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The '''Thermidorian Reaction''' was an event in revolutionary [[France]], and is so named because it began in the month of Thermidor on the Revolutionary Calendar (July 19 - August 17) of the year II (1794). It was a reaction to the [[Reign of Terror]] after the execution of [[Maximilien de Robespierre]]. The original Thermidorians were made up of members of the two committees (The [[CPS]] and [[CGS]]), members of the moderate party and ex-terrorists. The moderates rose to take control, and as they had benefited greatly from the Revolution, they saw no need for the return of the Monarchy. They also disliked the [[Jacobins]].
The '''Thermidorian Reaction''' was an event in revolutionary [[France]], and is so named because it began in the month of Thermidor on the Revolutionary Calendar (July 19 - August 17) of the year II (1794). It was a reaction to the [[Reign of Terror]] after the execution of [[Maximilien de Robespierre]]. The original Thermidorians were made up of members of the two committees (The [[CPS]] and [[CGS]]), members of the moderate party and ex-terrorists. The moderates rose to take control, and as they had benefited greatly from the Revolution, they saw no need for the return of the Monarchy. They also disliked the [[Jacobins]].
==Background==
The Thermidorian Reaction was a response to the escalating bloodshed perpetrated by the Jacobin regime since the summer of 1793, in what is known as the "Reign of Terror." Directed especially by the [[Committee of Public Safety]] under Robespierre and Louis Antoine Saint-Just, the Terror had seen the suspension of many civil liberties, legitimized by the foreign coalition assembled to conquer revolutionary France and by internal rebellions in the south and in the Vendee. Arbitrary executions were common, and in some cases, especially in the anti-revolutionary and strongly [[Christian]] Vendee, a genocidal policy had been practiced to wipe out enemies of the Revolution.
Though most of the internal revolts had been suppressed by early 1794, the brutality of the Terror only accelerated, as Robespierre and his collaborators insisted enemies threatened the nation from every direction. The decree of 22 Prairial (June 10) announced that anyone denounced for anti-patriotic behavior could be brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal in [[Paris]], which had the power only to acquit or to pass a death sentence. By July 1794, an average of 26 persons were being executed by the [[guillotine]] per day in Paris, more than three times the acquittal rate.<ref>Simon Schama, ''Citizens'', p. 836-37.</ref>
By now, Robespierre's policies were beginning to alienate many of his fellow Jacobins, even some on the Committee of Public Safety and [[Committee of General Security]] themselves. Most of these members had had a hand in perpetrating the Terror, and were not generally motivated by moral concerns; however, as French armies scored triumph after triumph against their foreign opponents in the 1794 military campaigns, they did feel that the emergency used to justify the Terror had passed, and feared that Robespierre was using the sweeping powers granted to the two committees to establish a dictatorship. The Festival of the Supreme Being (June 8), a ceremony to celebrate [[Enlightenment]] virtue that in some respects resembled a [[pagan]] cult, which Robespierre had presided over, only reinforced these fears. They were also increasingly terrified that Robespierre might soon have them executed, as he had done with former allies such as [[Georges Danton]].
By late July, a loose network of anti-Robespierre Jacobins had developed. Key members included Joseph Fouché, Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, and Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, all of whom had been key functionaries in the Terror.
* There was no easy method of resolving conflict between the legislature and the executive.
* There was no easy method of resolving conflict between the legislature and the executive.
*If a hostile majority dominated the legislature then the [[Directory]] was paralysed as it could not dissolve the legislature or veto its laws.
*If a hostile majority dominated the legislature then the [[Directory]] was paralysed as it could not dissolve the legislature or veto its laws.
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:French Revolution]]
[[Category:French Revolution]]