Radical Days of the Revolution
Chapter 6.3 (pp. 223-228)
I. The Monarchy is Abolished
A. Tensions lead to violence
i. Prussians attack and win battles against French troops
ii. Parisians storm Tuileries palace, killed king’s guards
iii. “September massacres” – citizens attacked prisons holding
nobles and priests
B. Radicals took control and executed the king
i.
replaced Legislative Assembly
a. More radical than before
b. Voted to abolish monarchy and create French Republic
c. Nobles’ lands seized; titles abolished
d. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed for treason
II. Terror and Danger Grip France
A. France v. Britain, Netherlands, Spain, Prussia
B. Vendée rebellion
C. The Convention created the
i. 12-member group given control of France to deal with threats
ii. levée en masse –
iii. In charge of trials and executions
iv. Successes
a. Defeated Netherlands and invaded Italy
b. Crushed rebellions in France
D. Maximilien Robespierre
i. Jacobin leader of the Committee of Public Safety
ii. Used terror to create a “republic of virtue”
E. The guillotine defines the Reign of Terror
i. 300,000 arrested; 17,000 executed for being antirevolutionary
ii. Guillotine =
iii. Last victim of the terror was
III. The Revolution Enters its Third Stage
A. The Directory replaced the National Convention
i. 5 leaders plus two-house legislature
ii. Problems:
a. War continued
b. Inflation still increasing
c. Many wanted return to monarchy
B. Directory turned to Napoleon for help, but Napoleon made himself sole
ruler instead