List of political groups in the French Revolution

During the French Revolution (1789–1799), multiple differing political groups, clubs, organisations and militias arose, which could often be further subdivided into rival factions. Every group had its own ideas about what the goals of the Revolution were and which course France (and surrounding countries) should follow. They struggled to carry out these plans at the cost of other groups. Various kinds of groups played an important role, such as citizens' clubs, parliamentarians, governmental institutions and paramilitary movements.

The National Convention in 1792
  The Plain
  The Mountain
  Girondins
  • Girondins (named after the Gironde department, where many of its prominent members came from; initially they were also called Brissotins after their leader Jacques Pierre Brissot): faction of liberal republicans who were primarily supported by the wealthy bourgeoisie from Southern and Western France. They consisted of the right-wing of the Jacobins and were staunch defenders of the rights of man and popular sovereignty against a centralised state governed from Paris. The Girondins desired to export the Revolution to the rest of Europe and therefore urged on war with Austria and Prussia (20 April 1792). They played a central role in the fall of the monarchy (21 September 1792) and the execution of the deposed king, Louis XVI (21 January 1793). Faced by the rise of The Mountain, the Girondins showed increasingly royalist tendencies in the spring of 1793. They were overthrown by the Montagnard insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 and their leaders were guillotined.[7]
  • The Plain (La Plaine), also pejoratively known as The Marsh (Le Marais) or Maraisards (Marsh-dwellers), was a container term for a large group of parliamentarians who held middle-ground views and inside the National Convention were seated on the lowest benches. Ideologically, they were most closely affiliated with the Girondins, but they barely dared to speak out against the radical Montagnards.[5]
  • The Mountain (La Montagne, also called the Montagnards, literally Mountain-dwellers, because they were seated on the highest benches in Parliament): grouping of radical and leftist politicians in the Legislative Assembly and National Convention (1792–1795).[8] Their members came from the clubs of the Cordeliers and the left-wing of the Jacobins[5] and sought to establish a radical-democratic republic centrally governed from Paris. From June 1793 until July 1794, the Montagnards dominated French politics and the Reign of Terror was conducted under the leadership of Robespierre.[9] Notably after their takeover in June 1793, The Mountain can be thought of as consisting of three rival factions that vied for control, namely the Hébertists (radical leftist Cordeliers), the Dantonists (moderate and more right-wing Cordeliers) and in between them Robespierre and his Jacobin followers (who together are sometimes called Robespierrists).
  • Hébertists: radical left-wing of The Mountain primarily made up of Cordeliers. They are named for their leader Jacques Hébert and were outspoken atheists, anti-Christians and republicans. They invented the Cult of Reason as an alternative Enlightened worldview to replace all religions. On 13 March 1794, the Hébertist leaders were arrested and they were executed on 24 March by the order of Robespierre.[10]
  • Dantonists: right-wing of The Mountain. They are named after their leader Georges Danton, a cofounder of the Cordeliers Club and from April until July 1793 the de facto head of the French government. After Robespierre seized power, Danton (who reconciled with Catholicism) and his allies tried to moderate and stabilise the Revolution. However, this brought them into conflict with the radical leftist Hébertists who wished to push the Revolution even further. Robespierre had the Dantonist leaders (including Danton himself and Camille Desmoulins) arrested on 30 March 1794 and executed on 5 April 1794.[11]
  • Thermidorians: a group of Montagnards who conspired against Robespierre's regime and staged a coup d'état on 27 July 1794 (9 Thermidor Year II), known as the Thermidorian Reaction, which overthrew Robespierre and saw him and his associates executed two days later.[12] As moderate republicans, the Thermidorians tried to calm down the Revolution and closed most Jacobin clubs across France.[13] These events triggered the right-wing royalist and anti-revolutionary First White Terror, especially aimed against Montagnards and Jacobins in the Rhône valley and southern Brittany.[9] However, a royalist coup d'état on 13 Vendémiaire (5 October 1795) was crushed by general Napoleon Bonaparte.[13] With the Constitution of the Year III, the Thermidorians established the Directory as the executive power (replacing Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety) and replaced the National Convention by the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Ancients, as the bicameral legislative power.[14]

Maximilien Robespierre, Georges Danton and Jean-Paul Marat in a portrait by Alfred Loudet, 1882 (Musée de la Révolution française)

See also

References
  1. Encarta, s.v. "slavernij §4. De strijd tegen de slavernij".
  2. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Jakobijnen". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
  3. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Robespierre, Maximilien de".
  4. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Cordeliers, Club der".
  5. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Nationale Conventie".
  6. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Feuillants".
  7. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Girondijnen".
  8. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Montagnards".
  9. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "terreur".
  10. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Hébert, Jacques René".
  11. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Danton, Georges Jacques".
  12. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "thermidor".
  13. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Franse Revolutie. §1.3 Het Directoire.
  14. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Directoire [geschiedenis]".
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