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Committee of Public Safety
April 1793
Facing unrest and military setbacks, the Convention created a smaller committee to oversee the defense of the republic. The body went on to exercise broad wartime powers, showing how quickly a revolution that began with a demand for representation could concentrate authority.
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Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793
May 31 to June 2, 1793
Pressure from Parisian militants forced the Convention to remove leading Girondin deputies. For the deputies who remained, this settled one struggle over power. For opponents of the Convention outside Paris, it strengthened the argument that the capital was dictating the course of the revolution.
More about Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 179324
French Constitution of 1793
June 1793
The Convention adopted a constitution that extended the vote to adult men on broad terms. The government suspended its implementation during the war. Its promises and the regime that actually governed France were soon two very different things.
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Levée en masse
August 23, 1793
The Convention ordered a mass mobilization to meet the demands of the war. Its decree assigned work as well as military service: keeping armies in the field became a responsibility for people who were far from the fighting.
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Reign of Terror
From September 1793
Under emergency government, the authorities used courts and local committees to pursue people considered enemies of the revolution. The Terror was a system of government. Its reach depended on how those institutions used their powers in Paris and in the provinces.
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Law of Suspects
September 17, 1793
The law gave authorities wide grounds for arresting people deemed hostile to the republic. Conduct, words, and associations could help put someone in the category of suspect. This is a turning point in how the Terror reached people who had never taken up arms against the government.
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General Maximum
September 29, 1793
The Convention capped wages and the price of essentials such as meat, fuel, and soap. The law put the government in charge of more than the cost of food. It also limited how much workers could earn to pay for it.
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French Republican calendar
Autumn 1793
The Convention replaced the old calendar and counted the years from the beginning of the republic. The new months followed seasonal themes. That is why later turning points appear under unfamiliar names such as Thermidor and Brumaire.
More about French Republican calendar30
End of slavery in France
February 4, 1794
The Convention decreed the abolition of slavery in the French colonies and extended citizenship regardless of color. The decree's wording reached much farther than Paris could enforce uniformly. It still changed the terms of the revolution by putting an end to slavery into national law.
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Law of 22 Prairial
June 10, 1794
The new rules for the Revolutionary Tribunal restricted the ability of defendants to answer the accusations against them. For deputies already afraid of being denounced, the law made a trial seem a less credible safeguard.
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Thermidorian Reaction
July 27–28, 1794
The Convention moved against Maximilien Robespierre, who was executed with allies the following day. The defeat broke the leadership behind the latest phase of the Terror. France still had a republic, but the people who could exercise power in its name changed again.
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13 Vendémiaire
October 5, 1795
A Paris uprising challenged plans for the government that would replace the Convention. A young Napoleon Bonaparte helped suppress it. Before he ever seized power himself, Bonaparte had already become a figure to whom a revolutionary government could turn when its survival was in doubt.
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French Directory
1795
A new constitution gave France two legislative chambers and an executive of five directors. The division of power was a response to how much authority had accumulated under the Convention. It created a republic with more checks on paper, while elections and executive power remained hard to reconcile.
More about French Directory35
Coup of 18 Fructidor
September 1797
Directors moved to nullify unfavorable election results after candidates on the right made gains. This was a warning sign for the Directory: its leaders were prepared to set aside what voters had decided in order to keep power.
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Coup of 18 Brumaire
November 9–10, 1799
Bonaparte and his allies brought down the Directory, opening the way to government under the Consulate. The upheaval that began with competing claims to represent the nation ended this decade with much more authority in the executive.
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