lawyer/politician who headed the committee on public safety

What was the Committee of Public Safety and who led it?

22.5.3: Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety The period of the Jacobin rule known as the Reign of Terror, under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, was the first time in history that terror became an official government policy with the stated aim to use violence to achieve a higher political goal. Learning Objective

How did the Committee of Public Safety affect Robespierre?

From April to July 10, 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was dominated by Georges Danton and his followers, who pursued a policy of moderation and reconciliation but who failed to deal adequately with the precarious military situation.

Who was the leader of the Committee of Robespierre?

Jun 13, 2016 · Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau – The son of a lawyer, Morveau was first elected to the National Assembly and served as president for a short time. Although he was a member of the right-wing, he voted for the king’s death. He served on the Committee of Public Safety for only a few months—from the 6th of April 6 to the 10th of July.

Who was the leader of the Committee of Public Safety?

From April to July 10, 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was dominated by Georges Danton and his followers, who pursued a policy of moderation and reconciliation but who failed to deal adequately with the precarious military situation.

Who was in control of the Committee of Public Safety?

A de facto executive Despite this, within six months the Committee of Public Safety was dominated by radicals. Under their control, the Committee began to operate effectively but also autonomously from the legislature. By late 1793, the Committee was directing the National Convention rather than acting on its behalf.Oct 17, 2019

Who were the 12 members of the Committee of Public Safety?

Committee membersCommissionerCommitteeEndJean Bon Saint-AndréMember31 July 1794Jacques-Alexis Thuriot de la RosièreMember20 September 1793Pierre-Louis Prieur (de la Marne)Member31 July 1794Maximilien de RobespierreMember28 July 179497 more rows

Who established the Committee of Public Safety?

National ConventionCommittee of Public Safety / FounderThe National Convention was a parliament of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the great insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic, abandoning the monarchy altogether. Wikipedia

Who replaced the Committee of Public Safety?

These men did not effectively deal with the military issues at the time, and they were replaced by more radical defenders of the Revolution. One of these new members was Maximilien Robespierre.

Why did they cut Marie Antoinette's head off?

Marie-Antoinette was guillotined in 1793 after the Revolutionary Tribunal found her guilty of crimes against the state. The royal family had been compelled to leave Versailles in 1789 and live in captivity in Paris.

Who forced Robespierre from power?

Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, is overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. As the leading member of the Committee of Public Safety from 1793, Robespierre encouraged the execution, mostly by guillotine, of more than 17,000 enemies of the Revolution.

What was the 9th of Thermidor?

Thermidor in revolution The Thermidorian Reaction, Revolution of Thermidor, or simply Thermidor refers to the coup of 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) in which the Committee of Public Safety led by Maximilien Robespierre was sidelined and its leaders arrested and guillotined, resulting in the end of the Reign of Terror.

When was the Committee of Public Safety established?

The Committee of Public Safety was set up on April 6, 1793 , during one of the crises of the Revolution, when France was beset by foreign and civil war. The new committee was to provide for the defense of the nation against its enemies, foreign and domestic, and to oversee the already existing organs of executive government.

Who were the members of the Triumvirate?

While decisions were taken in common, the members of the committee specialized in different areas: Robespierre, Georges Couthon, and Louis de Saint-Just (called the Triumvirate) specialized in general political matters, Lazare Carnot in military affairs, and Robert Lindet in supplies.

What was the reason for Dumouriez's defection?

On 5 April 1793, the French military commander and former minister of war General Charles François Dumouriez defected to Austria following the publication of an incendiary letter in which he threatened to march his army on the city of Paris if the National Convention did not accede to his leadership. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by the Austrians and their allies was feared. A widespread belief held that revolutionary France was in immediate peril, threatened not only by foreign armies and by recent revolts in the Vendée, but also by foreign agents who plotted the destruction of the nation from within. Dumouriez's defection lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by Georges Danton, who declared: "This Committee is precisely what we want, a hand to grasp the weapon of the Revolutionary Tribunal ".

When was the Committee of Public Safety created?

Supplementing the Committee of General Defence created after the execution of King Louis XVI in January 1793, the Committee of Public Safety was created in April 1793 by the National Convention and restructured in July 1793.

Who published Le Vieux Cordelier?

On 5 December 1793, journalist Camille Desmoulins began publishing Le Vieux Cordelier with the approval of Robespierre and the Committee. This newspaper was initially aimed against the ultrarevolutionary Hébertist faction, whose extremist demands, anti-religious fervor and propensity for sudden insurrections troubled the Committee. However, Desmoulins quickly turned his pen against the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security, comparing their reign to that of the Roman tyrants chronicled by Tacitus and expounding the indulgent views of the Dantonist faction.

What was the role of the Committee of Public Safety?

The role of the Committee of Public Safety included the governance of the war (including the appointment of generals), the appointing of judges and juries for the Revolutionary Tribunal, the provisioning of the armies and the public, the maintenance of public order and oversight of the state bureaucracy.

When was Robespierre executed?

After the arrest and execution of the rival factions of Hébertists and Dantonists, sentiment in the Convention eventually turned against Robespierre, who was executed in July 1794. In the following Thermidorian Reaction, the committee's influence diminished and it was abolished in 1795. During the American War of Independence, ...

Who did Saint-Just strike against?

When it became evident in mid-July 1794 that Robespierre and Saint-Just were planning to strike against their political opponents Joseph Fouché, Jean-Lambert Tallien and Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier (the latter two members of the Committee of General Security), the fragile truce within the government was dissolved. Saint-Just and his fellow Committee of Public Safety member Bertrand Barère attempted to keep the peace between the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. However, Robespierre delivered a speech to the National Convention on 26 July 1794 in which he emphasized the need to "purify" the Committees and "crush all factions". In a speech to the Jacobin Club that night, he attacked Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, who had refused to allow the printing and distribution of his speech to the Convention.

What was the Thermidorian reaction?

The ensuing period of upheaval, dubbed the Thermidorian Reaction, saw the repeal of many of the Terror's most unpopular laws and the restriction of the Committees of General Security and Public Safety. The Committees ceased to exist under the Constitution of the Year III (1795), which marked the beginning of the Directory.

What is the Committee of Public Safety?

The Committee of Public Safety. A French caricature of members of the Committee of Public Safety. The Committee of Public Safety (French, Du Comite de Salut Public) has become a powerful symbol of the French Revolution. It is most closely associated with – and often accused of instigating – the Reign of Terror.

How many seats did the National Convention have?

Formed by the National Convention in April 1793, the Committee was intended to function as a war council and de facto executive cabinet. It contained nine seats (later extended to 10, then 12) which were rotated monthly, a procedure intended to stop one individual or faction from accumulating too much power. Despite this, within six months the ...

When did the CPS descend into authoritarianism?

The Committee’s descent into authoritarianism began with the election of Robespierre to the CPS on July 27th 1793 . The membership of the Committee changed little over the next year; the Convention re-endorsed its members every month and in September voted to increase the CPS to 12 members.

What happened in 1793?

The spring of 1793 saw the emergence of the Committee of Public Safety. The trial and execution of Louis XVI in January 1793 left the Convention without an executive. It functioned this way for several months, however, the poor progress of the Revolutionary War and the growing counter-revolution in the Vendée sparked calls for stronger leadership in the Convention.

What was the CPS?

1. The Committee of Public Safety (CPS) was a powerful committee of the National Convention, formed in April 1793 following the defection of General Dumouriez to the Austrians. 2. The CPS began as a nine-man committee with few intrinsic powers.

What is the function of the CPS?

The function of the CPS was to receive and monitor intelligence, handle the day-to-day business of the war and report weekly to the Convention in session. The CPS was authorised to act on behalf of the Convention but had to report to the Convention weekly.

What happened to Robespierre?

Declared an outlaw by the National Convention, Robespierre severely wounded himself by a pistol shot in the jaw at the Hôtel de Ville , throwing his friends into confusion. The soldiers of the National Convention attacked the Hôtel de Ville and easily seized Robespierre and his followers.

Who is Georges Danton?

Georges Danton. Georges Danton, portrait by Constance-Marie Charpentier; in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris. J.E. Bulloz. A Deist in the style of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Robespierre disapproved of the anti-Christian movement and the “masquerades” of the cult of reason. In a report to the National Convention in May, he affirmed the existence ...

What was Robespierre's power?

Robespierre’s enemies credited him with dictatorial power, both in the Jacobin Club and in the Committee of Public Safety, a power that he did not have. Counterrevolutionaries and the rich condemned his egalitarian ideas, while popular militants accused him of lacking boldness. After his death, his memory was relentlessly attacked, and a great many of his papers were destroyed. History portrayed him as either a bloodthirsty creature or a timid bourgeois.

What was the Thermidorian reaction?

…passing from the Montagnards after Robespierre’s fall, moderates in the Convention hoped to put the Terror and sansculotte militance behind them while standing fast against counterrevolution and rallying all patriots around the original principles of the Revolution.

COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY

The overthrow of King Louis XVI and his execution in January 1793 left the young French Republic without executive authority. Faced with a desperate military and economic crisis in the spring, the National Convention resorted to placing executive powers in the hands of a Committee of Public Safety, established by a decree of 6 April.

Committee of Public Safety

Committee of Public Safety a French governing body set up in April 1793, during the Revolution. Consisting of nine (later twelve) members, it was at first dominated by Danton, but later came under the influence of Robespierre, when it initiated the Terror.

Overview

Origins and Evolution

Use of the term during the Algerian War

See also

Bibliography

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