The eleventh month of the French Republican calendar (1793–1806) is called Thermidor. Therefore, the Thermidorian coup is also often called this short term, meaning the destruction of the Jacobin dictatorship and the beginning of a conservative turn.
Cessation of revolutionary activity
It is believed that the French Revolution ended as a result of the Brumaire coup of 1799, when the Directory was overthrown and Napoleon Bonaparte came to power.
In this regard, the question of whether the revolution ended or continued after the Thermidorian coup can be answered that the activity that began after the storming of the Bastille and whose slogan was “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” certainly ended in July 1794 of the year. The conservatives came to power, with whom Maximilian Robespierre, executed by them, fought.
Destroying even the memory of the revolution
Jacobin revolutionariesguillotined without trial or investigation, within two days about 100 people were executed - the main functionaries of the Commune. In the entire bloody history of the French Revolution, this was the most massive execution. The Thermidorian coup marked the beginning of the reaction, in 1795 the Commune was abolished, like the rest of the revolutionary committees, including the Revolutionary Tribunal. The word "revolutionary" was generally banned as a symbol of the Jacobin period. A moderate grouping of the Convention came to power, reflecting the interests of the bourgeoisie.
New constitution
They were no longer revolutionaries, but were deputies of the Convention and belonged to the "regicides", as they participated in the trial of the king. By virtue of their convictions, they were ardent opponents of the monarchy, but implacable enemies of the revolutionaries. And although at first the system of state bodies created by the Jacobins was used by them, it gradually collapsed, some of its institutions, like the Committee of National Salvation, were abolished as unnecessary.
The Thermidorian coup meant the rejection of the revolution, and in order to destroy the still existing associations with these traditions, the Thermidorians decide to return to the constitutional order. But the Jacobin constitution, which never came into force, did not suit them even with the amendments made. Seeing it as "organized anarchy", the Thermidorians set about writing their main document, which is known in history as the Constitution of the III year of the Republic.
The end of the era of terror
The Thermidorian coup is not only an important stage of the French Revolution, but also its most interesting moment, because it was supported by the people, although it was directed against democracy. How did the Jacobins manage to revolutionize the minds of the French in a period of only September 1793 to July 1794? This time is designated in history as the "era of terror", which, in fact, is the answer to the question.
Based on all of the above, the Thermidorian coup can be briefly described as an attempt to stop the bloodshed in the first place. The first step was the transfer of power from the National Salvation Committee to the National Convention - the repressive body was eliminated.
Achievements of the Jacobin dictatorship
Initially, the Jacobin dictatorship relied on very broad sections of the population, in particular wage workers and the petty bourgeoisie. In addition, the revolutionaries created effective authorities - the legislative body of the Convention, the government in the form of the Committee of Public Safety. The Convention was subject to a judicial body - the Revolutionary Tribunal, an army was created, controlled by the commissioners of the Convention. And none of the above, which was quite effective, could not protect the dictatorship, despite its certain merits. The Jacobins introduced a maximum on prices for the general population in parallel with the successful struggle against counter-revolutionary elements within the country. The dictatorship managed to defend France, successfully fighting almost all of Europe.
Deadly miscalculations
AndLiterally in two days, everything was reassigned to the new group, which on July 27-28 carried out, in essence, a counter-revolutionary shift of power. What happened? What are the causes and consequences of the Thermidorian upheaval?
The Jacobins made irreparable mistakes, the first of which was the seizure of bread from the peasants. Concern only for the revolutionary-minded residents of the cities led to the discontent of the peasants, which resulted in the Vendée (south of France) uprising, brutally suppressed by the Dictatorship. They caused dissatisfaction among hired workers in the cities by setting a maximum wage. When Robespierre and his supporters were being taken to the place of execution, the crowd of Parisians chanted: "Down with the maximum!"
Deadly Mistake
But the most important mistake of the Jacobins was their bloody terror. 44,000 committees throughout France caught and executed dozens of "suspicious" people every day. The Jacobins had their own executioners, who went down in history because of terrible atrocities. One of the most brutal commissars of the Convention, Jean-Baptiste Carrier, who defeated the uprising in the Vendée, was famous for his "drownings", the first of which was the murder of 90 priests in this way.
No less terrible were the executions of this fanatic. As a result of the Thermidorian coup, an end was put to the era of terror, during which more than 16,000 Frenchmen, mostly representatives of the third estate, were destroyed. Only during the suppression of the Lyon uprising, and strong unrest occurred in Marseille and Bordeaux, destroyed about 2000 residents of the city, andThe Convention decided to wipe Lyon off the face of the earth.
They were friends against Robespierre
Terror took place against the background of the mass impoverishment of the French. There were dissatisfied with the policy of Robespierre and in the Convention. The threat of his own arrest and destruction allowed all the warring factions in the Convention to reconcile within one night and act as a united front against Robespierre, who interfered with both the extreme "left" and the extreme "right" in the legislature. Thus, among the Thermidorian leaders, the "rightists" included: Jean-Lambert Tallien, Paul Barras. The conspiracy was led by the Mentanyars, supporters of the executed Danton, who were thirsting for revenge and rightly fearing for their lives.
Among them stood out Joseph Boucher, known for his massacres of rebellious Lyons. On the part of the "leftists" the counter-revolutionary coup was led by Collot d'Herbois, J. Billaud-Varenne and Marc Vadieu. And Robespierre spoke against them with an accusatory speech, though without naming specific names, on the 27th, declaring them counter-revolutionaries and corrupt officials. Everyone understood perfectly. So not only political considerations, but also personal security are significant reasons for the Thermidorian coup.
Root causes of the coup
In the history of the French Revolution, the Thermidorian coup is called the counter-revolutionary project that led to the fall of the Jacobin dictatorship and the establishment of the Directory. Of course, there were deeper reasons for the defeat of democracy. Thus, the mode of production based on private property was not affected. The Jacobins carried out only the strictest regulation of the sphere of distribution. Always, in times of any state upheavals, a certain class profits from speculation.
During the French Revolution, it was the big bourgeoisie and the prosperous peasantry. For some time, they were forced to endure dictatorship by the fear of the return of feudalism and the restoration of the monarchy. In addition, the people's army managed to maintain the integrity of France and repel external enemies. When all threats were eliminated by the Jacobins, their dictatorship became incompatible with the goals of the bourgeoisie, which had gained strength and aspired to power.
The people defended the leader
The question of what event meant the Thermidorian coup can be answered - Robespierre's speech delivered by him in the Convention on July 26, 1793 and repeated in the Jacobin Club a few hours later. In it, he spoke about the existence of a conspiracy, which prompted those convicted to take concrete action.
The arrest of Robespierre and his supporters did not go smoothly. The poorest sections of the population of Paris rose to his defense. More than 3,000 people, supported by the police, quickly gathered on Greve Square, the head of the prison refused to accept the arrested. The national army also joined the defenders of the leaders of the revolution. The sans-culottes (revolutionary-minded representatives of the third estate) fought off the arrested and escorted them to the town hall.
A crowd without a leader -nothing
And all this suddenly turned against the Jacobins, because the crowd, the police and the army lost their leaders. The Jacobins who remained at large, settled in their club, only signed regular appeals to the people. And the conspirators quickly got their bearings and moved on to action. As soon as Robespierre and his supporters were outlawed, the crowd dispersed, and most of the deputies of the Convention went over to the side of the victorious. Together with Robespierre, Saint-Just was also beheaded, who in the eyes of most Frenchmen was the personification of terror and received the nicknames "Angel of Death" and "Mad Dog". Thus, with the execution of the Jacobin leaders, the revolution was beheaded. And the crowd that demolished the Bastille tried to repel Robespierre at the time of his arrest. As with the guillotining of all previous leaders of the French Revolution, she shouted: “Death to the tyrant!”
Nouveau riche
French historian F. Furet stated that Thermidor brought to power people who had enriched themselves during the revolution and who wholeheartedly wanted to take advantage of the benefits they had obtained, and not try to build a new history of mankind. Immediately after the execution of Robespierre's supporters, the Commune was dissolved, the Jacobin Club was closed. Paris was transformed - it was cleared of garbage, the lights were turned on, order was established and maintained. Trade resumed after Thermidor, leading to increased speculation and prices.
The rich got richer, the poor got poorer
In the spring of 1795, two uprisings broke out, which, especially the second, were suppressed by the new government with demonstrative cruelty. These werethe last popular unrest in the entire history of the French Revolution, which, according to Georges Jacques Danton's dying words, "devoured its children."
After the Thermidorian coup in Paris, as in all of France, the gap between the poor and the rich, who staged a defiant demonstration of luxury, was so great that, according to one journalist, the population of Paris seemed to consist of two nations, completely differing from each other in clothing, language, manners and feelings.
