opponents of the Revolution was drawn up, the gates to the city were sealed, the government of the republic was succeeded by the French Directory in November 1795
Paris Commune (French Revolution)
–
Hôtel de Ville, Paris during the French Revolution
19.
Thermidor
–
Thermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word thermos which means heat, Thermidor was the second month of the summer quarter. It started July 19 or 20 and it ended August 17 or 18. It follows the Messidor and precedes the Fructidor, during Year 2, it was sometimes called Fervidor. The new regime, known as The Directory, introduced more conservative policies aimed at stabilizing the revolutionary government, leon Trotsky, in his book The Revolution Betrayed, refers to the rise of Joseph Stalin and the accompanying post-revolutionary bureaucracy as the Soviet Thermidor. The food Lobster Thermidor was named, directly or indirectly, after the month, Thermidor is also the name of a story revolving around the end of the French Revolution in Neil Gaimans The Sandman, issue #29. Thermidor and Thermidor 2 were robots on Robot Wars, a man by the name of Thermidor is the leader of the ORCA reactionary group in the video game Armored Core, For Answer. Additionally, in the game, ORCA launches an offensive on 13 Thermidor, as the game narration states that for many. There is a recorded by J-pop artist Nana Mizuki by the name of Thermidor. Its lyrics talk about a person in love that is also rethinking his or her feelings after realizing that the person they love has changed. Its lyrics mimic the modern definition of Thermidor, like all French Republican Calendar months, Thermidor lasted 30 days and was divided into three 10-day weeks called décades. Every day had the name of a plant, except the 5th and 10th day of every decade
Thermidor
20.
French Republican Calendar
–
The revolutionary system was designed in part to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar, and was part of a larger attempt at decimalisation in France. Sylvain Maréchal, prominent anticlerical atheist, published the first edition of his Almanach des Honnêtes-gens in 1788, on pages 14–15 appears a calendar, consisting of twelve months. The first month is Mars, ou Princeps, the last month is Février, the lengths of the months are the same, however, the 10th, 20th, and 30th are singled out of each month as the end of a décade. Individual days were assigned, instead of to the saints, to people noteworthy for mostly secular achievements. Later editions of the almanac would switch to the Republican Calendar, the days of the French Revolution and Republic saw many efforts to sweep away various trappings of the ancien régime, some of these were more successful than others. The new Republican government sought to institute, among other reforms, a new social and legal system, a new system of weights and measures, and a new calendar. Amid nostalgia for the ancient Roman Republic, the theories of the Enlightenment were at their peak, natural constants, multiples of ten, and Latin as well as Old Greek derivations formed the fundamental blocks from which the new systems were built. The new calendar was created by a commission under the direction of the politician Charles-Gilbert Romme seconded by Claude Joseph Ferry and it is because of his position as rapporteur of the commission that the creation of the republican calendar is attributed to Romme. The calendar is called the French Revolutionary Calendar because it was created during the Revolution. Indeed, there was initially a debate as to whether the calendar should celebrate the Great Revolution, which began in July 1789, or the Republic, immediately following 14 July 1789, papers and pamphlets started calling 1789 year I of Liberty and the following years II and III. It was in 1792, with the problem of dating financial transactions. Originally, the choice of epoch was either 1 January 1789 or 14 July 1789, after some hesitation the assembly decided on 2 January 1792 that all official documents would use the era of Liberty and that the year IV of Liberty started on 1 January 1792. This usage was modified on 22 September 1792 when the Republic was proclaimed, the establishment of the Republic was used as the epochal date for the calendar, therefore, the calendar commemorates the Republic, not the Revolution. In France, it is known as the calendrier républicain as well as the calendrier révolutionnaire, the Revolution is usually considered to have ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in Year VIII. The French Republic ended with the coronation of Napoleon I as Empereur des Français on 11 Frimaire, Year XIII, French coins of the period naturally used this calendar. Many show the year in Arabic numbers, although Roman numerals were used on some issues, Year 11 coins typically have a XI date to avoid confusion with the Roman II. Napoléon finally abolished the calendar with effect from 1 January 1806, however, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune, 6–23 May 1871. These documents have kept their original dates for legal accuracy and citation purposes, years appear in writing as Roman numerals, with epoch 22 September 1792, the beginning of the Republican Era
French Republican Calendar
–
French Republican Calendar of 1794, drawn by
Philibert-Louis Debucourt
French Republican Calendar
–
A copy of the French Republican Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne.
French Republican Calendar
–
L AN 2 DE LA REPUBLIQUE FR. (Year 2 of the French Republic) on a barn near Geneva
French Republican Calendar
–
French Revolutionary pocket watch showing ten-day décade names and thirty-day month numbers from the Republican Calendar, but with duodecimal time. On display at Neuchâtel Beaux-Arts museum.
21.
French Directory
–
It gave its name to the final four years of the French Revolution. The Directory was continually at war with foreign coalitions which at different times included Britain, Austria, Prussia, the Kingdom of Naples, Russia and it annexed Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, while Bonaparte conquered a large part of Italy. The Directory established six short-lived sister republics modelled after France, in Italy, Switzerland, the conquered cities and states were required to send to France huge amounts of money, as well as art treasures, which were used to fill the new Louvre museum in Paris. An army led by Bonaparte conquered Egypt and marched as far as Saint-Jean-dAcre in Syria, the French economy was in continual crisis during the Directory. At the beginning, the treasury was empty, the money, the Assignat, had fallen to a fraction of its value. The Directory stopped printing assignats and restored the value of the money, but this caused a new crisis, prices and wages fell, and economic activity slowed to a standstill. The Jacobin political club was closed and the government crushed an uprising planned by the Jacobins. The Jacobins took two seats in the Directory, hopelessly dividing it. In 1799, after several defeats, French victories in the Netherlands and Switzerland restored the French military position, Bonaparte returned from Egypt in October, and was engaged by the Abbé Sieyès and other moderates to carry out a parliamentary coup détat on 8–9 November 1799. The coup abolished the Directory, put the French Consulate led by Bonaparte in its place, Robespierre and his leading followers were declared outside the law, and on 28 July were arrested, and guillotined the same day. The Terror quickly came to a halt, the Revolutionary Tribunal, which had sent thousands to the guillotine, ceased meeting and its head, Fouquier-Tinville, was arrested and imprisoned, and after trial was himself guillotined. More than five hundred suspected counter-revolutionaries awaiting trial and execution were immediately released, in the wake of these events, the members of the Convention began planning an entirely new form of government. They wished to continue the Revolution, but without its excesses and this executive will have a force concentrated enough that it will be swift and firm, but divided enough to make it impossible for any member to even consider becoming a tyrant. A single chief would be dangerous, each member will preside for three months, he will have during this time the signature and seal of the head of state. By the slow and gradual replacement of members of the Directory, you will preserve the advantages of order and continuity and will have the advantages of unity without the inconveniences. To assure that the Directors would have some independence, each would be elected by one portion of the legislature, the members of this legislature had a term of three years, with one-third of the members renewed every year. The Ancients could not initiate new laws, but could veto those proposed by the Council of Five Hundred, the new Constitution required the Council of 500 to prepare, by secret ballot, a list of candidates for the Directory. The Council of the Ancients then chose, again by secret ballot, the Constitution required that Directors be at least forty years old
French Directory
–
Paul Barras, the only Director to serve during the entire term of the Directory
French Directory
–
The
War in the Vendée was a royalist uprising that was suppressed by the republican forces in 1796.
French Directory
–
Lucien Bonaparte, President of the
Council of 500, who engineered the coup that brought his brother to power.
French Directory
–
First Republic (1792–1804)
22.
Jean-Paul Marat
–
Jean-Paul Marat was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist who became best known for his role as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution. He was one of the most radical voices of the French Revolution, Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer, while taking a medicinal bath for his debilitating skin condition. In his death, Marat became an icon to the Jacobins as a martyr, as portrayed in Jacques-Louis Davids famous painting. For this assassination, Corday was executed four days later, on 17 July 1793, Jean-Paul Marat was born in Boudry in the Prussian Principality of Neuchâtel, now part of Switzerland, on 24 May 1743. He was the second of nine born to Jean Mara, a native of Cagliari, Sardinia, and Louise Cabrol. His father was a Mercedarian commendator and religious refugee who converted to Calvinism in Geneva, at the age of sixteen, Marat left home in search of new opportunities, aware of the limited opportunities for outsiders. His highly educated father had turned down for several college teaching posts. His first stop was with the wealthy Nairac family in Bordeaux, after two years there he moved on to Paris where he studied medicine without gaining any formal qualifications. Highly ambitious, but without patronage or qualifications, he set about inserting himself into the scene with works on philosophy. Around 1770, Marat moved to Newcastle upon Tyne and he gave it the subtitle, A work in which the clandestine and villainous attempts of Princes to ruin Liberty are pointed out, and the dreadful scenes of Despotism disclosed. It earned him membership of the patriotic societies of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society Library possesses a copy, and Tyne, a published essay on curing a friend of gleets probably helped to secure his medical referees for an MD from the University of St Andrews in June 1775. On his return to London, he published Enquiry into the Nature, Cause, in 1776, Marat moved to Paris following a brief stopover in Geneva to visit his family. The position paid 2,000 livres a year plus allowances, Marat was soon in great demand as a court doctor among the aristocracy and he used his new-found wealth to set up a laboratory in the marquise de lAubespines house. Soon he was publishing works on fire and heat, electricity and he published, first, a summary of his scientific views and discoveries in Découvertes de M. Marat sur le feu, lélectricité et la lumière in 1779. He then went on to publish three much more detailed and extensive works, expanding on each of his areas of research. His method was to describe in detail the meticulous series of experiments he had undertaken on a problem, seeking to explore and then all possible conclusions. This describes 166 experiments conducted to demonstrate that fire was not, as was widely held and he asked the Academy of Sciences to appraise his work, and it appointed a commission to do so, which reported in April 1779
Jean-Paul Marat
–
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat
–
"Marat's Triumph": a popular engraving of Marat borne away by a joyous crowd following his acquittal.
Jean-Paul Marat
–
The Death of Marat by
Jacques-Louis David (1793)
23.
Georges Danton
–
Georges Jacques Danton was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution, in particular as the first president of the Committee of Public Safety. He was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality, Danton was born in Arcis-sur-Aube in northeastern France to Jacques Danton and Mary Camus, a respectable, but not wealthy family. As a child, he was attacked by animals, resulting in the disfigurement and scarring of the skin on his face. After obtaining an education he became an Advocate in Paris. He married Antoinette Gabrielle Charpentier on 14 June 1787 at the church of Saint-Germain-lAuxerrois in Paris, Danton was considered a very mischievous boy. Due to this, he went to different schools, also, he had a very high natural IQ. As a result, he was bored and disinterested in his classes. His first teacher was his grandfather and he was able to pass his classes with little effort, when he was 9, he was sent to a boys school. This is where Danton learned Latin and he was later sent to a school in Troyes for a year due to his mother thinking that he hasnt given up his mischievous ways as a child. Later, he attended a boarding house taught by Oratorians until he was 17, here, he learned more Latin and about the Bible, mainly the Acts of the Apostles and about Christian beliefs. He didnt really take to them, however, as early as age 12, he had already acquired the skills to become a leader. He led fellow classmates to either rebel or riot and this showed his leadership skills and how much his classmates already respected him at such a young age. He also consistently questioned authority, which will be seen later during the French revolution when he openly disrespected and called out Lafayette as a traitor during a meeting. At a young age, he had amazing writing and speech skills, as later during a competition, he took all the prizes for French discourse, Latin narration. Was highly influenced by thinkers of the time, such as Montesquieu. Studied at Reim University where he became a lawyer, later become bored of the career and became an orator. Was seen as a man of the people by then because he pleaded for the poor. Both his classmates, teachers and grandfather revered him as a prodigy and his amazing writing and speaking skills later made people give him the nickname “The Thunderer”
Georges Danton
–
Georges-Jacques Danton.
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Georges Danton
–
Signature
Georges Danton
–
According to a biographer, "Danton's height was colossal, his make athletic, his features strongly marked, coarse, and displeasing; his voice shook the domes of the halls".
Georges Danton
–
Danton addressing the
National Convention.
24.
Camille Desmoulins
–
Lucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins, a journalist and politician, played an important role in the French Revolution. He was a friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton. Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Danton when the Committee of Public Safety reacted against Dantonist opposition, Desmoulins was born at Guise, Aisne, in Picardy. His father, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins, was a rural lawyer, through the efforts of a friend, he obtained a scholarship for the fourteen-year-old Camille to enter the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Desmoulins proved an exceptional student even among such notable contemporaries as Maximilien Robespierre and he excelled in the study of Classical literature and politics, and gained a particular affinity for Cicero, Tacitus and Livy. Thus stymied, he turned towards writing as an outlet for his talents. In March 1789, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins was nominated as deputy to the Estates-General from the bailliage of Guise, however, due to illness, he failed to take his seat. Camille Desmoulins, himself limited to the role of spectator at the procession of the Estates-General on 5 May 1789, wrote a response to the event, Ode aux Etats Generaux. Owing to his difficulties in establishing a career as a lawyer, Desmoulins position in Paris was a precarious one, however, he was greatly inspired and enthused by the current of political reform that surrounded the summoning of the Estates-General. The sudden dismissal of popular finance minister Jacques Necker by King Louis XVI on 11 July 1789 proved the spark that lit the fuse of Desmoulins fame. On 12 July, spurred by the news of this politically unsettling dismissal, Desmoulins leapt onto a table outside the Cafe du Foy and delivered an impassioned call to arms. The stationing of a number of troops in Paris, many foreign, had led Desmoulins. This was an idea that his audience also found plausible and threatening, the cockades worn by the crowd were initially green, a color associated with liberty, and made at first from the leaves of the trees that lined the Palais Royal. The forces semi-organized under this banner attacked the Hôtel des Invalides to gain arms and, on 14 July, in May and June 1789, Desmoulins had written a radical pamphlet entitled La France Libre, which his publisher at that time had refused to print. The rioting surrounding the storming of the Bastille, however, and especially Desmoulins personal and publicized involvement in it, on 18 July, Desmoulinss work was finally issued. The politics of the pamphlet ran considerably in advance of public opinion, in it, Desmoulins called explicitly for a republic, popular and democratic government is the only constitution which suits France, and all those who are worthy of the name of men. La France Libre also examined and criticized in detail the role and rights of kings, of the nobility, a famous Revolutionary song, the Ça ira, also immortalizes this lantern, in the lines, Les aristocrates à la lanterne. This hard-edged fervor found an audience in Paris, and Desmoulins, as a result of the pamphlet
Camille Desmoulins
–
Portrait of Camille Desmoulins
Camille Desmoulins
–
Camille Desmoulins
Camille Desmoulins
–
Portrait by
Joseph Boze
25.
Jacobin Club
–
Initially founded by anti-Royalist deputies from Brittany, the Club grew into a nationwide republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more. The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s, the radical Mountain and the more moderate Girondins, in 1792–93, the Girondins dominated the Jacobin Club and led the country. Believing that revolutionary France would not be accepted by its neighbours, they called for a foreign policy. The Girondins were the dominant faction when the Jacobins overthrew the monarchy, when the Republic failed to deliver the unrealistic gains that had been expected, they lost popularity. The Girondins sought to curb fanatical revolutionary violence, and were accused by the Mountain of being royalist sympathisers. The National Guard eventually switched its support from the Girondins to the Mountain, in May 1793, led by Maximilien de Robespierre, the leaders of the Mountain faction succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government was characterized by radically progressive legislation imposed with very high levels of political violence, in June 1793, they approved the Constitution of Year 1 which introduced universal male suffrage for the first time in history. In September 1793, twenty-one prominent Girondins were guillotined, beginning the Reign of Terror, in October, during the Terror, the new constitution was ratified in a referendum which most eligible voters avoided participating in. In 1794, the Thermidorian Reaction pushed the Mountain out of power, the Jacobin Club was closed and many of its leaders, including Robespierre, were executed. Today, Jacobin and Jacobinism are used in a variety of senses and it was so named because of the Dominican convent where they met, which had recently been located in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. The club originated as the Club Breton, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton representatives attending the Estates-General of 1789, when the Estates-General was convened in 1789, at Versailles, the club was initially composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany. However, they were joined by deputies from other regions throughout France. At this time, meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings were convened. By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly. The name Jacobins, given in France to the Dominicans, was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies and it occupied successively the refectory, the library, and the chapel of the monastery. Once in Paris, the club underwent rapid modifications, the first great change was its extension of membership to others besides deputies. All citizens were allowed to enter and even foreigners were welcomed, Jacobin Club meetings soon became a place for radical and rousing oratory that pushed for republicanism, widespread education, universal suffrage, separation of church and state, and other reforms. At the same time the rules of order of election were settled, by the 7th article the club decided to admit as associates similar societies in other parts of France and to maintain with them a regular correspondence
Jacobin Club
–
Seal of the Jacobin Club, 1789–1792.
Jacobin Club
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The door of the Jacobin Club was in the Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris.
Jacobin Club
–
Engraving "Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27–28 July 1794, or 9–10 Thermidor, year 2 of the Republic"
26.
Antoine Christophe Merlin
–
Antoine Christophe Merlin was a member of several legislative bodies during the era of the French Revolution. He is usually called Merlin de Thionville to distinguish him from Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai and he was born at Thionville, the son of a procureur in the bailliage of Thionville. After studying theology, he began a career in law, in 1790 he was elected municipal officer of Thionville, and was sent by the department of Moselle to the Legislative Assembly. On 23 October 1791 he moved and carried the institution of a committee of surveillance, of which he became a member. It was he who proposed the law sequestrating the property of the émigrés and he was elected deputy to the National Convention, and pressed for the execution of Louis XVI, but a mission to the army prevented his attending the trial. He displayed great bravery in the defence of Mainz and he took part in the Thermidorian Reaction which followed the fall of Robespierre, and was appointed to the Committee of General Security on 31 July 1794. He sat in the Council of Five Hundred under the Directory, in 1798 he ceased to be a member of the Council of Five Hundred, and was appointed director-general of posts, being sent subsequently to organize the Army of Italy. He retired into private life at the proclamation of the Consulate, and lived in retirement under the Consulate and the First French Empire. The Legislative Assembly and the fall of the French monarchy This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Merlin. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica gives as its reference J. Reynaud, Vie et correspondance de Merlin de Thionville
Antoine Christophe Merlin
–
Antoine Merlin de Thionville
27.
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
–
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, also known as Jean Nicolas, was a French personality of the Revolutionary period. Though not one of the most well known figures of the French Revolution, Billaud-Varenne climbed his way up the ladder of power during the period of The Terror, becoming a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was recognized and worked with French Revolution figures Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, no, we will not step backward, our zeal will only be smothered in the tomb, either the Revolution will triumph or we will all die. Billaud-Varenne was born in La Rochelle as the son of a lawyer to the parlement of Paris, since both his grandfather and father were lawyers, and he was the first son in his direct family, Varenne was guaranteed a solid education and the same profession. Billaud-Varenne was educated at the College of Oratorians of Niort and took Philosophy at La Rochelle and his education at Niort was particularly important in shaping his character because its methods of teaching were uncommon to the revolution. At Niort, modernity and tolerance were emphasized, as opposed to overbearing, Billaud-Varenne was also sent to Oratory school at Juilly, where he later became a professor when he felt dissatisfied with practicing law. He then went to Paris, married and bought a position as lawyer in the parlement, in early 1789 he published at Amsterdam a three-volume work on the Despotisme des ministres de la France, and he adopted with enthusiasm the principles of the Revolution. Joining the Jacobin Club, Billaud-Varenne became, from 1790, one of the most violent anti-Royalist orators, after the flight to Varennes of King Louis XVI, he published a pamphlet, LAcéphocratie, in which he demanded the establishment of a federal republic. On 1 July, in speech at the Jacobin Club, he spoke of a republic. But when he repeated his demand for a republic a fortnight later, on the night of 10 August 1792 he was elected one of the deputy-commissioners of the sections who shortly afterwards became the general council of the Paris Commune. He was accused of having been an accomplice in the September Massacres in the Abbaye prison, at the trial of Louis XVI he added new charges to the accusation, proposed to refuse counsel to the king, and voted for death within 24 hours. On 15 July he made a violent speech in the Convention in accusation of the Girondists, sent in August as representative on mission to the départements of the Nord and of Pas-de-Calais, he showed himself inexorable to all suspects. Meanwhile, he published Les Éléments du républicanisme, in which he demanded a division of property among the citizens, becoming concerned about his own safety, he turned against Robespierre, whom he attacked on 8 Thermidor as a moderate and a Dantonist. Surprised by the Thermidorian Reaction, he denounced its partisans to the Jacobin Club and he was then attacked himself in the Convention for his ruthlessness, and a commission was appointed to examine his conduct and that of some other members of the former Committee of Public Safety. After Napoleon Bonapartes 18 Brumaire coup, he refused the pardon offered by the French Consulate, in 1816 he left Guiana, went to New York City for a few months, and finally took refuge in Port-au-Prince, where he died of dysentery. Despotisme des ministres de France, combattu par les droits de la Nation, par les loix fondamentales, Mémoires écrits au Port-au-Prince en 1818, contenant la relation de ses voyages et aventures dans le Mexique, depuis 1815 jusquen 1817. Billaud Varenne membre du comité de salut public, Mémoires inédits et Correspondance, accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot dHerbois, Paris, Librairie de la Nouvelle Revue,1893. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Billaud-Varenne
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
–
Billaud-Varenne portraited by
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, c. 1790 (
Dallas Museum of Art)
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
–
Jean Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
