Government
THE LAW OF 22 PRAIRIAL YEAR II (10 JUNE 1794)
Although the most immediate threats to the security of the Republic—foreign invasion, the civil war in the Vendée, the Federalist uprisings, the grain shortage in Paris, and hyperinflation—had abated by June 1794, Robespierre and his allies on the Committee of Public Safety argued all the more st
RELIGION: THE CULT OF THE SUPREME BEING
Adapting the established strategy of staging public pageantry to win support for a political cause, Robespierre organized a "Festival of the Supreme Being" in the summer of 1794. Having recently eliminated his adversaries Hébert and Danton, Robespierre delivered the keynote speech.
THE CALENDAR
A reformed calendar was a goal of the revolutionaries who sought to remake not only the political system and the social order, but also the very experience of life.
REVOLUTIONARY ARMIES IN THE PROVINCES: TOULOUSE (SEPTEMBER 1793)
At the demand of patriots in Paris and the provinces, the National Convention sent irregular units to the countryside and to cities where resistance to the Revolution had appeared.
THE REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL’S USE OF THE GUILLOTINE
This description of the proceedings of the revolutionary tribunal, and of the physical setting of the Place de la Révolution where the guillotine stood, by an unsympathetic English observer gives the flavor of the workings of revolutionary justice.
THE VENDÉE—DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTERREVOLUTION
The first groups of "brigands" formed in the west in mid–1792, in response most immediately to the call to all citizens to volunteer for the army.
MOBILIZATION FOR WAR (5 JULY 1792)
Although a small minority in the Legislative Assembly when it convened in September 1791, the Girondins succeeded in passing a resolution in favor of war with "the King of Bohemia and Hungary," meaning the Habsburg Empire in April 1792.
A GIRONDIN VIEW: ROLAND CALLS ON THE KING TO DECLARE WAR
In the spring of 1792, the Legislative Assembly—particularly its Executive Committee, dominated by Girondins—took a more aggressive attitude toward Austria, repeatedly arguing that France needed to act first to ward off invasion and thereby not only preserve but advance the Revolution by spreadin
THE ASSEMBLY COMPLAINS TO THE KING ABOUT THE ÉMIGRÉS
Having received news of the alliance of Prussia and Austria with émigré French nobles against the Revolution, the Legislative Assembly considered itself threatened by invasion.
EXECUTION OF THE QUEEN (16 OCTOBER 1793)
At the conclusion of her trial, the Queen was found guilty and sentenced to death. The newspaper of record, the Moniteur, reports the Queen’s response to the verdict and her execution the next morning with a good deal of sympathy and respect.