Jacobins
In May 1789, deputies from Brittany gathered at the Palace of Versailles to attend the Estates General. They formed a group called the Club Breton within those halls. Early members included the comte de Mirabeau and Abbé Sieyès. Meetings occurred in secret with few traces remaining about their location or content. Deputies from other regions soon joined this small circle. By October 1789, the club moved to Paris following the March on Versailles. They rented the refectory of the Dominican monastery on Rue Saint-Honoré. The group changed its name to Société des amis de la Constitution in late January 1790. Opponents had already dubbed them Jacobins after the Dominican order. All citizens were allowed to enter by early 1790. Even foreigners like English writer Arthur Young joined on the 18th of January 1790. The club adopted rules drawn up by Barnave on the 8th of February 1790. These rules defined objectives including discussing questions for the National Assembly. A network of branches spread across France reaching 7,000 chapters by year end. Membership reached half a million people at its peak.
Late 1791 brought polarization between Robespierre and Brissot over war policy. Brissot advocated conflict with Prussia and Austria while Robespierre pleaded against it. Robespierre addressed war promoters as 'the faction from the Gironde' inside the Jacobin Club. Most Girondins stopped visiting the club after September 1792. They took seats on the right side of the convention session room. Robespierre and his allies sat on the left side of the highest seats. This group became known as The Mountain or Montagne. Historians estimate the Girondins numbered around 150 men in the Convention. The Mountain counted approximately 120 members. The remaining 480 deputies formed the Plain. On the 6th of April 1793, the convention established the Committee of Public Safety. Initially it contained no Girondins but only one or two Montagnards. By June 1793, Maximilien Robespierre gained greater power in France. He entered the Committee of Public Prosperity in July 1793. Several deposed Girondin-Jacobin Convention deputies left Paris to organize revolts in more than 60 departments. These revolts were called federalist by the government though most did not seek regional autonomy.
In October 1793, twenty-one former Girondin Convention deputies received death sentences for supporting an insurrection in Caen. The Montagnard-dominated government executed seventeen thousand opponents nationwide between September 1793 and July 1794. These executions aimed to suppress the Vendée insurrection and Federalist revolts. In March 1794, the Montagnard Hébert and some followers faced death sentences. Danton and thirteen of his followers met the same fate in April 1794 after insinuation by Robespierre. Robespierre declared that 'the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.' The Committee instituted requisitioning, rationing, and conscription to consolidate new citizen armies. They used the Terror as a means of combating those they perceived as enemies within. France was menaced by civil war and by a coalition of foreign hostile powers during this period. The discipline of the Terror helped mold France into a united Republic capable of resisting these perils. Well over ten thousand people were put on trial and executed in France for political crimes during the Jacobin ascendancy.
On the 28th of July 1794, Louis Legendre led troops to arrest leading members of the Montagnards at the Hôtel de Ville. Robespierre and twenty-one associates including Saint-Just and Couthon were sentenced to death by the National Convention. They were guillotined later that evening. The execution began the Thermidorian Reaction. Jacobins became targets of anti-Jacobin papers with their finances falling into disarray. Membership dipped to six hundred people. Organized gangs called jeunesse doree or Muscadins harassed and attacked Jacobin members. These groups even assailed the Jacobin Club hall in Paris. On 21 Brumaire, the Convention refused to support enforcement of protection for the club. The Committee of General Security decided to close the meeting hall late that night. It was padlocked at four o'clock in the morning. The next day, the 12th of November 1794, the National Convention passed a decree permanently closing the Jacobin Club. Within a year ninety-three percent of the Jacobin clubs closed throughout the country. An attempt to reorganize adherents occurred in July 1799 but lasted barely a month before suppression.
In modern France, the term Jacobin generally denotes a position favoring centralization and moderate authoritarianism. It can describe supporters of a state role in transforming society. Proponents of a state education system use it as self-identification to promote civic values. Some view it controversially regarding strong nation-state capabilities against foreign interference. Conservative publicists used the term pejoratively to deride progressive politics. Anglophone progressives also employed it negatively to denote violent excesses of the revolution. They associated positive features with the Girondins instead. In Britain, the term faintly echoed negative connotations of Jacobitism tied to deposed King James II. The word reached obsolescence before the Russian Revolution when Marxism and socialism overtook it. The movement encouraged sentiments of patriotism and liberty amongst the populace during its time. Contemporaries like King Louis XVI located effectiveness not in bayonets but marks of political power.
The political rhetoric espoused by the Jacobins led to development of modern leftist movements throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Jacobinism became the political foundation for almost all leftist schools including anarchism, communism and socialism. The Paris Commune was seen as the revolutionary successor to the Jacobins. Anarchists took influence from Jacobin use of mass movements and direct democracy. The philosophy of complete dismantling an old system created cultural shock within traditional European governments. This complex revolution caused lasting impact throughout Europe with societal revolutions culminating in 1848. Leftist organizations took different elements from Jacobin core foundations. The Jacobin Club developed into a bureau for French republicanism rejecting laissez-faire economic policy. They completed abolition of feudalism that had been formally decided on the 4th of August 1789. Robespierre's views were rooted in Rousseau's notion of social contract promoting rights of man. He favored rights of broader population to eat over individual merchant rights. The movement contributed greatly to secularism and sense of nationhood marking all French republican regimes today.
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Common questions
When did the Jacobin Club form and what was its original name?
The group formed in May 1789 as the Club Breton within the Palace of Versailles. It changed its name to Société des amis de la Constitution in late January 1790.
How many members did the Jacobins have at their peak and when did they close permanently?
Membership reached half a million people at its peak before declining to six hundred after the fall of Robespierre. The National Convention passed a decree on the 12th of November 1794 that permanently closed the Jacobin Club.
Who were the main leaders of the Montagnards during the Reign of Terror?
Maximilien Robespierre led the faction known as The Mountain or Montagne alongside allies like Saint-Just and Couthon. These figures gained power by June 1793 and controlled the Committee of Public Safety.
What happened to Girondin deputies who opposed the Jacobins in October 1793?
Twenty-one former Girondin Convention deputies received death sentences for supporting an insurrection in Caen. They were executed following the establishment of the Committee of Public Safety on the 6th of April 1793.
Why was the Jacobin Club dissolved and what followed immediately after?
The club closed because Louis Legendre led troops to arrest leading members on the 28th of July 1794, triggering the Thermidorian Reaction. Organized gangs called jeunesse doree harassed members while the government padlocked the hall at four o'clock in the morning.