FRANCE IN BETWEEN OF WAR (THE JACOBIN TERROR)
It was the spring of 1792, France experienced both war and revolution simultaneously. The ramifications for France were significant. In short, they were the restoration of the monarchy, the Robespierre dictatorship, the Reign of Terror, and General Bonaparte's ascent to power. The effects were extensive for Europe as well.
The French monarchy was the first to fall victim to the war.
On September 21, 1792, the day following the battle of Valmy, in which the
revolutionary army under the command of two generals, Dumouriez and Kellermann,
decisively defeated the Prussians, the newly elected legislature known as the
Convention convened. The next day, it declared to the end of the monarchy and set
Sept 22 as the date of the Republic's first year. Following Jemappes'
additional victory on November 6, which led to the French taking control of
Brussels, the newly formed Republic became more self-assured and made the
decision to put the King on trial. He was put to death on January 21, 1793. This
action, along with a number of other incidents that heightened tensions between
France and Britain, resulted in war declarations against Spain in March, Hungary
in April, and Britain and Holland at the start of February. The conflict
quickly spread to most of Europe outside of Scandinavia, and French setbacks
quickly followed. March saw the French expelled from Holland, a rebellion in
the western part of the Vendee, and the defeat of Dumouriez at Neer Winden. The
surrender of Dumouriez to the Austrians on April 6th resulted in a situation of
siege and emergency in France.
Because they ended the Girondins' control, these events had
a significant impact on how the French Revolution unfolded. The reverses
discredited them as the war party.
The renaming of the months from September to August with sometimes ridiculous
titles as Vendemiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivase, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal,
Floreal, and Prairial; Messidor, Thermidor, and Fructidor well captured the
romantic and inventive spirit of the period. Because the French used them to
mark the major revolutionary and counter-revolutionary episodes, these have
survived among historians. Wheezy,
Sneezy, Freezy, Sippy, Drippy, Nippy; Showery, Flowery, Bowery; Wheaty, and Heaty,
Sweety was a fitting translation of them in modern English. Failures paved the way for
the most radical Jacobins, republicans, direct democracy proponents, and
fervent supporters of a strong national defense against counterrevolutionary
forces to come to power. The Jacobins found a leader of great brilliance and
unwavering purpose in Maximilien Robespierre, whose brutality and fanaticism
allowed him to rule the Convention. Robespierre was essentially in charge of
France from July 1793, when he joined the Committee of Public Safety, until
July 1794, when he was executed by guillotine. With the revolution on the
defensive, Robespierre turned to personal tyranny, creating perhaps the first
single-party dictatorship in modern history.
Despite being a more accomplished orator and statesman than
Mirabeau, having a more impressive statecraft than Lafayette, and being an
attractive figure who generously inspired national resistance to invasion and
reaction, Robespierre somehow manages to be the most memorable and symbolic of
all the great French revolutionary personalities. It is remarkable that this
meticulous little provincial attorney, who is small and bespectacled and
unglamorous, should continue to personify such a turbulent and heroic event as
the French Revolution. Could
it be that he embodied the exact blend of ideological and social forces that
won out during the Revolution? Socially, he embodied the prototypical rural
attorney who ruled the revolutionary assemblies, the feline party's instigator
and critic, speaking with ease the idealistic words that echoed through those
immature legislative bodies. He was the modest man raised to greatness by the
turmoil of revolution. He embodied the goals and tenets of all that Jacobinism
has stood for throughout modern history: a dogmatic idealism that exalts the
notions of popular sovereignty, individual liberty, equality, and brotherhood,
as well as the idea that the nation is "one and indivisible." In his
career and personal life, he embodied the revolutionary inclinations of the
Jacobins.
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