## Learning Outcomes

- Explain why the Jacobins believed terror was necessary in **1793–1794**
- Identify how the **Committee of Public Safety** and related institutions centralized power
- Distinguish between the **Jacobins**, **Girondins**, and **sans-culottes**
- Describe how terror involved more than executions, including laws, policing, conscription, and economic control
- Analyse how Jacobin rule both defended and limited the ideals of **1789**
- Explain why the Terror ended in the **Thermidorian Reaction** of **July 1794**

## AP European History Syllabus

For the AP European History, you are expected to understand Jacobin rule during the radical phase of the French Revolution, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that the **radical republic** developed after the monarchy fell in **1792**
- Identify the roles of the **Jacobins**, **National Convention**, and **Committee of Public Safety**
- Explain why foreign war, internal revolt, and fear of counterrevolution pushed France toward terror
- Understand how the **Law of Suspects**, **Revolutionary Tribunal**, and central committees enforced repression
- Identify the importance of the **levée en masse** and wartime mobilization
- Explain the role of **de-Christianization**, the **Revolutionary Calendar**, and the **Cult of the Supreme Being**
- Distinguish between Jacobin leadership and pressure from the **sans-culottes**
- Understand why the Terror ended with the **Thermidorian Reaction** in **1794**

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why did the Jacobins argue that terror was necessary in **1793**?
2. What was the difference between the **Committee of Public Safety** and the **Committee of General Security**?
3. How did the **levée en masse** help Jacobin rule?
4. In what ways did Jacobin rule restrict liberty while claiming to defend it?
5. Why did Robespierre and the Jacobins fall in **July 1794**?

## Introduction

The Jacobin phase of the French Revolution is one of the clearest AP European History examples of a revolution changing its character under pressure. What began in **1789** with arguments about rights, representation, and constitutional limits became, by **1793–1794**, a regime of emergency rule, coercion, and fear. That shift did not happen at random. It came from war, civil conflict, food shortages, and a deep fear that the Revolution might be destroyed from within.

For AP exam purposes, you need to see Jacobin rule as more than just the guillotine. The Terror included arrests, political purges, military mobilization, price controls, censorship, and efforts to reshape religion and daily life. The key historical issue is contradiction: the Jacobins claimed to protect liberty and the republic, yet they suspended liberties in order to save both.

> **Key Term: Reign of Terror**
> The radical phase of the French Revolution, chiefly **1793–1794**, when the revolutionary government used arrests, executions, and intimidation against suspected enemies of the Revolution.

### Why the Jacobins took power

The Jacobins did not begin the Revolution in full control. After the fall of the monarchy in **1792**, the new republic was divided. In the **National Convention**, the more moderate **Girondins** wanted a republic, but with more local autonomy, property-based political influence, and less dependence on the Paris crowds. The Jacobins, by contrast, argued for a stronger and more centralized republic.

> **Key Term: Jacobins**
> A radical republican political faction associated with centralized government, popular mobilization, and harsh repression during the French Revolution.

The crisis of **1793** explains why the Jacobins gained the upper hand. France faced several threats at once:

- war against Austria and Prussia, later joined by other powers
- military defeat in the Austrian Netherlands
- the defection of **General Dumouriez**
- royalist and Catholic revolt in the **Vendée**
- anger in Paris over bread shortages and inflation
- mistrust of anyone seen as soft on counterrevolution

This chain matters because AP essays reward causation. The Jacobins did not simply choose terror from ideological preference alone. They believed the republic was under siege. In their view, ordinary constitutional politics could not survive in an emergency. That is why they argued for extraordinary powers.

The **sans-culottes** were central to this shift. They were urban militants, especially in Paris, who pushed for lower prices, harsher action against enemies, and wider democracy. They were not the same as the Jacobin leaders. The Jacobins were political organizers and legislators; the sans-culottes were pressure from below. But the alliance mattered. The Jacobins used sans-culotte force to push the Girondins out of the Convention in **June 1793**.

> **Key Term: sans-culottes**
> Urban working-class radicals in the French Revolution who pressured the government for stronger action against enemies and tighter economic controls.

A common student mistake is to treat the Terror as just Paris mob violence. In reality, Paris pressure helped the Jacobins rise, but the resulting government became far more organized and national than a crowd.

> **Test Tip:** In SAQs and LEQs, explain the move to terror as a chain: **foreign war + internal revolt + economic crisis + fear of treason = emergency government**. That structure shows causation clearly.

### How terror became a system of government

Once the Jacobins took control, terror was made institutional. This is one of the most important distinctions on the AP exam: the Terror was not just spontaneous violence. It became state policy.

The central body was the **Committee of Public Safety**, created in **1793**. It became the effective executive authority of France. Figures such as **Robespierre**, **Danton**, and **Carnot** were tied to this emergency government, though their influence shifted over time.

> **Key Term: Committee of Public Safety**
> The executive body created in **1793** to direct war and internal security; it became the main center of power during the Terror.

Alongside it stood the **Committee of General Security**, which functioned more like a revolutionary police body. Students often confuse the two. The Committee of Public Safety directed policy and war; the Committee of General Security handled surveillance, arrests, and investigations.

The legal machinery of terror also expanded. The **Revolutionary Tribunal** tried political suspects. The **Law of Suspects** of **17 September 1793** allowed broad arrest of those suspected of counterrevolutionary behavior. That mattered because “suspect” was vague. A law like this gave the state room to detain people before proving any real crime.

> **Key Term: Law of Suspects**
> A decree of **17 September 1793** allowing broad arrest of people suspected of disloyalty to the Revolution.

Later, the **Law of 14 Frimaire** of **4 December 1793** tightened central control by reducing the independence of local authorities and strengthening Paris over the provinces. This is crucial because it shows that terror and centralization worked together. Local revolutionary energy was no longer enough; the Jacobins wanted obedience to the center.

The Terror also spread beyond Paris through **representatives on mission**. These deputies were sent to the provinces and armies with sweeping powers to enforce conscription, supervise generals, and crush revolt. That is why places such as **Lyon**, **Toulon**, and the **Vendée** matter. Resistance to Jacobin power in the provinces was often met with ruthless repression.

The **Vendée revolt** is especially important. It was a royalist and Catholic uprising in western France, driven by hostility to anti-church policy and conscription. Its existence strengthened the Jacobin argument that France was facing civil war, not just foreign invasion. In other words, the Terror fed on fear, and the Vendée gave that fear concrete form.

By **June 1794**, the **Law of 22 Prairial** accelerated trials and reduced protections for defendants, helping produce the most intense final stage of the Terror. Even fellow revolutionaries began to fear that accusation alone could destroy them.

> **Test Tip:** If a question asks how the Jacobins ruled, avoid saying only “they used the guillotine.” Stronger answers mention **committees, tribunals, laws, representatives on mission, and centralization**.

### Control beyond executions: war, economy, and culture

The Jacobins ruled through terror, but they also ruled through control over daily life. This broader control is often what lifts an essay from descriptive to analytical.

The most dramatic example was the **levée en masse** of **August 1793**. This was mass conscription and national mobilization. Men were sent to fight, while women, children, and older people were assigned supporting roles. For the first time, the state claimed the labor and loyalty of the whole nation in wartime.

> **Key Term: levée en masse**
> The mass conscription decree of **1793** that mobilized the population for war and helped create a national wartime state.

This policy did more than raise troops. It linked citizenship to service. The republic was saying that rights and duties were now tied together in a new way. This helps explain why revolutionary France could defeat better-trained opponents. The war became a national struggle, not just a dynastic one.

Economic control was another pillar of Jacobin rule. The Jacobins responded to popular pressure by imposing price controls, especially on bread. The **Law of the General Maximum** set limits on prices and wages. This was very different from the more laissez-faire outlook of the Girondins. It also shows why the sans-culottes supported the Jacobins: the radicals at least tried to act on food shortages and inflation.

These controls had mixed results. They could calm urban anger in the short term, but they also increased tension with producers and rural interests. That is a useful evaluation point: policies that protected Paris consumers could alienate others.

The Jacobins also tried to reshape culture and religion. They introduced the **Revolutionary Calendar**, which rejected the Christian week and renamed the months. This was not just symbolism. It was an attempt to break with the past and create a new revolutionary time system. They also attacked church influence, removed religious symbols, and supported broader **de-Christianization**.

> **Key Term: de-Christianization**
> A campaign during **1793–1794** against the Catholic Church, including church closures, attacks on clergy, and replacement of Christian practices with revolutionary ones.

Here students need precision. De-Christianization was not one single law. It was a broader movement. Also, **Robespierre** did not fully support the most aggressively atheist versions of it. He instead promoted the **Cult of the Supreme Being**, a civic religion meant to replace both Catholicism and outright atheism with moral public belief.

> **Key Term: Cult of the Supreme Being**
> A state-sponsored civic religion promoted by Robespierre in **1794**, distinct from more openly atheist movements.

This helps explain why Jacobin rule created backlash. Many French people could accept reform, but not the destruction of religious life. The attack on Christianity, like centralization and executions, widened the gap between the language of liberty and the experience of coercion.

The Jacobins also turned terror inward. They first eliminated the **Girondins**, then later the radical **Hébertists** in **March 1794**, and then **Dantonists** in **April 1794** when Danton argued that the Terror should end. That sequence matters. The regime was no longer just attacking royalists. It was consuming rival revolutionaries too.

### Why the Terror ended and how to write about it

The Terror ended not because all dangers vanished, but because too many people now feared the government itself. By mid-**1794**, military conditions had improved, which weakened the argument for emergency dictatorship. At the same time, the Law of 22 Prairial made deputies in the Convention worry that they themselves might be next.

When **Robespierre** spoke of another purge on **8 Thermidor (26 July 1794)**, many in the Convention decided to act first. He was denounced, arrested, and executed the next day. This was the **Thermidorian Reaction**, which ended the most extreme Jacobin phase.

> **Key Term: Thermidorian Reaction**
> The overthrow of Robespierre in **July 1794**, ending the most extreme phase of Jacobin rule and the Terror.

For AP analysis, the key judgement is not simply “the Jacobins were bad” or “the Jacobins saved France.” Better answers hold both ideas together. On one hand, Jacobin rule helped defend the republic, mobilize the nation, and defeat internal and foreign threats. On the other hand, it sharply restricted civil liberties, crushed pluralism, and used fear as a political tool.

This is also where continuity and change matter. The Revolution began with the **Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen** and promises of liberty, equality, and representation. Under the Jacobins, those principles did not disappear, but they were redefined under emergency conditions. Liberty became something to be defended by coercion. Equality became national service and shared sacrifice. Rights were subordinated to survival of the republic.

> **Test Tip:** For LEQs or DBQs, a strong line of argument is: **The Jacobins defended the Revolution from real threats, but in doing so they betrayed many of the liberties proclaimed in 1789.** That gives you both causation and qualification.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- The Jacobins rose to power during the radical phase of the French Revolution in **1793–1794**
- They gained strength because France faced foreign war, internal revolt, inflation, and fear of counterrevolution
- The Jacobins differed from the Girondins by favouring centralization, stronger economic controls, and execution of the king
- The **sans-culottes** supported harsher action but were not the same as Jacobin leaders
- The **Committee of Public Safety** became the main executive authority during the Terror
- The **Law of Suspects** widened arrests of suspected enemies of the Revolution
- The **Law of 14 Frimaire** strengthened central control from Paris
- The **levée en masse** mobilized the entire population for war and helped France fight more effectively
- Jacobin control included price controls, conscription, tribunals, censorship, and de-Christianization
- The **Cult of the Supreme Being** was Robespierre’s attempt to create a civic religion
- The Terror targeted not only royalists but also rival revolutionaries such as the Hébertists and Dantonists
- The **Thermidorian Reaction** of **July 1794** overthrew Robespierre and ended the most extreme Jacobin phase

## Key Terms and Concepts

- Reign of Terror
- Jacobins
- sans-culottes
- Committee of Public Safety
- Law of Suspects
- levée en masse
- de-Christianization
- Cult of the Supreme Being
- Thermidorian Reaction


The French Revolution - Jacobins ruled through terror and control