The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror (which ended with the execution of Robespierre), and triggered by the execution of Robespierre and several other leading members of the Committee of Public Safety on a vote of the Comittee. This revolt led to the end of this radical phase of the French Revolution. The name Thermidorian refers to 9 Thermidor Year II (July 27, 1794), the date according to the French Revolutionary Calendar when Robespierre and Saint-Just came under concerted attack in the National Convention. The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... reign of terror, or the terror, see terror The Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794) or simply The Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of about ten months during the French Revolution when struggles between rival factions led to mutual radicalization which took on a violent... Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (IPA: ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) is one of the best-known leaders of the French Revolution. ... The Committee of Public Safety (French: Comité de salut public), set up by the National Convention on April 6, 1793, formed the de facto executive government of France during the Reign of Terror (1793-4) of the French Revolution. ... is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A French Revolutionary Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne. ... Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, (May 6, 1758–July 28, 1794), known also to his contemporaries as the Incorruptible, is one of the best known of the leaders of the French Revolution. ... Antoine Louis Léon de Richebourg de Saint-Just Antoine Louis Léon de Richebourg de Saint-Just (August 25, 1767 - July 28, 1794), usually referred to simply as Saint-Just, was a French revolutionary leader. ... This article is about a legislative body and constitutional convention during the French Revolution. ...

Thermidorian Reaction also refers to the remaining period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory; this is also sometimes called the era of the Thermidorian Convention.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 François Jean Nicolas Barras, Jean Lambert Tallien and Joseph Fouché. Executive Directory (in French Directoire exécutif), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) held executive power in France from November 2, 1795 until November 10, 1799: following the Convention and preceding the Consulate. ... Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras (June 30, 1755 – January 29, 1829) was a French revolutionary and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795 - 1799. ... Jean Lambert Tallien (1767 - November 16, 1820), was a French Revolutionary and politician. ... Joseph Fouché Joseph Fouché, duc dOtrante (Duke of Otranto) (May 21, 1763 – December 25, 1820) was a French statesman and Minister of Police under Napoleon Bonaparte. ...

9 Thermidor

The Reaction began on July 27, 1794, which the French Republican Calendar dates as 9 Thermidor. Robespierre and Saint-Just came under a concerted and organised attack from members of the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre gambled and appealed to the deputies of the Right to support him. However, the deputies of the Right rejected his appeal and the Committee almost unanimously voted against him and his close allies. Robespierre and his allies had alienated even their traditional supporters by indiscriminate violence, and could offer no resistance when the National Convention ordered their arrest. is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A French Revolutionary Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne. ... Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (IPA: ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) is one of the best-known leaders of the French Revolution. ... Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (25 August 1767 – 28 July 1794), usually known as Saint-Just, was a French revolutionary leader. ... The Committee of Public Safety (French: Comité de salut public), set up by the National Convention on April 6, 1793, formed the de facto executive government of France during the Reign of Terror (1793-4) of the French Revolution. ... “Right wing” redirects here. ...

The following day, 10 Thermidor (July 28), the new authorities guillotined (without trial, nor even the light formality of a Revolutionary Tribunal) Robespierre, Saint-Just, Georges Couthon, and several other supporters, including members of the Paris Commune (the city government of Paris). is the 209th day of the year (210th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Historic replicas (1:6 scale) of the two main types of French guillotines: Model 1792, left, and Model 1872 (state as of 1907), right The guillotine is a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. ... The Revolutionary Tribunal (French: Tribunal révolutionnaire) was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and became one of the most powerful engines of the Terror. ... Georges August Couthon (1755 - July 28, 1794) was a French revolutionary. ... The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795, and especially from 1792 until 1795. ...

Background

9 Thermidor represents the final throes of the Reign of Terror. With Robespierre the sole remaining strong man of the Revolution (following the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, and the executions of Georges Danton and Jacques Hébert), his apparently total grasp on power was, in fact, increasingly illusory, especially insofar as he seemed to have support from factions to his right. His only real political power at this time lay in the Jacobin Club, which had extended itself beyond the borders of Paris and into the country as a network of "Popular Societies". His tight personal control of the military and his distrust of military might and of banks, along with his opposition to corrupt individuals in government, made Robespierre the subject of a number of conspiracies. The conspiracies came together on 9 Thermidor (July 27) when members of the national bodies of the revolutionary government arrested Robespierre as well as the leaders of the Paris city government. reign of terror, or the terror, see terror The Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794) or simply The Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of about ten months during the French Revolution when struggles between rival factions led to mutual radicalization which took on a violent... Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (May 24, 1743 – July 13, 1793), was a Swiss-born French scientist and physician who made much of his career in the United Kingdom, but is best known as an activist in the French Revolution. ... Georges Danton. ... Jacques René Hébert Jacques René Hébert (November 15, 1757 - March 24, 1794) was editor of the extreme radical newspaper Le Père Duchesne during the French Revolution. ... “Right wing” redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Jacobin/Sandbox be merged into this article or section. ... is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Conspiratorial groups

Not all of the conspiratorial groupings were ideological in motivation; many who conspired against Robespierre did so for strong practical and personal reasons, most notably self-preservation. The surviving Dantonists, such as Merlin de Thionville for example, wanted revenge for the death of Danton and, more importantly, to protect their own heads. Georges Danton. ... Antoine Christophe Merlin (September 13, 1762 - September 14, 1833), was a member of several legislative bodies during the era of the French Revolution. ... Georges Danton. ...

The Left were opposed to Robespierre on the grounds that he rejected Atheism and was not radical enough (egalitarianism). “Leftism” redirects here. ... “Atheist” redirects here. ...

The prime mover, however, for the events of 9 Thermidor was a Montagnard conspiracy, led by Jean Lambert Tallien and Bourdon de l'Oise, which was gradually coalescing, and was to come to pass at the time when the Montagnards had finally swayed the deputies of the Right over to their side. (Robespierre and Saint-Just were, themselves, Montagnards.) The Mountain (in French La Montagne) refers in the context of the history of the French Revolution to a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly. ... Jean Lambert Tallien (1767 - November 16, 1820), was a French Revolutionary and politician. ... Francois Louis Bourdon (died 1797), known as Bourdon de lOise, French revolutionist, was procureur at the parlement of Paris. ...

Events

On 9 Thermidor, in the Hall of Liberty in Paris, Tallien impugned Saint-Just while reading a report to the Committee of Public Safety, and then went on to denounce the tyranny of Robespierre. The attack was taken up by Billaud-Varenne. Robespierre leapt to Saint-Just's defence. Cries went up of 'Down with the tyrant! Arrest him!' Robespierre then made his appeal to the deputies of the Right, "Deputies of the Right, men of honour, men of virtue, give me the floor, since the assassins will not." However, the Right was decided, and a debate to arrest Robespierre and his followers ensued which led to the end of Robespierre's rule. This article is about the capital of France. ...

The death of Robespierre

Robespierre was declared an outlaw, and condemned without judicial process. The following day, 10 Thermidor, 28 July 1794, he was executed with 21 of his closest associates. is the 209th day of the year (210th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Consequences

Certainly, the events of 9 Thermidor were to prove a watershed in the revolutionary process. The Thermidorian regime that followed was, at the very least, less rigid, ending the Reign of Terror and allowing for more individual liberty, especially in areas of religion. 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 year III of the French Revolution. The Directory (in French Directoire) held executive power in France from October 1795 until November 1799 - from the end of the Convention to the beginning of the Consulate. ...

The Thermidorian regime excluded the remaining Montagnards from power, even those who had joined in conspiring against Robespierre and Saint-Just. The White Terror 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 the previous Reign of Terror. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into White Terror. ...

End of the Reaction

The Thermidorian Convention continued until October 26, 1795 (4 Brumaire Year IV), when the National Convention was succeeded by the French Directory. is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Executive Directory (in French Directoire exécutif), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) held executive power in France from November 2, 1795 until November 10, 1799: following the Convention and preceding the Consulate. ...

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 is replaced by a calmer, 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, refers to the rise of Stalin and the accompanying post-revolutionary bureaucracy as the Soviet Thermidor. Leon Trotsky (Russian:  , Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (), was an Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... The Revolution Betrayed is a book by the Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky, published in 1937, analyzing and critizising Stalinism and the post-Lenin development in the Soviet Union. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314...

Other "Thermidorian Reactions"

Throughout history, following the pattern outlined in Crane Brinton's work, The Anatomy of Revolution, many revolutions have undergone equivalents of the Thermidorian Reaction. Some examples of this are: (Clarence) Crane Brinton (Winsted, Connecticut 1898 –Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968), American historian of France and the history of ideas|. His most famous work, The Anatomy of Revolution, compared the dynamics of revolutionary movements to the progress of fever. ... The Anatomy of Revolution is a book by Crane Brinton in which he outlined uniformities in four revolutions: the English Revoloution of the 1640s, the American, the French, and the 1917 Russian Revolution. ...

• English Civil War: The restoration of the English monarchy in 1660 can be seen as a repudiation of Cromwell's Commonwealth and the point at which moderates once again regained control of the English Revolution.

For other uses, see English Civil War (disambiguation). ... // Events January 1 - Colonel George Monck with his regiment crosses from Scotland to England at the village of Coldstream and begins advance towards London in support of English Restoration. ... Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England, Scotland and Ireland into a republican Commonwealth and for the brutal war exercised in his conquest of Ireland. ... The Commonwealth was the republican government which ruled first England and then the whole of Britain, Ireland, the colonies and other Crown possessions during the periods from 1649 (the monarch Charles I being beheaded on January 30 and An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth being passed by the... The English Civil War (or Wars) refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, specifically to the first (1642–1645) and second (1648–1649) civil wars between the supporters of Charles I of England and...

Sources

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• BECKER Marianne, Maximilien, Histoire de Robespierre, tome 3 (1999); fiction.
• BOULOISEAU Marc, Robespierre, Que sais-je?, Presses Universitaires de France (1956).
• Marc Bouloiseau, La republique Jacobin (10 août 1792 - 9 thermidor an II). Paris. (1972)
• BRUNEL Françoise, Thermidor, la chute de Robespierre, Ed. Complexe (1989).
• DOMECQ Jean Philippe, Robespierre, derniers temps, Seuil (1984).
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• HAMEL Ernest, Thermidor, Jouvet & Cie Editeur (1891).
• JACOB Louis, Robespierre vu par ses contemporains, (1938).
• Pierre-Toussaint Durand de Maillane, L'Histoire de la Convention Nationale. Paris: Baudouin (1825)
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