The Convention

 

Using the war with Austria and the attacks on the royal family as its reasons, the discussions clubs in Paris, including the Jacobins and Robespierre, took control of the government on Sept. 20, 1792.  The Legislative Assembly was dissolved and a new governing body called the Convention was convened.  The Convention was comprised of 749 men.  These men were mostly lawyers but two were workers, one was a peasant and 23 were nobles.  When the Convention was convened the people would sit in a semi-circle facing the president.  The radicals (Jacobins) all sat on the left and the conservatives (Girondins) sat on the right.  The majority of people sat in the middle.  This is where the political terms of right and left come from.  At first the middle group tried to vote on each issue based on its merits but were soon absorbed and controlled by the Girondins.  The Jacobins used the public galleries in the Convention who in turn appealed to the mobs outside to force items through the convention by threats of violence.

 

            The first act of the Convention was to abolish the monarchy and declare France as a republic.  At this point the Convention decided that all links to the past had to be removed.  In a series of proclamations, the Convention:

 

1.           banished forever all émigrés (nobles who had left France)

2.           converted all churches to Temples of Reason.

3.           abolished all titles.  Everyone in France was to be referred to as “citizen”.

4.           abolished the old calendar.  Months, days of the week and holidays were all renamed.

 

In December of 1792, Citizen Capet (Louis XVI) was dragged in front of the Convention for trial.  He was found guilty of treason by a vote of 387 to 334 and was condemned to death.  Louis died bravely in his public execution by guillotine and nine months later Marie Antoinette was also executed.  Their son, Louis XVII died in captivity but his death was never officially recorded.

 

Louis’ execution shocked and angered the outside world.  The Convention however was defiant of any outside interference and said, “Come all kings of Europe against us and we will hurl at their feet in defiance the head of a king.”  Early successes by the French army against other countries gave the Convention a thirst for conquest as they aggressively expanded France’s borders.  Other countries in Europe, at first delighting in the French Revolution as it weakened the country, grew more worried by its aggressiveness.  In 1793, England formed a coalition with Austria, Prussia, Spain, Savoy and Holland to curb France’s aggressive advances into their territories.  This coalition was partially successful in re-establishing the balance of power in Europe and forced France out of several of the territories it had taken in recent years.  A key loss was when an army controlled by a man named Dumouriez defected to Austria.  However, this defection would allow the radicals in the Convention to gain tighter control over the government and implement the Reign of Terror.