French Revolution: National Convention (1792–1795)

History Optional Notes {PDF}

Complete Notes Package (Paper I & II) | 4500+ Pages | Instant Download

The period of the National Convention (1792–1795) represents the most turbulent and consequential phase of the French Revolution — the years in which France abolished its monarchy, executed its king, descended into the Reign of Terror, and finally emerged into the more moderate, though ultimately unstable, era of the Directory. This was a period defined by ferocious internal factionalism — between the Girondists and the Jacobins, and later within the Jacobins themselves — as well as by an existential external struggle against a coalition of European powers determined to crush the Revolution. It was also the period that gave rise to some of history’s most consequential revolutionary figures: Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and finally, waiting in the wings, a young artillery officer named Napoleon Bonaparte. This article traces the Convention’s dramatic three-year existence — the execution of Louis XVI, the causes and course of the Reign of Terror, the Thermidorian Reaction, the Convention’s genuine achievements, and the establishment and eventual collapse of the Directory that paved the way for Napoleon’s rise.

The National Convention (21 September 1792 – 26 October 1795)

The National Convention met on 21 September 1792, upon the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. It was summoned to draft a new constitution, made necessary by the suspension of Louis XVI.
Its first act was to abolish the monarchy and declare France a Republic.
- It passed a decree of perpetual banishment against the émigrés, and adopted a new revolutionary calendar, to be dated from the birth of the Republic.
- A committee was appointed to draw up a new constitution.
However, the Convention’s primary task — framing a constitution — was long postponed, as it became consumed by a frenzied quarrel between the Girondists and the Jacobins. Both parties were republican, but their approaches diverged sharply:
- The Girondists wished to form an orderly government and put an end to the period of bloody excesses. They sought to rescue the government from the hands of the Paris Commune and the mob, to bring the Commune to justice, and to restore the supremacy of the Convention.
- The Jacobins were men of a fiercer, more practical temperament. Their sole aim was to save France, and they were prepared to adopt any means to that end — seeking to make the Paris Commune supreme over the other departments, and willing to adopt violent means to promote the Revolution’s cause. Their strength lay in their excellent organisation and their alliance with the Commune.
Between the two factions stood the Plain, containing a large number of undecided members.
- The Girondists were initially supreme within the Convention, but it soon passed under the control of the Jacobins.

Execution of Louis XVI

Having unanimously voted to abolish royalty in France, the Convention now faced the question of what should be done with Louis XVI.
- The Jacobins, led by Robespierre, wanted the king executed even without a trial.
- The Girondists were anxious to submit the king’s case to the decision of the whole people.
- This question of the king’s trial further widened the breach between the two parties.
The Jacobins, however, carried the Convention with them. A mock trial was held, and Louis XVI was declared guilty of high treason against the State and of conspiracy against the liberty of the Nation.
- He was sentenced to death and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793.

“Both a Crime and a Blunder”

It has been remarked that the execution of Louis XVI was “both a crime and a blunder.”
As a crime:
- He was unselfish and, by most accounts, the best-intentioned of French kings, sincerely desirous of working for his country’s good.
- To execute him as a traitor without a genuinely fair trial was, therefore, a real act of cruelty and injustice.
As a blunder:
- It defeated the very object it was meant to secure, and did not further the cause of the Revolution.
- On the contrary, it involved the Revolution in increasing dangers, both at home and abroad.
  - In France, many provinces rose in revolt against the Republic, viewing it as the murderer of the king.
  - Abroad, the perceived danger to monarchical principles roused the whole of Europe against the aggressive Republic.
It was this crisis that gave rise to the Reign of Terror, which, instead of consolidating the Republic, ultimately brought about its downfall. In other words, the fall of monarchy led to a period of anarchy, from which France could only be rescued by a military despotism.

The First Coalition Against France (Consequences of the Execution of Louis XVI)

A War of Principles

Intoxicated by their recent successes, the republicans in France adopted an aggressive attitude, challenging the existing order across Europe.
- They issued propagandist decrees calling upon all peoples to rise in revolt against their rulers, even offering armed assistance to do so.
- Such an attitude posed a serious menace to the safety and stability of other governments, and Republican France effectively proclaimed a war of principles against monarchical Europe — liberty and equality were to be established across the continent, and absolutism pulled down.
The Convention declared that the French Republic would treat as enemies all peoples who refused, or renounced, liberty and equality, and who continued to preserve their princes and privileged castes.

Why France Desired War

The war proclaimed by France was not merely a war of principles between a republic and a monarchy — it was, to a considerable extent, a matter affecting material interests.
- The conflict that began as a war of propaganda soon continued as a war of conquest. To France, war had become a necessity — the Republic, in a real sense, would not thrive without it.
- The Revolution had dislocated France’s trade and industry, forcing many men to abandon their peaceful pursuits.
- In these circumstances, it would have been hazardous to recall an army flushed with victory and eager for fresh laurels, only to disband it and leave the soldiers without resource or employment.
The French, accordingly, drifted into a policy of war, promising further conquests abroad and temporary respite from internal strife.
- They sought to extend France’s boundaries to its supposed natural frontiers — the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Rhine.
- They invoked the doctrine of “natural frontiers” in invading Belgium, and the doctrine of “natural rights” in opening up the Scheldt — but under cover of these doctrines, they in fact pursued the traditional objects of French foreign policy.

The Interests of England and Holland Threatened

France’s aggressive attitude, combined with the storm of indignation that swept Europe following the execution of Louis XVI, banded much of Europe against France.
- War already existed with Austria and Prussia, and the French had conquered the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) — a French occupation that posed a direct menace to both England and Holland.
- The French further challenged England directly, by declaring the navigation of the Scheldt open to all nations — England had guaranteed the closing of the Scheldt in Holland’s interest, and was accordingly compelled to take serious notice of the Republic’s actions.
The execution of Louis had roused the war temper of the English people, and the French ambassador in London was ordered to leave England.
- The Convention thereupon declared war against England and Holland.

The Divergent Interests of the Allies

The European powers, in turn, banded together to form the First Coalition against France, comprising England, Holland, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and Spain.
Insofar as the war was a war of ideas, the allies’ interests were broadly shared — the safeguarding of monarchical principles across Europe. But their material interests diverged considerably:
- Austria was anxious to expel the French from Belgium.
- Sardinia sought to save Savoy from French hands.
- England aimed to prevent France from re-establishing Antwerp as a rival port to London.
England saw her commercial prosperity threatened by the opening of the Scheldt, and her security endangered by the French occupation of Belgium — this was why she joined the war.
The war led to a French defeat, forcing them to evacuate Belgium.

Immediate Consequences of the King’s Execution

The immediate consequence of Louis XVI’s execution was a formidable increase in the number of France’s enemies — she now faced a full coalition of European powers.
- At home, the peasants of the south rose in revolt against the Republic, regarding it as the murderer of their king and the destroyer of the Church.
- It was this overwhelming danger — both at home and abroad — that ultimately led to the Reign of Terror.
At this national crisis, the first Committee of Public Safety was formed, consisting of nine members with dictatorial powers to take the necessary steps to destroy the enemies of the Republic, both foreign and domestic.
- The object of this step was to provide a strong government, capable of concentrating the full force of the nation upon the problem of national salvation.
The reverses suffered by France accentuated the bitterness of feeling between the Girondists and the Jacobins, each accusing the other of betraying the Revolution.
- The Girondists wanted to restrict the supremacy of the Paris Commune, resenting its dictatorship and contending that Paris, being one of eighty-three departments, should be reduced to a proportionate one eighty-third share of influence.
- The Jacobins, however, realising that debate and discussion produced no good while the country remained in imminent danger, resolved upon a decisive stroke. They organised an insurrection against the Girondists, and the infuriated mob of Paris invaded the Convention, compelling it to arrest thirty-one Girondist leaders.
The Girondists fell because:
- They were far less organised than the Jacobins.
- They pursued genuinely revolutionary aims while rejecting any resort to mob violence.
- They were, ultimately, unpractical idealists, unable to put forward any effective and vigorous programme.
The fall of the Girondists left the Jacobins supreme, with no remaining party to check the bloody measures that soon inaugurated a Reign of Terror in France, under the dominance of the dreaded triumvirate — Robespierre, Danton, and Marat.

The Reign of Terror (2 June 1793 – 1794)

The Jacobin Dictatorship

With the expulsion of the Girondists from the Convention, the moderate republican party effectively disappeared from the assembly, and the phase of the Revolution known as the Reign of Terror began.
- It was the darkest and most terrible period of the Revolution, marked by grave dangers both within and without.

Internal Dangers

The tyranny and supremacy of the Commune of Paris enraged the various Departments — Lyons and several other cities took up arms against the Revolutionists, seeking to destroy the Commune’s ascendancy and contending that Paris should hold no greater power than any other department.
- To this civil war born of politics was added a civil war born of religion.
- Peasants, incited by non-juring priests, rose in revolt as a protest against compulsory military service, demanding the abolition of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and proclaiming the young Louis XVII as king.
- The movement was thus both Catholic and royalist in character.

External Dangers

The Convention had simultaneously to meet the coalition of European powers threatening France from all directions — danger from within was therefore reinforced by hostility from without.
To weather this crisis required two things:
1. An energetic defence of French soil.
2. The repression of elements within the country opposed to the Revolution.
A divided France could not hope to meet a united Europe. The Jacobins, whose sole aim was to save France and the Republic, determined to take the most drastic measures to accomplish this — resolving to rule by terror, that is, by frightening their enemies into submission.
- Their first act was to establish a strong government by creating a new Committee of Public Safety, consisting of twelve members with almost unlimited executive power.
  - This Committee became practically omnipotent, enforcing its decrees even upon the Convention itself; its leader was Robespierre.

Activity of the Committee of Public Safety

The Committee of Public Safety was the cornerstone, and indeed the very soul, of the Terror — providing France with a strong government that restored national unity through a policy of frightfulness.
- To address internal dangers, the Committee organised a genuine machinery of terror, systematically beginning the work of bloody repression against all anti-revolutionary elements.
The components of this machinery included:
- The Law of Suspects, authorising the arrest of any person suspected of attachment to the cause of monarchy, or of being unfavourably disposed towards the Republic.
- The Revolutionary Tribunal, an extraordinary criminal court created for the speedy trial of “suspects,” making a farce of justice.
- The Square of the Revolution, where the heads of victims fell under the stroke of the guillotine — over two thousand persons were executed by sentence of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris alone.
While suspects were sent to the guillotine, the Committee of Public Safety simultaneously and vigorously put down internal revolts — these bloody excesses were intended to eliminate opposition elements whose continued existence might hamper France’s military preparations against her external enemies.

Foreign Danger Averted

Alongside its measures to avert internal dangers, the Committee also took energetic steps against France’s external enemies.
To complete their separation from royalist sympathies, the extreme wing of the Jacobins abolished the old calendar, replacing it with a new one dividing the year according to the natural change of seasons.
- The new era was to begin, not from the birth of Christ, but from the birth of the new Republic — 21 September 1792.

A Split in the Jacobin Camp

The military success of the French army ultimately brought about the downfall of the Reign of Terror — the Terror’s only real justification had been the danger facing France.
- Once both internal and external dangers had subsided, the question of continued bloody repression divided opinion sharply, leading to a split within the Jacobins.

The Fall of the Hébertists

The Jacobins’ most radical wing, known as the Hébertists, owed their influence to their hold over the Commune of Paris.
- They urged social changes of the most radical kind, directing particular animosity against the Roman Catholic faith — denouncing Catholicism as “aristocratic,” proclaiming the worship of Reason, and finally decreeing the closure of all places of worship in Paris.
- Such ultra-revolutionary measures risked alienating sincere believers, and Robespierre accordingly denounced the Hébertists; the Committee of Public Safety ordered the entire atheistic faction to the guillotine.

The Fall of the Dantonists

If the Hébertists fell owing to their excesses, the Dantonists fell owing to their moderation.
- Danton and his followers had supported the Terror only for as long as it remained necessary — with France no longer in danger, they now wished to mitigate its severity and return to a more humane policy.
- Robespierre denounced Danton as the representative of a dangerous policy of moderation; he and his friends were duly executed.
Danton was, in fact, the ablest of the Jacobin leaders. It was largely owing to his splendid energy that France was saved from the Prussian invasion of 1792 and provided with a strong government.
- He possessed the genuine gift of a statesman, and tried repeatedly to smooth over differences between the Jacobins and the Girondists, keeping Republicans of all stripes working together for France’s welfare.
- To the very end, he protested against needless severity in France, and the reckless policy that had turned the whole of Europe against her, armed and hostile. With his fall, France lost a genuine statesman.

The Supremacy of Robespierre

The fall of Danton left Robespierre supreme upon the scene.
- As leader of the Jacobins, he wielded sufficient influence to control the Convention, the Commune of Paris, and the Committee of Public Safety.
- He overthrew the “worship of Reason,” and at his instance the Convention passed a decree recognising the “existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul.”
This self-styled high priest of a new religion then took steps to make the Revolutionary Tribunal even more murderous in its activity.
- It was stripped of its last vestiges of legal form — no proof was required to establish a man’s guilt, the question left entirely to the “enlightened conscience” of the jurors.
- The Tribunal, thus reorganised, was responsible for 1,376 executions within a span of just 45 days.
But the circumstances that had originally called forth the Terror had by now ceased to exist. Living under perpetual fear of death became increasingly intolerable, and at last, an opposition was organised against Robespierre.
- The Convention outlawed Robespierre and his adherents; they were arrested on 27 July, and Robespierre himself was executed the following day.

An Assessment of Robespierre

Though not the original author of the Reign of Terror, Robespierre was undoubtedly its most active promoter.
- He resorted to Terror not for its own sake, but as a means of attaining his own fanatical ideals.
- His great ambition was to establish a “reign of Virtue” through the medium of democracy, and he regarded Terror as the best means of achieving it.
- He wished to organise the State to realise a vision of happiness and austere virtue — in this and other Utopian schemes, he may be regarded as something of an “anaemic embodiment” of the ideas of Rousseau, whose devoted follower he remained throughout.

The Thermidorian Reaction (27 July 1794 – 26 October 1795)

The fall of Robespierre was followed by a milder regime.
- The Reign of Terror gradually came to an end, as its system of frightful atrocities had by now become thoroughly discredited, and public opinion had turned decisively against it.
The Thermidorians (those responsible for Robespierre’s downfall) gained the upper hand in the state, sweeping away the last traces of Terrorism.
- The Commune of Paris, the citadel of the mob, was dissolved; the Revolutionary Tribunal was suspended; the functions of the Committee of Public Safety were sharply restricted; and the Jacobin Club was closed.
Beyond this internal reaction, the fall of the Terror also owed much to the success of French arms abroad — with external dangers averted, there was no longer any pressing necessity for the bloody repression of “suspects” and opposition elements.

The Convention Completes the Constitution

The Convention at last returned to its long-neglected task: the framing of a Constitution for republican France.
- The executive was entrusted to a Directory of five members.
- Legislative power was entrusted to two Houses.
- To avert the possibility of a monarchist legislature, the Convention further decreed that two-thirds of the new legislature must be chosen from among the deputies of the existing Convention.
This measure proved unpopular, and the bourgeoisie and royalists organised an insurrection against the Convention.
- Napoleon Bonaparte, then in Paris, was entrusted with the task of defending the Convention against the Parisian mob. He dispersed the mob, saved the Convention, and thereby began his astounding career.
On 26 October, the Convention formally declared itself dissolved.

Achievements of the Convention

During its three years of existence, the Convention accumulated a long and mixed list of achievements — some tainted by revolutionary excess, others standing as notable triumphs of peaceful development.

It had put a king to death, and had established a Republic.
It had stilled internal party strife by expelling the Girondist leaders, organised a strong provisional government, and set up a Reign of Terror to root out anti-revolutionary elements within France.
- It had, however, in accomplishing this immense task, also made a record for cruelty and tyranny.
It developed unexpected energy in successfully facing a vast, hostile coalition of European powers, maintaining the integrity and independence of the country at a moment when it was threatened with complete dissolution.
Its achievements in the arts of peace were equally striking:
- It gave the world the metric system, the most perfect system of weights and measures.
- It worked on the Civil Code, aiming to found the whole of social life upon the principle of equality — later carried to completion by Napoleon, who ultimately monopolised the credit for it.
- It drew up a splendid scheme of national education, though it could not be carried out for lack of funds.
Among the Convention’s invaluable creations were the Normal School, the Polytechnic School, the Museum of the Louvre, the National Library, and the Institute.
Finally, it succeeded in framing a new constitution for France.

The Directory (1795–1799)

Under the new constitution drawn up by the Convention on 26 October 1795, executive power was entrusted to a board of five directors, known as the Directory.
The first question confronting it was whether to continue the war against the enemies of the Republic — namely, England, Austria, and Sardinia.
- England, being a sea power, could not realistically be attacked for want of a fleet, so the Directory concentrated its attention primarily upon Austria.
- Carnot planned a double attack on the Austrians — one through Germany, the other through Italy. The task of the Italian campaign was confided to General Bonaparte, whose Italian campaigns would prove the stepping stone to his unparalleled fame and power.

Early Life of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio in Corsica in 1769, shortly after the island had been sold by Genoa to France — he thus became a French citizen and was educated in French military schools.
He joined the army at the age of seventeen as an artillery officer.
- He first made his mark in 1795, by defending the Convention against the royalist insurrection — a fortunate crisis for his career.
- He was next appointed to the command in Italy, where he laid the foundation of his enduring military fame. Henceforth, the Revolution became, to a considerable extent, merged with the career of Napoleon.

Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt

On his return to France after the Italian campaigns, Napoleon was received with transports of enthusiasm; his brilliant victories had lifted him head and shoulders above all rivals, placing him firmly in the forefront of French public affairs.
With Austria humbled, only England remained at war with France. The Directory appointed Napoleon to command the army intended for the invasion of England.
- A direct invasion, however, appeared impossible without a powerful fleet, and Napoleon instead advised the Directory to fit out an expedition for the conquest of Egypt — the key to the East — as an indirect blow at England, undermining her supremacy in the East and damaging her commerce.
- The Directors, privately anxious about Napoleon’s growing military predominance, accepted this proposal with a certain sense of relief, glad to see him away from France. Napoleon set sail for Egypt in May 1798.
Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition emerged from a broader, comprehensive Eastern design, aiming both to destroy British power in India and to outflank Europe by way of Constantinople.
- The conquest of Egypt would provide an invaluable base for operations against both Turkey, whose dismemberment he sought, and India, from which he hoped to expel the English.
Eluding the vigilance of the British fleet, Napoleon reached Egypt — conquering Malta en route — and won the famous Battle of the Pyramids, which made him master of the basin of the Nile.
- However, the English admiral Nelson followed closely, and at the Battle of the Nile, completely destroyed the French fleet.
- This victory entirely cut off Bonaparte and his army from communication with France. Napoleon subsequently invaded Syria but failed there, and eventually returned to France, leaving his army to its fate.

The Fall of the Directory

The fall of the Directory was brought about as much by the inherent defects of its constitution as by its blundering foreign policy.
- The Directors could not agree amongst themselves, nor with the legislature; besides, there were constant plots and intrigues hatched both by royalists and by extremists within the legislature.
- The Directory stood between these two extremes, seeking to suppress both — resulting in constant friction, leading to a series of coups d’état, or appeals to force, aimed at keeping the party that had framed the constitution in power.
  - The first of these was directed against the monarchical party — with the aid of troops sent by Napoleon, two Directors and a number of royalist deputies were expelled from office.
  - Another was directed against the radical republicans, who, under Babeuf, the communist, sought to complete the social revolution.
The Directory’s foreign policy was as unprincipled and aggressive as its domestic policy was weak and unpopular.
- During Napoleon’s absence in Egypt, the French had invaded Switzerland, replaced her old constitution, and established a new Republic in its place.
- The Pope was humiliated, and a Republic established at Rome.
- The government of Holland was reorganised along French lines.
- Geneva was annexed to France, and Piedmont occupied by French troops.
These acts of wanton aggression, combined with news that Bonaparte was shut up in Egypt, enabled England to form a new coalition of European powers, comprising England, Austria, and Russia.
- In one brief campaign, Russia undid Napoleon’s earlier work in Italy, and the coalition proved successful everywhere — the French were driven out of both Germany and Italy.
The Directory was thoroughly discredited by these reverses. It was also losing its hold on public opinion owing to a lack of harmony among the Directors themselves, and between the Legislature and the Directory.
- The government of the Directory proved tyrannical without being efficient, alienating every class of society:
  - Capitalists were alarmed by its policy of forced loans.
  - Labourers resented the suppression of Babeuf’s Conspiracy.
  - The religious feeling of the provincials was outraged by the persecution of Catholicism.
- Lacking genuine popular support, the Directors could maintain their position only with the help of the army, and became further unpopular as their foreign policy landed France in defeat and disgrace.
Steady government at home, and better generalship abroad, were demanded by all.
- Taking advantage of the Directory’s unpopularity, Abbé Sieyès, one of the Directors himself, sought to overthrow the government and establish a new constitution.
- He was seeking a suitable agent for this purpose, and it was at this very moment that Napoleon returned to France from Egypt.
Sieyès and Napoleon together organised a coup d’état, dispersing the Legislature by military force and overthrowing the Directory on 9 November 1799.
- A provisional Consulate was appointed to draw up a new constitution and carry on the government.
- Sieyès, Ducos, and Bonaparte were appointed as the three Consuls.

Conclusion

The story of the National Convention is, in many ways, the story of the French Revolution’s central paradox — a body capable of producing both the metric system and the guillotine, both the Louvre Museum and the Law of Suspects. Confronted with genuine existential threats from a hostile European coalition and internal counter-revolution alike, the Convention resorted to the extraordinary machinery of the Reign of Terror, only to see that machinery consume its own architects — first the Hébertists, then the Dantonists, and finally Robespierre himself. The Thermidorian Reaction brought a measure of relief, but the Directory that followed proved constitutionally unstable and strategically overreaching, its unprincipled foreign policy and internal divisions ultimately paving the way for a young general returned from Egypt to seize power. In this sense, the Convention’s turbulent three years set in motion the very forces — military glory, executive weakness, and popular exhaustion with instability — that would soon deliver France into the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte.