The year is
1793,
Louis 16 has just been executed.
France is devastated by its civil war and is now threatened by the first coalition
Paranoia and terror, oh,
terror grips the country by its throw as the people demand more and more purges.
As a result almost,
17,000 were executed in just over a year.
France now lives under the tyranny of the Committee of Public Safety,
with at its head,
Maximilien
Robespierre.
In March 1793,
as violence grew within the streets of Paris, Danton, with the support of Robespierre, proposed the creation of a
Revolutionary Tribunal with extraordinary powers to impose the death sentence. At first the deputies of the National Convention
opposed the idea but Danton reminded them the September massacres and
claimed that more would occur if they didn't take justice in their own hands. In his own words,
"Let us be terrible so that the people will not have to be." And thus was created the
Revolutionary Tribunal, the first cog in the instrument of the terror.
On April 5th, General Dumoriez, who had been campaigning in Belgium against the first coalition,
defected to the Austrians following his failure to persuade his troops to march on Paris and overthrow the provisional government.
This, coupled with growing revolts within the country,
especially in the Vendée region, meant that the provisional government felt increasingly vulnerable to both external and internal actors.
One solution! The creation of a committee that could use all the power of the
Revolutionary Tribunal to destroy the enemies of France. "A hand to grasp the weapon of the
Revolutionary Tribunal," as Danton put it.
That hand was created the following day and was closely tied to the leadership of Danton.
So much so that despite being named the Committee of Public Safety, it was better known as the Danton Committee
They governed the war and appointed generals. It appointed the judge and juries of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
Provisioned the armies and the public. Maintained public order and oversaw the entire bureaucracy of the state.
With such a broad mandate,
it wouldn't be long before the Committee of Public Safety
started to become the de facto government of France and thus its leader, Danton, the ruler of France.
Yet, despite his fulgurant rise in power,
he left his position in the Committee of Public Safety on July 10th, following the downfall of the Girondins.
His reasons are unsure - some believed he was simply tired of dealing with Frances growing struggles while others claim
it was a calculated shot to later strengthen his power. Nevertheless, his absence meant that
Robespierre was asked to join the committee, which he agreed to reluctantly two weeks later. Along with him,
he brought his closest supporters,
especially Saint-Just, a radical politician that became the youngest deputy of the convention at only 25, and
Couthon, a talented,
paraplegic lawyer whose laws would allow the worst acts of the terror.
And while all 12 members of the committee were supposed to be equal, the overwhelming
hold that the mountain had on the committee made Robespierre a clear leader.
And while all 12 members were
reappointed monthly, it soon became clear that some people were more appointed than not.
In the summer following the election of Robespierre to the committee,
France was further split apart by the delivery of Toulon to the English and the numerous Federalist revolts that followed the
elimination of the Girondins. Above all, on August 23rd, the National Convention decreed a
"Levée en Masse", which conscripted all unmarried and able-bodied young men. The first of its kind in Europe,
but this fueled further discontentment within the provinces as the Vendée rebels were now openly at war against the
revolutionary government.
A war that would come to kill
170,000 locals as both Royalists and Republicans alike
massacred the local populace.
On September 4th, the sans-culottes storm once more the National Convention
demanding further measures against rising prices as well as a strengthening of the terror to target anybody suspected of conspiring
against the republic no matter how little.
The following day, Barère built on these extremist sentiments by making an inflammatory speech.
"It is time that equality bore its scythe above all heads. It is time to horrify all the conspirators,
So
legislators, place Terror on the order of the day.
Let us be in revolution because everywhere counter-revolution is being woven by our enemies.
The blade of the law should hover over all the guilty." Terror was now the official policy
of the convention.
This stressed the idea that the Revolutionary Government should and would use any means necessary to ensure that citizens
complied to its laws.
This was enforced by the creation, two days later, of a
revolutionary army made of sans-culottes. An army that would be increasingly used as
harsher
and harsher laws were implemented by the Committee of Public Safety in order to defeat the enemies of the nation.
One of these laws was the Law of Suspects, which significantly
weakened individual freedoms as they allowed the committee to arrest anyone suspected of treason, whether it was hoarding,
royalism or simply disapproving with how violent the revolution had turned.
Furthermore, the law removed any presumption of innocence thus making you guilty until proven innocent.
That same month the committee's scope and power were further strengthened by the Law of the General Maximum, which imposed price and wage controls.
And while it was meant to target price gougers and rent-seekers, it mostly ended up affecting small
businesses and farmers who were harassed by the
Revolutionary Army into surrendering the little food they had. It is thanks to these laws that the
Revolutionary Police, named the Committee of General Safety, whose members were appointed by the Committee of Public Safety,
were able to imprison more than
300,000 individuals during the Reign of Terror. And while these laws failed to curtail food
shortages in France, and in fact worsened them as price controls discouraged any food production, they did
significantly strengthen Robespierre's grasp on the country and his ability to spread the terror.
So much that on October 10th, the convention abolished the Constitution and recognized the Committee of Public Safety as the "Supreme
Revolutionary Government."
Government officials now no longer reported to the National Convention but to the committee itself,
thus making its members to dictatorial leaders of the country with at its head,
Maximilien Robespierre. But Robespierre's rise didn't occur without creating some friction as
factions from both sides of the political spectrum
rose against him. On one side, Danton and his supporters called "The Indulgents"
protested further and further against the reign of terror. One of Danton's supporters being Camille Desmoulins,
a young journalist whose speech had rallied the mob into storming the Bastille in 1789.
But above all, Desmoulins was his classmate and old friend.
He had even made Robespierre the Godfather of his only child and for someone like Robespierre, who had always been
isolated, timid and introverted, one can imagine the pain and abandonment he felt.
Much like what he had felt when his father abandoned his siblings and him following the death of his mother
when he was only six years old.
On the other side,
there was the "Hébertists", radical sans-culottes led by the bloodthirsty calls for violence and persecution
of Père Duchesne, a character that Jacques Hébert had created for his popular and crude journal of the same name.
Through his writings, Hébert regularly incited a merciless brutality against the enemies of the revolution
such as those the Girondins, who were eventually arrested and executed as we have previously discussed.
And stuck in the middle was him, Robespierre.
Increasingly powerful, yes, but also increasingly lonely.
Increasingly distant from his ideals, but also those around him.
Increasingly overwhelmed by the events surrounding him, and torn apart by the growing
discontentment of those who asked for more blood and those who asked for less.
Earlier that year, in a Jacobin meeting, Robespierre had confessed,
"Exhausted by four years of difficult and fruitless work,
I sense that my physical and moral resources are no longer at the level required by a great revolution..."
We are now in 1794, Robespierre didn't know it, but this would be the last year of his life.
Well, this was Baris, I will see you soon but until then my friends,
merde!