The Thermidorians ( French : Thermidoriens , named after the month of Thermidor ) were a political group during the First French Republic . They formed in 1794 and dominated the last year of the National Convention , which during this phase became known as the Thermidorian Convention ( French : Convention thermidorienne) , and the Directory government until the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte to power in 1799.
48-572: The group was named for the Thermidorian Reaction in 1794, when its members—led by Paul Barras , Jean-Lambert Tallien and Joseph Fouché — ousted Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just , who were executed with their supporters on 27 July 1794. The deputies that supported the Reaction were the following: Over the following days, the Thermidorians took over the majority in
96-690: 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. The elimination of the Hébertists and the Dantonists made evident the strength of the Committees to control and silence opposition. The creation in March 1794 of a General Police Bureau—reporting nominally to the Committee of Public Safety—served to increase
144-545: A new republican constitution, drafted by the National Assembly. The French Constitution of 1793 and its subsequent government would bring sweeping reforms to French politics and the French social order. Major reforms included comprehensive education, the recognition of rights for illegitimate children and improved rights for married women. The French Constitution of 1793 outlined the prevailing Enlightenment era ideology of
192-603: A speech to the Jacobin Club that night, he attacked Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, who had refused to allow the printing and distribution of his speech to the convention. On the following day, 27 July 1794 ( 9 Thermidor according to the Republican calendar ), Saint-Just began to speak before the Convention. However, he was almost immediately interrupted by Tallien and by Billaud-Varenne, who accused him of intending to "murder
240-663: A trial. The Commune forces at the Hôtel de Ville deserted. The Convention troops under Barras approached the Hôtel around 2 a.m. on 28 July. Robespierre, his jaw broken by a possibly self-inflicted shot, was taken with most of his supporters. On that very day, Robespierre was executed with twenty-one of his closest associates, including François Hanriot , ex-commander of the Parisian National Guard; Jean-Baptiste Fleuriot-Lescot , mayor of Paris; Georges Couthon , Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and René-François Dumas , ex-president of
288-402: Is replaced by a more conservative regime, sometimes to the point where the political pendulum may swing back towards something resembling a pre-revolutionary state. Leon Trotsky in his book The Revolution Betrayed , alleged that the rise of Joseph Stalin to power was a Soviet Thermidor for 'not restoring capitalism', yet still being a 'counterrevolutionary regression' within the regime of
336-525: The Committee of Public Safety , came together on 9 Thermidor (27 July) 1794. Jean-Lambert Tallien, a member of and previously President of the National Convention, impugned Saint-Just and then went on to denounce the tyranny of Robespierre. The attack was taken up by Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne . Cries went up of "Down with the tyrant! Arrest him!" Robespierre then made his appeal to the deputies of
384-504: The Constitution of the Year III was drawn up on 22 August 1795, which eased back some of the democratic elements of the constitution of 1793 , establishing an electoral college for the election of officials, a bicameral legislature and other provisions designed to protect the current holders of power. On 5 October ( 13 Vendémiaire ), a revolt led by Royalists challenged the convention. It
432-569: The National Convention . In 1795 a new constitution was introduced, with the National Convention disestablished and the Directory becoming the new government. Like the constitution, the Thermidorians emphasised bourgeois values: conservative on social themes and liberal on economic themes . After the election of 1795 , the Thermidorians obtained the majority in the Council of Five Hundred ,
480-709: The September Massacres were repeated; however this time the victims were imprisoned officials of the Terror. In Paris, Royalist sentiments were openly tolerated. Meanwhile, French armies overran the Netherlands and established the Batavian Republic , occupied the left bank of the Rhine and forced Spain , Prussia and several German States to sue for peace, enhancing the prestige of the convention. A new constitution called
528-524: The historiography of the French Revolution , the Thermidorian Reaction ( French : Réaction thermidorienne or Convention thermidorienne , "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespierre on 9 Thermidor II, or 27 July 1794, and the inauguration of the French Directory on 2 November 1795. The "Thermidorian Reaction" was named after
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#1732855134790576-517: The "Thermidor" of the Russian Revolution '. Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety (French: Comité de salut public ) was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror , a violent phase of the French Revolution . Supplementing the Committee of General Defence, created early January 1793,
624-609: The Austrians and their allies was feared. A widespread belief held that revolutionary France was in immediate peril, threatened not only by foreign armies and by recent revolts in the Vendée , but also by foreign agents who plotted the destruction of the nation from within. Dumouriez's defection lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed
672-683: The Committee due to illness (he all but ceased to attend meetings in June 1794) created the impression among some members that he was isolated and out of touch. Charlotte Robespierre reported in her memoirs that Robespierre had come into conflict with several of the representatives on mission due to their excessive use of violence, which likely also led to the unity of the Committee devolving. When it became suspected in mid-July 1794 that Robespierre and Saint-Just were planning to strike against their political opponents Joseph Fouché , Jean-Lambert Tallien and Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier (the latter two members of
720-430: The Committee of General Security), the fragile truce within the government was dissolved. Saint-Just and his fellow Committee of Public Safety member Bertrand Barère attempted to keep the peace between the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. However, Robespierre delivered a speech to the National Convention on 26 July 1794 in which he emphasized the need to "purify" the Committees and "crush all factions". In
768-468: The Committee of Public Safety itself had grown so violent that it relocated its meetings to a more private room to preserve the illusion of agreement. On 21 May 1794 the revolutionary government decided that the judicial system would be centralised, with almost all the tribunals in the provinces closed and all the capital trials held in Paris. The Law of 22 Prairial , proposed by the committee and enacted by
816-481: The Committee of Public Safety was created on 6 April 1793 by the National Convention . It was charged with protecting the new republic against its foreign and domestic enemies, fighting the First Coalition and the Vendée revolt . As a wartime measure, the committee was given broad supervisory and administrative powers over the armed forces, judiciary and legislature, as well as the executive bodies and ministers of
864-446: The Convention". Barère, Vadier and Stanislas Fréron joined the accusations against Saint-Just and Robespierre. The Convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre, his brother Augustin , and Saint-Just, along with that of their supporters, including Philippe Le Bas and Georges Couthon . A period of intense civil unrest ensued, during which the members of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security were forced to seek refuge in
912-573: The Danton Committee. Danton steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June 1793 journées that saw the violent expulsion of the Girondins and through the intensifying war in the Vendée. When the committee was recomposed on 10 July 1793, 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
960-481: The French Revolutionary calendar. The Thermidorian regime excluded the remaining Montagnards from power, even those who had joined in conspiring against Robespierre and Saint-Just. The White Terror of 1795 resulted in numerous imprisonments and several hundred executions, almost exclusively of people on the political left. These numbers, while significant, were considerably smaller than those associated with
1008-564: The French common classes such as the Sans-Culottes turned to radicalism and inspired militant activism among the French populace. On 5 April 1793, the French military commander and former minister of war General Charles François Dumouriez defected to Austria following the publication of an incendiary letter in which he threatened to march his army on the city of Paris if the National Convention did not accede to his leadership. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by
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#17328551347901056-506: The French government at this stage of the revolutionary period. The constitution outlines a right to the resistance of oppression as well as the right to personal liberty. The equality of all French men is detailed as is the structure of the French Republic . The new constitution and the shift into a republican government centered on the National Assembly created the atmosphere for a radicalized governing authority to take power. Members of
1104-662: The Revolutionary Tribunal. The events of 9 Thermidor proved a watershed in the revolutionary process. The Thermidorian regime that followed proved to be an unpopular one, facing many rebellions after its execution of Robespierre and his allies, along with seventy members of the Paris Commune, the largest mass execution to have ever taken place in Paris. This led to a very fragile situation in France. The hostility toward Robespierre did not just vanish with his execution. Instead,
1152-597: The Right, yet failed. An order was made to arrest Robespierre and his followers. Troops from the Paris Commune , who were loyal to Robespierre, arrived to liberate him and the other prisoners. The Convention responded by ordering troops of its own under Paul Barras to counteract. The Robespierrists barricaded at the Hôtel de Ville . The Convention declared them to be outlaws, meaning that they could be executed within 24 hours without
1200-603: The USSR, as Thermidor did not itself restore a monarchy, etc. Uttaldo Buttafava, a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist stated that the end of Stalin's rule Nikita Khruschev 's rise to power in Russia, and the economic policies of the time were a kind of Thermidor within the Soviet Union. A CIA document considered Khruschev's " On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences " may have 'marked
1248-551: The committee were codified by the Law of 14 Frimaire (also known as the Law of Revolutionary Government) on 4 December 1793. On 5 December 1793, journalist Camille Desmoulins began publishing Le Vieux Cordelier with the approval of Robespierre and the Committee . This newspaper was initially aimed against the ultrarevolutionary Hébertist faction, whose extremist demands, anti-religious fervor and propensity for sudden insurrections troubled
1296-434: The committee. At this time, the committee was entering a more powerful and active phase, alongside its partner, the Committee of General Security . The role of the Committee of Public Safety included the governance of the war (including the appointment of generals), the appointing of judges and juries for the Revolutionary Tribunal, the provisioning of the armies and the public, the maintenance of public order and oversight of
1344-535: The committee. However, Desmoulins quickly turned his pen against the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security, comparing their reign to that of the Roman tyrants chronicled by Tacitus and expounding the indulgent views of the Dantonist faction. Consequently, though the Hébertists were arrested and executed in March 1794, the Committees had Desmoulins and Danton arrested as well. Hérault de Séchelles ,
1392-485: The convention on 10 June 1794, went further in establishing the control of the Revolutionary Tribunal and above it the Convention and Committees of Public Safety and General Security. The law enumerated various forms of public enemies, required their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes covered under this law was death; from its inception to its removal, more people were condemned to death in Paris than in
1440-519: The convention. As the committee, restructured in July, raised the defense ( levée en masse ) against the monarchist coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within France, it became more and more powerful. In December 1793, the Convention formally conferred executive power upon the committee . Among the members, the radical Montagnard Jacobin Maximilien Robespierre was one of
1488-516: The convention. The Robespierre brothers, Saint-Just, Le Bas and Couthon ensconced themselves in the Hôtel de Ville , attempting to incite an insurrection. Ultimately, faced with defeat and arrest, Le Bas committed suicide, while Saint-Just, Couthon, and Maximilien and Augustin Robespierre were arrested and guillotined on 28 July 1794. The ensuing period of upheaval, dubbed the Thermidorian Reaction , saw
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1536-468: 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, a hand to grasp the weapon of the Revolutionary Tribunal ". After a proposal by Bertrand Barère on 18 March the committee was created on 6 April 1793. Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was initially known as
1584-657: The date according to the French Republican Calendar when Maximilien Robespierre and other radical revolutionaries came under concerted attack in the National Convention . Thermidorian Reaction refers to the remaining period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory ; this is also sometimes called the era of the Thermidorian Convention. Prominent figures of Thermidor include Paul Barras , Jean-Lambert Tallien , and Joseph Fouché . Conspiracies against Robespierre , who had dominated
1632-561: The entire previous history of the Revolutionary Tribunal. However, this statistic is accentuated by the fact that, as noted previously, all capital trials and sentences were carried out in Paris rather than being scattered across the provinces. Robespierre, a fervent supporter of the theistic Cult of the Supreme Being , found himself frequently in conflict with anti-religious Committee members Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne . Moreover, Robespierre's increasingly extensive absences from
1680-615: The leadership. Others such as Billaud-Varenne , Collot d’Herbois , Barère and Vadier were sentenced to exile in South America, though the latter two managed to evade arrest. Many Jacobin clubs were closed. Freedom of worship was extended first to the Vendée and later to all France. On 24 December 1794, the Maximum (controls on prices and wages) was abolished. The government exacerbated this inflationary move by issuing more assignats . In April and May 1795, protests and riots in support of
1728-583: The members of the convention, disillusioned and frightened of the centralized government of the Terror, preferred a more stable political order that would have the approval of the plurality. The Reaction saw the Left suppressed by brutal force , including massacres, as well as the disbanding of the Jacobin Club , the dispersal of the sans-culottes , and the renunciation of the Montagnard ideology. The name Thermidorian originated with 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794),
1776-515: The month in which the coup took place and was the latter part of the National Convention 's rule of France. It was marked by the end of the Reign of Terror , decentralization of executive powers from the Committee of Public Safety and a turn from the radical Jacobin policies of the Montagnard Convention to more moderate positions. Economic and general populism, dechristianization , and harsh wartime measures were largely abandoned, as
1824-429: The most well-known, though he did not have any special powers or privileges. After the arrest and execution of the rival factions of Hébertists and Dantonists , sentiment in the Convention eventually turned against Robespierre, who was executed in July 1794. In the following Thermidorian Reaction , the committee's influence diminished after 26 months and it disappeared on the same day as the National Convention , which
1872-499: The new lower house . In Paris , the group created a headquarters in the Hôtel de Noailles and Paul Barras became its leader. The Directory lasted until 1799, when the coup of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power; the Directory was replaced with a Consulate with Bonaparte as First Consul . After the coup, the various parliamentary forces including the Thermidorians were disestablished. Thermidorian Reaction In
1920-590: The people decided to blame those who were involved with Robespierre in any way, namely the many members of the Jacobin Club, their supporters, and individuals suspected of being past revolutionaries. The massacre of these groups became known as the White Terror , and was partially carried out by the Muscadin , a group of dandyish street fighters organized by the new government. Often, members of these targeted groups were
1968-502: The power of the Committee of Public Safety. However, even as the period later known as the 'Terror' reached its height and with it the committee's political power, discord was growing within the revolutionary government. Members of the Committee of General Security resented the aggressive behavior of the Committee of Public Safety and particularly the encroachment of the General Police Bureau upon their own brief. Arguments within
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2016-493: The previous Reign of Terror, which killed over 40,000. Many executions took place without a trial. On July 29 the victors of the 9th Thermidor condemned seventy members of the Paris Commune to death; thereafter the Commune was subject to the convention. As part of the reorganization of French politics, practitioners of the terror were called to defend their records; some such as Tallien , Barras , Fouché and Fréron rejoined
2064-471: The radicals broke out culminating in an invasion of the convention by an insurrectionist mob on 20 May. On 22 May the Convention struck back, having troops under Pichegru surround the Faubourg St-Antoine and force the capitulation of the armed rebels. In May and June 1795, a " White Terror " raged in which Jacobins were victims and the judges were bourgeois "Moderates". Throughout France the events of
2112-542: The repeal of many of the previous year's most unpopular laws and the restriction of the Committees of General Security and Public Safety. The Committees ceased to exist under the Constitution of the Year III (1795), which marked the beginning of the Directory . During the May 1958 crisis in France , an army junta under General Jacques Massu seized power in Algiers on the night of 13 May 1958 and General Salan assumed leadership of
2160-533: The state bureaucracy. The committee was also responsible for interpreting and applying the decrees of the National Convention and thus for implementing some of the most stringent policies of the Terror—for instance, the levée en masse passed on 23 August 1793, the Law of Suspects passed on 17 September 1793 and the Law of the General Maximum passed on 29 September 1793. The broad and centralized powers of
2208-503: The victims of prison massacres or put on trial without due process, which were overall similar conditions to those provided to the counter-revolutionaries during the Reign of Terror. At the same time, its economic policies paved the way for rampant inflation. Ultimately, power devolved to the hands of the Directory, an executive of five men who assumed power in France in November 1795, in year III of
2256-447: Was 25 October 1795, but it probably continued till the end of the month. The French Revolution brought about an immense shift in society in which citizens desired to bring about a new age of critical rationality, egalitarianism , and patriotism amongst French men. Revolutionary ideals were spread throughout France and a belief in democracy and civilian government was heralded as the new era of French civilization. 1793 would bring
2304-404: Was put down by troops led by general Napoleon Bonaparte with "a whiff of grapeshot". On 25 October the Convention declared itself dissolved and was replaced by the Directory on 2 November 1795. For historians of revolutionary movements, the term Thermidor has come to mean the phase in some revolutions when power slips from the hands of the original revolutionary leadership and a radical regime
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