French Revolution Timeline: 1793 - 4 (The Terror)

1793

January

February
• February 1: France declares war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic.
• February 15: Monaco annexed by France.
• February 21: Volunteer and Line regiments in the French army merged together.
• February 24: Levée of 300,000 men to defend the Republic.
• February 25-27: Riots in Paris over food.

March
• March 7: France declares war on Spain.
• March 9: Representatives 'en mission' are created: these are deputies who will travel to the French departments to organise the war effort and quell rebellion.
• March 10: The Revolutionary Tribunal is created to try those suspected of counter revolutionary activity.
• March 11: The Vendée region of France revolts, partly in reaction to the demands of the levee of Feb 24.
• March: Decree ordering French rebels captured with arms to be executed without appeal.
• March 21: Revolutionary armies and committees created. Committee of Surveillance established in Paris to monitor 'strangers'.
• March 28: Émigrés now considered legally dead.

April
• April 5: French General Dumouriez defects.
• April 6: Committee of Public Safety created.
• April 13: Marat stands trial.
• April 24: Marat is found not guilty.
• April 29: The Federalist uprising in Marseilles.

May
• May 4: First Maximum on grain prices passed.
• May 20: Forced loan on the rich.
• May 31: Journee of May 31: the Paris sections rise demanding the Girondins be purged.

June
• June 2: Journee of June 2: Girodins purged from the Convention.
• June 7: Bordeaux and Caen rise in the Federalist revolt.
• June 9: Saumur is captured by rebelling Vendéans.
• June 24: Constitution of 1793 voted on and passed.

July
• July 13: Marat assassinated by Charlotte Corday.
• July 17: Chalier executed by Federalists. Final feudal dues removed.
• July 26: Hoarding made a capital offence.
• July 27: Robespirre elected to the Committee of Public Safety.

August
• August 1: The Convention implements a 'scorched earth' policy in the Vendée.
• August 23: Decree of levee en masse.
• August 25: Marseille is recaptured.
• August 27: Toulon invites the British in; they occupy the town two days later.

September
• September 5: Prompted by the Journee of September 5 government by Terror begins.
• September 8: Battle of Hondschoote; first French military success of the year.
• September 11: Grain Maximum introduced.
• September 17: Laws of Suspects passed, definition of 'suspect' widened.
• September 22: Start of Year II.
• September 29: General Maximum begins.

October
• October 3: The Girondins go to trial.
• October 5: The Revolutionary Calendar is adopted.
• October 10: Introduction of the Constitution of 1793 halted and Revolutionary Government declared by the Convention.
• October 16: Marie Antoinette executed.
• October 17: Battle of Cholet; the Vendéans are defeated.
• October 31: 20 leading Girondins are executed.

November
• November 10: Festival of Reason.
• November 22: All churches closed in Paris.

December
• December 4: Law of Revolutionary Government / Law of 14 Frimaire passed, centralising power in the Committee of Public Safety.
• December 12: Battle of Le Mans; the Vendéans are defeated.
• December 19: Toulon recaptured by the French.
• December 23: Battle of Savenay; the Vendéans are defeated.

1794

January

February
• February 4: Slavery abolished.
• February 26: First Law of Ventôse, spreading seized property among the poor.

March
• March 3: Second Law of Ventôse, spreading seized property among the poor.
• March 13: Hérbertist/Cordelier faction arrested.
• March 24: Hérbertists executed.
• March 27: Disbanding of the Parisian Revolutionary Army.
• March 29-30: Arrest of the Indulgents/Dantonists.

April
• April5: Execution of the Dantonists.
• April-May: The power of the Sansculottes, Paris Commune and sectional societies broken.

May
• May 7: Decree starting the Cult of the Supreme Being.
• May 8: Provincial Revolutionary Tribunals closed, all suspects must now be tried in Paris.

June
• June 8: Festival of the Supreme Being.
• June 10: Law of 22 Prairial: designed to make convictions easier, start of the Great Terror.

July
• July 23: Wage limits introduced in Paris.
• July 27: Journee of 9 Thermidor overthrows Robespierre.
• July 28: Robespierre executed, many of his supporters are purged and follow him over the next few days.

August
• August 1: Law of 22 Prairial repealed.
• August 10: Revolutionary Tribunal 're-organised' so as to cause fewer executions.
• August 24: The Law on Revolutionary Government reorganises the control of the republic away from the highly centralised structure of the Terror.
• August 31: Decree limiting the powers of the Paris commune.

September
• September 8: Nantes Federalists tried.
• September 18: All payments, 'subsidies' to religions halted.
• September 22: Year III starts.

November
• November 12: The Jacobin Club closed.
• November 24: Carrier placed on trial for his crimes in Nantes.

December
• December - July 1795: The White Terror, a violent reaction against supporters and facilitators of the Terror.
• December 8: Surviving Girondins allowed back into the Convention.
• December 16: Carrier, the butcher of Nantes, executed.
• December 24: The maximum is scrapped. Invasion of Holland.

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