During the French Revolution The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, 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 Enlightenment principles of citizenship and, the National Convention or Convention, in France France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ or /ˈfrɑːns/; French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the, comprised the constitutional A constitution is set of rules for government — often codified as a written document — that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of and legislative assembly A deliberative assembly is an organization comprising members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 (the 4th of Brumaire of the year IV under the French Republican Calendar The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar was a calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days in 1871 in Paris adopted by the Convention). It held executive power In the study of political science the executive branch of government has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the democratic idea of the separation of powers in France during the first years of the French First Republic The French First Republic was founded on 22 September, 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon. This period is characterized by the fall of the monarchy, the establishment of the National Convention and the infamous Reign of Terror, the. It was succeeded by the Directory The Executive Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate. The period of this regime (2 November 1795 until 10 November 1799), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) era, constitutes the second to last stage of the French Revolution, commencing 2 November 1795. Prominent members of the original Convention included Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his arrest and execution in 1 of the Jacobin Club The Jacobin Club was the largest and most powerful political club of the French Revolution. It originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles as a group of Breton deputies to the Estates General of 1789. At the height of its influence, there were thousands of chapters throughout France, with a membership estimated at 420,000. After the fall, Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat , was a Swiss-born physician, political theorist and scientist better known as a radical journalist and politician from the French Revolution. His journalism was renowned for its fiery character and uncompromising stance towards the new government, "enemies of the revolution" and basic reforms for the poorest members of (affiliated with the Jacobins, though never a formal member), and Georges Danton Georges Jacques Malisiagran cherich Danton was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the of the Cordeliers The Cordeliers, also known as the Club of the Cordeliers and formally as the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen comprised a populist society during the French Revolution. From 1793 to 1794, executive power was de facto De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established". It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique (such exercised by the Convention's Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety , set up by the National Convention in July of 1793, formed the de facto executive government of France during the Reign of Terror (1793-4) of the French Revolution. Under war conditions and with national survival seemingly at stake, the Jacobins, under Maximilien Robespierre, centralized denunciations, trials, and.

Formation

During the insurrection On 10 August 1792, during the French Revolution, a mob — with the backing of a new municipal government of Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary" Paris Commune — besieged the Tuileries palace. King Louis XVI and the royal family took shelter with the Legislative Assembly. This proved to be the effective end of the of 10 August 1792, when the populace of Paris Paris (pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ or /ˈpɛrəs/ in English; [paʁi] in French) is the capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (also known as the "Paris Region"; French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its limits largely stormed the Tuileries The Palais des Tuileries was a royal palace in Paris. It stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune. It closed off the western end of the Louvre courtyard, which has remained open since the destruction of the palace and demanded the abolition of the monarchy There is no clear definition of monarchy. Holding unlimited political power in the state is not the defining characteristic, as many constitutional monarchies such as the United Kingdom and Thailand are considered monarchies. Hereditary rule is often a common characteristic, but elective monarchies are also considered monarchies and some states, the Legislative Assembly During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from October 1, 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI Louis XVI ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the only king of France to be executed and the convocation of a "national convention" which should draw up a constitution. At the same time it was decided that deputies to that convention A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom. Trade conventions typically focus on a particular industry or industry segment, and feature keynote should be elected by all Frenchmen 25 years old or more, domiciled for a year and living by the product of their labour. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by universal male suffrage, without distinctions of class. The age limit of the electors was further lowered to 21, and that of eligibility was fixed at 25 years.

The first session was held 20 September 1792. The following day, royalty was abolished During the French Revolution, the proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy was a proclamation by the National Convention of France announcing that it had abolished the French monarchy on 21 September 1792: this became the informal end of the French monarchy. A little over a year later, 22 September would become the base date of the new French Revolutionary Calendar The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar was a calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days in 1871 in Paris, the beginning of the Year I The term "Year One" in political history usually refers to the institution of radical, revolutionary change. This usage dates from the time of the French Revolution: after the abolition of the French monarchy , the National Convention instituted the new French Revolutionary Calendar, declaring that date as the beginning of the Year I of of the French Republic The French First Republic was founded on 22 September, 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon. This period is characterized by the fall of the monarchy, the establishment of the National Convention and the infamous Reign of Terror, the.^[1]

Revolutionary government

The Convention lasted for three years and came after the National Assembly and Legislative Assembly. The country was at war The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states. Marked by French revolutionary fervour and military innovations, the campaigns saw the French Revolutionary Armies defeat a number of opposing coalitions and expand French control to, and it seemed best to postpone the implementation of the new constitution until peace should be concluded. At the same time, as the Convention prolonged its powers, it extended them considerably in order to meet the pressing dangers which menaced the Republic A republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a hereditary monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "public affairs".

Although it was a legislative assembly, it took over the executive power In the study of political science the executive branch of government has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the democratic idea of the separation of powers, entrusting it to its own members. This "confusion of powers", contrary to the philosophical theories — those of Montesquieu Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu , was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Era of the Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the especially — which had inspired the Revolution at first, was one of the essential characteristics of the Convention. The series of exceptional measures by which that confusion of powers was created constitutes the "Revolutionary government" in the strict sense of the word, a government which was principally in vigour during the period called the "Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror , also known as the The Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of violence that occurred four years and two months after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution." Estimates". There is thus a distinction to be made, discussing the Convention, between these temporary expedients and those measures intended to be permanent.

The first years of the Convention were the height of the importance of the revolutionary political clubs such as the Jacobins and Cordeliers; the informally constituted Girondists The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution. The Girondists were a group of individuals who held certain opinions and principles in common rather than an organized political party, and the name was at first informally applied because the most brilliant, although past the peak of their power, were also an important factor. By the end of the Convention, most prominent members of all of these groups were dead, the bulk of them victims either of the Terror or of the Thermidorian Reaction The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public Safety to execute Robespierre, Saint-Just and several other leading members of the Terror. This ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution that brought the Terror to an end.^[2]

Structure and membership

The Convention held its first session in a hall of the Tuileries, then it sat in the Salle du Manège, and finally from 10 May 1793 in that of the Spectacles (or Machine), an immense hall in which the deputies were but loosely scattered. This last hall had tribunes Tribune was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. Also, the tribune could summon the Senate and lay proposals before it. The tribune's power, however, was only in effect while for the public, who often influenced the debate by interruptions or by applause.^[3]

The members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. Seventy-five members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly, 183 in the Legislative Assembly During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from October 1, 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention. The full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris. Besides these, however, the newly-formed départements In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies, a department is an administrative division roughly analogous to an English district, a United States county or a Scottish region. The 100 French departments are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas regions. All regions have annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations. Many of the original deputies died or were exiled during the Convention, but not all their places were filled by suppléants. Some members proscribed during the Terror returned after the legislative coup of 9 Thermidor began the Thermidorian Reaction. Finally, many members were sent away, either to the départments or to the armies, on missions which lasted sometimes for a considerable length of time. For all these reasons it is difficult to find out the number of deputies present at any given date, for votes by roll-call were rare. During the Terror the number of those voting averaged only 250.

According to its own ruling, the Convention elected its president every fortnight. He was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, often extending late into the night. Sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole". Committees often serve several different functions:, with powers more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these committees included the Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety , set up by the National Convention in July of 1793, formed the de facto executive government of France during the Reign of Terror (1793-4) of the French Revolution. Under war conditions and with national survival seemingly at stake, the Jacobins, under Maximilien Robespierre, centralized denunciations, trials, and (Comité de salut public), the Committee of General Security The Committee of General Security was a French parliamentary committee which acted as police agency during the French Revolution that, along with the Committee of Public Safety, oversaw the Reign of Terror (Comité de sûreté générale), and the Committee of Education, (Comité de l’instruction).

Legacy

The article on the Convention in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the day. This edition of the encyclopedia is now in the public domain, but some of its out-of- concludes, "The Convention achieved immense changes in all branches of French public affairs. To appreciate its work without prejudice, one should recall that this assembly saved France from a civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, that is sustained, organized and large-scale. Civil wars and invasion, that it founded the system of public education (Museum, École Polytechnique The École Polytechnique is the foremost French engineering school. Known for its extremely competitive entrance exam, it produces graduates that occupy outstanding positions in industry and research. Among its alumni are several Nobel prizes winners and many CEOs of French and international companies, École Normale Supérieure The École normale supérieure is a French grande école (higher education establishment outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system). The ENS was initially conceived during the Revolution, and intended to provide the Republic with a new body of teachers, trained in the critical spirit and secular values of the Enlightenment, École des langues orientales, Conservatoire A university school of music or college of music, or academy of music or conservatoire — also known as a conservatory (American and British English) or a conservatorium (Australian English) — is a higher education institution dedicated to teaching the art of music, including the playing of musical instruments, singing, musical composition,), created institutions of capital importance, like that of the Grand Livre de la Dette publique, and definitely established the social and political gains of the Revolution." By a decree of 4 February 1794 (16 pluviôse) it also ratified and expanded to the whole French colonial empire The French colonial empire is the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 1600s to the late 1960s . In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire extended over 12,347,000 km² (4,767,000 sq. miles) of the 1793 abolition of slavery Abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical religious groups condemned it as un-Christian on Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue is the French version of the Spanish name Santo Domingo. The Arawak, Carib and Tainos people occupied the island before the arrival of the Spaniards. When Christopher Columbus took possession of the island on December 5, 1492, he named it La Española, meaning "The Spanish ". The Latin translation Hispaniola was soon in by civil commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel Étienne Polverel was one of two French Revolutionary Civil Commissioners who ended slavery in Saint-Domingue in 1793 during the Haïtian Revolution, though this did not affect Martinique Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, having a land area of 1,128 km2 . It is an overseas department of France. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia. As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is also one of the twenty-six regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic. As or Guadeloupe and was abolished by the law of 20 May 1802.

See also

• The Legislative Assembly and the fall of the French monarchy
• Girondist
• The Mountain
• Georges Jacques Danton
• Maximilien Robespierre
• Marat

External links

• Presidents of the National Convention: 1792-1795

Notes

1. ^ The Stage, 1792-1794
2. ^ The National Convention: The Revolution's Most Radical Phase. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History
3. ^ The National Convention 1906

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, in turn, gives the following references:

References from the 1911 Britannica article

The Convention published a Procès-verbal of its sessions, which, although lacking the value of those published by later assemblies, forms an official document of capital importance. Copies of it are rare, however, and it has been too much neglected by historians. See:

• F. A. Aulard, Recueil des actes du comité de Salut Public avec la correspondance officielle des représentants en mission, et le registre du conseil exécutif provisoire (Paris, 1889 et seq.)
• M. J. Guillaume, Procès-verbaux du comité d’Instruction Publique de la Convention Nationale (Paris, 1891 - 1904, 5 vols. 4to)
• F. A. Aulard, Histoire politique de la Révolution francaise (Paris, 1903)
• Mortimer-Ternaux, Histoire de la Terreur (1862 - 1881), a work based on and comprising documents, but written with strong royalist bias
• Eugene Despois, Le Vandalisme révolutionnaire (1868), for the scientific work of the Convention.

A detailed bibliography of the documents relating to the Convention is given in the Repertoire général des sources manuscrites de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution française, vol. viii. &c. (1908), edited by A. Tueléy under the auspices of the municipality of Paris. For a more summary bibliography see Jean Maurice Tourneux, Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution française, i. 89-95 (Paris, 1890).

Categories: 1792 establishments | 1795 disestablishments | 1792 events of the French Revolution | 1793 events of the French Revolution | 1794 events of the French Revolution | 1795 events of the French Revolution | Historical legislatures | Government of France | Provisional governments

See Also:

• National Convention
• Newfoundland National Convention
• Convent
• Convention
• Conventicle

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