As soon as the fall of the Girondins was known, the province, in a vast movement of protest, rose up against the growing hegemony of the Montagnards and of Paris. The Girondin deputies who were able to escape triggered the federalist insurrection in many departments. The assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday, influenced by deputies who had taken refuge in Caen, was one of the manifestations of this movement.
Faced with an increasingly stormy internal situation and a perpetual threat of invasion, a government of the revolutionary type is gradually established, in the most rigorous sense of the term. As early as April 6, the day after Dumouriez's betrayal, a committee of public safety was set up with nine members, among whom Danton played the essential role. There are notably Robert Lindet, Barère and Cambon. Elected in principle for one month, within the Convention, he will be renewed in May and June. Five representatives, responsible for helping to prepare the Constitution, were added in May. During the July renewal, Danton is eliminated. Gradually, during the summer, the grand committee of Year II was formed. Robespierre, Carnot, Prior of the Côte d'Or, Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois, Barère, Gasparin, Lindet, Couthon, Saint-Just and Jean Bon Saint-André make it up. Until 9-Thermidor, animated by a single will, to save the Republic, this committee accomplished an overwhelming task, the restoration of the internal and external situation. Almighty as long as its members remain united, forgetting sometimes deep dissensions, it will be lost when they rise up against each other.
Previous to the Committee of Public Safety, the Safety Committee general was created on October 2, 1792. In charge of the general police, the surveillance of prisons, the arrest of suspects, he will in fact create the conditions for the exercise of Terror. Among its members, fierce revolutionaries like Vadier or Amar, moderates like Bayle.
Faced with the external dangers, the defeats of Belgium, sections asked for the creation of an exceptional court. Danton supported this proposal and, on March 10, despite the protests of the Girondins, the Revolutionary Tribunal was created. His public prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, soon acquired a sinister reputation. On March 21, after the defeat at Neerwinden, the surveillance committees were decreed. First responsible for the surveillance of foreigners, they will be, on September 17, of that of suspects and will play a considerable role in the development of the Terror. Other instruments of the revolutionary government, the representatives on mission, in the departments or in the armies. They too — Saint-Just has remained its symbol — accomplish a considerable amount of work. not to allow oneself to be overwhelmed by the sans-culottes and the sections, not to alienate the bourgeoisie favorable to the revolutionary movement, not to encourage the federalist insurrection by excesses. Protecting property, the Mountain also strives to satisfy peasant demands, through laws on the sale of emigrants' property (June 3), the sharing of communal property (June 10) and the definitive ruin of the feudal system (June 17 July). To ward off the specter of dictatorship and reassure the departments, the Convention quickly discusses and votes on the so-called Constitution of 1793, on June 24. Prepared in particular by Hérault de Séchelles, it will never be applied.
The perils, however, seem more threatening than ever. The federalist revolt, fought during the summer, will only be crushed at the end of the year, while the Vendée insurrection persists. The foreign invasion is more threatening than ever:English and Austrians threaten the northern border, the Prussians seize Mainz, on the Rhine, the Piedmontese are pressing in the Alps, Savoy is invaded. To the southwest, the Spaniards cross the Pyrenees. Everywhere, badly commanded, badly organized, discouraged, undisciplined, the republican troops retreated. Inside, the crisis of subsistence, basic necessities, remains the main cause of popular discontent, while the crisis of the assignat, inflation, contribute to the rise in prices. Jacques Roux's Enragés use this situation against the Convention, demand laws against hoarding. The Convention will decide to give them satisfaction on July 26.
It is therefore in the midst of a crisis that the renewal of the Committee of Public Safety begins in July. Gradually, under the influence of Robespierre, this “imitate” imposed its views on the Convention and the Jacobins, but its power remained fragile, subject to popular pressure. If it wanted to give new impetus to the defense of the borders, which was closely linked to the success of the revolutionary movement, the committee did not intend to be overwhelmed by extremists, rabid or moderate. He must however, under popular pressure, accept the levy en masse on August 23, the forced circulation of assignats then, after the popular days of September 4 and 5, the creation of a revolutionary army, the maximum of grains and flour , and finally the general maximum, on September 29. Under pressure from the sans-culottes — “Terror must be put on the agenda” — the Convention also decreed the arrest of suspects and the purge of surveillance committees. Thus, while government concentration was gradually organized, of which the Committee of Public Safety, invested with pre-eminence over the other committees, became the center and the driving force, terrorist demands grew. There is talk of new massacres, like the previous year. The Law of Suspects, voted on September 17, truly inaugurates the Reign of Terror. It allows the Revolutionary Tribunal, of which Fouquier-Tinville remains the public accuser, but which Hermann presides, completely devoted to Robespierre, to send to the guillotine hundreds of suspects:the Queen, Manon Roland, Bailly, the Duke of Orleans , Madame du Barry, Custine, Barnave, will perish at this moment. In a few months, until 9-Thermidor, the number of convictions pronounced by the Tribunal will reach approximately 2,600. The Terror, under the impetus of the representatives on mission, also reaches the province, the guillotine settles in the squares. Shootings in Lyon, where the federalist insurrection was crushed and drowned in blood, drownings in Nantes, claimed hundreds of victims. The excessive zeal of certain representatives on mission, such as Carrier, Barras or Fréron, was not appreciated by Robespierre, who ordered their recall.
Another manifestation of the popular upsurge, dechristianization and worship martyrs of freedom. After the renunciation of Catholic worship and the celebration at Notre-Dame de Paris of a Freedom Day, on November 10, the Commune decided on November 23 to close the churches. The movement will be checked in December, Robespierre perceiving the dangers of a dechristianization to which he is, moreover, personally hostile.
Reinforcing its authority, however, the Committee of Public Safety got rid of the Enrages — Jacques Roux, arrested on September 5, committed suicide in prison — then imposed its will on the Convention which, on October 10, declared the government "Revolutionary until peace ". The decree of December 4 constitutes the revolutionary government, restores centralization. To impose itself, this government must stop the retreat of the armies at the borders, drive out the enemy. Carnot, Lindet, Prieur de la Côte d'Or, followed by the other members of the Committee, are the great animators, with Saint-Just, of the recovery of the army. Scientists were called upon, wartime production was organized and then, in December, the revolutionary exploitation of saltpetre. In the armies, the representatives on mission organize supplies, purify the command, restore discipline. From the fall, the first victories mark the success of this enormous effort.
Lyon is retaken by the Republican troops, then Toulon, while the Vendée is crushed. On the borders, Dunkirk is liberated, Houchard wins the victory of Hondschoote, then it is the liberation of Maubeuge, that of Landau. At the end of the year, the invasion receded everywhere.
The unit of the Mountain, however, no longer existed at the end of the year 1793. Two cases, the conspiracy of abroad, and the affair of the Compagnie des Indes, ruined it, revealing the corruption of certain members of the Convention, their collusion with foreigners or businessmen. The Committee of Public Safety, on the other hand, had to face a double opposition:that of the moderates who, like Danton, wanted to put an end to the Terror, and that of the Hébertists who, on the contrary, wanted to accentuate it. The problem of subsistence and supplies remains, popular discontent is exacerbated. After the emergency vote, then a new general maximum, on February 21, the Ventôse decrees were intended to appease the sans-culottes. Saint-Just, their instigator, decreed the sequestration of the property of the suspects and provided for the compensation of indigent patriots. Despite the rapporteur's intentions, these measures, which take a long time to apply, do not satisfy the patriots, whose discontent, exploited by the Exaggerated, persists. Robespierre then attacks the factions. Hébert and his friends were the first affected, on March 24, then Danton and the Indulgents, on April 5.
Supported by Saint-Just and Couthon, the Incorruptible, at the head of the Committee of Public Safety, seems able to impose its views, the dictatorship of the revolutionary government is no longer contested. He undertook to channel the popular movement:the revolutionary army was dismissed on March 27, the monopolization commissioners abolished on April 1, the Commune purified, the popular societies dissolved. By doing so, the Committee of Public Safety isolates itself from the base, gradually loses its confidence, its support, as we will see at 9-Thermidor. If the Convention remains “the sole center of the government’s impulse, it is; in fact, increasingly subordinated to the executive power, to the committees of government. A man symbolizes the strength of this executive power, it is Robespierre. Rid of the Hebertists and the Indulgents, he seems all-powerful.
The day after the liquidation of the factions, the centralization of Terror is reinforced, the notorious terrorists recalled. The decree of April 16 establishes that all the accused will be judged in Paris. The law of 22 Prairial (June 10), inaugurates what will be called the Great Terror. Act of circumstance, voted against the persistence of the aristocratic plot and the intrigues of the foreigner, it withdraws any guarantee to the defendants brought before the Revolutionary Court, while the notion of enemies of the Republic is widened. The so-called prison conspiracies make it possible to send to the guillotine — because the court has the only choice between death and acquittal — veritable batches of condemned prisoners. From 22 Prairial to 9-Thermidor, 1,376 people will be guillotined.
Two days before the vote of this law was celebrated the feast of the Supreme Being. Robespierre, very influenced by Rousseau, and enemy of atheism, wished to create a new religion, that of the Supreme Being. The grandiose celebration of this feast may appear to him as his triumph. But, on the one hand, it finds little echo among the population, who come mainly out of curiosity, and, on the other hand, it contributes to crystallizing the hostility of those who, at the Convention or in the committees, are weary of the authority and omnipotence of the Incorruptible. Some believe, with a growing part of the opinion, that the reinforcement of the Terror is no longer justified, since victories have followed defeats. Others, like Carnot, are jealous of the authority of Robespierre, others finally fear it, dread the effects of the virtue advocated by Maximilian. Gathered around Tallien, Barras, Fréron and Vadier, head of the Committee of General Security, who does not forgive Robespierre for having placed the Committee of Public Safety in the first rank and vainly tried to compromise it by the Catherine Théot affair, the malcontents, with the help of the Marais, prevail at the Convention over Robespierre and his friends, the 9-Thermidor. The next day, the Incorruptible and a number of his supporters were guillotined.
The Terror ended and, with the Thermidorian Convention, a new period of the Revolution began.