5 Steps to a 5TM AP European History

The French Revolution and Empire (^) ‹ 125
The Division of the National Assembly into Political Factions
The development of political factions within the Assembly revealed the differing opinions
about the goals and aims of the Revolution that had always lurked under the surface of
its united front against the nobility and the clergy. In October 1791, an attempt to defuse
factional rivalries by dissolving the National Assembly and electing a new Legislative
Assembly failed to solve the problem.
The Rise of a Politicized Laboring Faction: The Sans-Culottes
From the beginning, the Parisian crowd and its willingness to do violence had been a factor
in the Revolution. But it had been a force with essentially traditional and conservative
aims, insisting that the king pay attention to, and take proper care of, his people. By 1792,
the crowd was different; the working people (bakers, shopkeepers, artisans, and manual
laborers, characterized by their long working pants) were now seen attending meetings of
political clubs and discussing the reforms that were still needed, reforms that would bring
about true equality.
Once the men and women of the sans-culottes began to assert themselves, political power
belonged to whomever they supported. This fact became evident on August 10, 1792,
when a crowd stormed first the royal palace and then the hall of the Assembly. Unable to
resist the crowd, the leaders of the Assembly voted to depose and imprison the king and to
immediately convene a new National Convention to deal with the crises facing the country.
The Vote to End the French Monarchy
The membership of the National Convention was elected by universal manhood suf-
frage, where each adult male was entitled to a single vote. Accordingly, the members of
the National Convention, particularly the Jacobin faction, were more radical than their
predecessors. In September 1792, the Convention voted to abolish the monarchy and
to proclaim France a republic. It also managed to reorganize the French army and push
the invading Austrian and Prussian forces back across the border. When the Convention
proclaimed the war an extension of the Revolution and vowed to carry it anywhere people
yearned for liberty and freedom, the monarchies of Europe responded by forming a coali-
tion to crush the Revolution.
In January 1793, the Convention put Louis XVI on trial for treason. The debate that
followed his conviction revealed a split between two powerful factions within the Convention.
The Girondins, drawn from the provincial bourgeoisie, were concerned by growing extrem-
ism and violence of the Revolution, illustrated by the September massacres, in which mobs
of Parisians killed prisoners feared to be planning counterrevolutionary action. Accordingly,
they mostly opposed execution of the King. The Jacobins, whose members came from the
lower strata of the bourgeoisie, were adamant that he must die. The vote was close, but the
Jacobins prevailed, and Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine on January 21, 1793.
A New Constitution and Robespierre’s Reign of Terror
The execution of the king, combined with a decision to increase the number of men
conscripted into the army, caused large anti-Convention uprisings throughout France.
In Paris, the Jacobins used the revolt as an opportunity to purge the Girondins from the
Convention. In June 1793, a Jacobin-led mob occupied the Convention hall and refused
to leave until the Girondins resigned. Those Girondins who refused to resign were arrested.
The purged Convention then passed the Law of the Maximum to cap the price of bread
and other essentials and drafted a new constitution that guaranteed universal manhood
suffrage, universal education, and subsistence wages. In order to secure the egalitarian,
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