History 102: The Radicalization of the Revolution, August 1792-July 1794

Why did the Revolution become radical?

1. Politicization of many people, especially in cities

· Newspapers

· Political clubs

· Greater political awareness heightened by fluctuations in prices

· Government’s new responsibilities

2. The rise of the sans-culottes

· A new class?

3. Lack of effective national leadership

· Louis XVI remained a weak and vacillating monarch

· Forced to accept the Civil Constitution of the Clergy

· Marie Antoinette, sister of Leopold II of Austria, urged Louis not to give in to revolutionaries

· June 20, 1791: the Flight to Varennes

· Louis then became a “prisoner” of the Revolution

4. War

· Most (not “all”) Europeans took a side in the conflict

· Political societies formed outside France proclaimed their allegiance to the Revolution

· Austria and Prussia declared support for French monarchy (August 1791)

· April 20, 1792: the National Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia

· National Assembly expected the war to bolster public opinion behind the Revolution

· War polarized French society and Politics

· Revolution versus Counterrevolution, no room for compromise

August 10, 1792: Parisians attacked the king’s palace

September 1792

· The September Massacres

· Patriotic Paris mobs convened revolutionary tribunal to try traitors (those suspected of counterrevolution)

· Over a thousand killed in one week

· The National Convention elections (September1792)

· Returned radical majority

· The Jacobins, as most radical, gained great popularity

o Robespierre

o Danton

o Marat

The end of the French monarchy

France declared a republic (September 21, 1792)

Louis placed on trial (December 1792)

Louis executed (January 1793)

The Reign of Terror

· Convention delayed adoption of constitution with male suffrage (1793)

· The Committee of Public Safety (CPS)

o The Twelve

· New radical leaders

o Marat: killed by a royalist

o Danton: leading organizer of the terror

o Robespierre: expressed the “will of the people”

· Results:

o 500,000 incarcerated between March 1793 and August 1794

o September 1793–July 1794: twenty-five to thirty thousand executed

· July 28, 1794: Robespierre and 21“conspirators” executed

· Terror grinds to an end

Consequences of Radical Revolution:

· The sans-culottes’ cultural influence

o Workers’ trousers replaced breeches

o The red cap of liberty

· Second revolution reversed trend toward decentralization

o Replaced local officials with “deputies on mission”

· Closed down women’s political clubs

· The erosion of traditional institutions

o Church, guild, and parish

o Replaced with patriotic organizations