French First Republic

Under the Legislative Assembly, which was in power before the proclamation of the First Republic , France was engaged in war with Prussia and Austria. In July 1792, the Duke of Brunswick, commanding general of the Austro–Prussian Army, issued his Brunswick Manifesto, in which he threatened the destruction of Paris should any harm come to the King Louis XVI of France. The foreign threat exacerbated France's political turmoil amid the French Revolution and deepened the passion and sense of urgency among the various factions. In the violence of 10 August 1792, citizens stormed the Tuileries Palace, killing six hundred of the King's Swiss guards and insisting on the removal of the king.[2] A renewed fear of anti-revolutionary action prompted further violence, and in the first week of September 1792, mobs of Parisians broke into the city's prisons, killing over half of the prisoners. This included nobles, clergymen, and political prisoners, but also numerous common criminals, such as prostitutes and petty thieves, many murdered in their cells—raped, stabbed, and slashed to death. This became known as the September Massacres.[3]

Part of a series on the
History of France
Prehistory Palaeolithic Mesolithic Neolithic Copper Age Bronze Age Iron Age
Ancient Greek colonies 600 BC – 49 BC Celtic Gaul   until 50 BC Roman Gaul 50 BC – 486 AD
Early Middle Ages Franks   Merovingians 481–751 Carolingians 751–987
Middle Ages Direct Capetians 987–1328 Valois 1328–1498
Early modern Ancien Régime Valois-Orléans kings 1498–1515 Valois-Angoulême kings 1515–1589 Bourbon kings 1589–1792
Long 19th century French Revolution 1789–1799 Kingdom of France 1791–1792 First Republic 1792–1804 First Empire 1804–1814 Restoration 1814–1830 July Monarchy 1830–1848 Second Republic 1848–1852 Second Empire 1852–1870 Third Republic 1870–1940
20th century Third Republic 1870–1940 Free France Vichy France 1940–1944 Provisional Republic 1944–1946 Fourth Republic 1946–1958 Fifth Republic 1958–present
Timeline
France portal

As a result of the spike in public violence and the political instability of the constitutional monarchy, a party of six members of France's Legislative Assembly was assigned the task of overseeing elections. The resulting Convention was founded with the dual purpose of abolishing the monarchy and drafting a new constitution. The convention's first act was to establish the French First Republic and officially strip the king of all political powers. Louis XVI, by then a private citizen bearing his family name of Capet, was subsequently put on trial for crimes of high treason starting in December 1792. On 16 January 1793 he was convicted, and on 21 January, he was executed by guillotine.[4]

Throughout the winter of 1792 and spring of 1793, Paris was plagued by food riots and mass hunger. The new Convention did little to remedy the problem until late spring of 1793, occupied instead with matters of war. Finally, on 6 April 1793, the Convention created the Committee of Public Safety, and was given a monumental task: "To deal with the radical movements of the Enragés, food shortages and riots, the revolt in the Vendée and in Brittany, recent defeats of its armies, and the desertion of its commanding general."[5] Most notably, the Committee of Public Safety instated a policy of terror, and the guillotine began to fall on perceived enemies of the republic at an ever-increasing rate, beginning the period known today as the Reign of Terror.[6]

Despite growing discontent with the National Convention as a ruling body, in June the Convention drafted the Constitution of 1793, which was ratified by popular vote in early August. However, the Committee of Public Safety was seen as an "emergency" government, and the rights guaranteed by the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the new constitution were suspended under its control.

After the arrest and execution of Robespierre on 28 July 1794, the Jacobin club was closed, and the surviving Girondins were reinstated. A year later, the National Convention adopted the Constitution of the Year III. They reestablished freedom of worship, began releasing large numbers of prisoners, and most importantly, initiated elections for a new legislative body. On 3 November 1795, the Directory was established. Under this system, France was led by a bicameral Parliament, consisting of an upper chamber called the Council of Elders (with 250 members) and a lower chamber called the Council of Five Hundred (with, accordingly, 500 members), and a collective Executive of five members called the Directory (from which the historical period gets its name). Due to internal instability, caused by hyperinflation of the paper monies called Assignats,[7] and French military disasters in 1798 and 1799, the Directory lasted only four years, until overthrown in 1799.

The period known as the French Consulate began with the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799. Members of the Directory itself planned the coup, indicating clearly the failing power of the Directory. Napoleon Bonaparte was a co-conspirator in the coup, and became head of the government as the First Consul. He would later proclaim himself Emperor of the French, ending the First French Republic and ushering in the French First Empire.[8]

The constitution of the republic did not provide for a formal head of state or a head of government. It could be discussed whether the head of state would have been the president of the National Assembly under international law. However, this changed every two weeks and was therefore not formative. The following list is based on the actual positions of power within the executive:

Political factions

  Bonapartist
  Independent
  Girondins
  The Mountain
  The Plain
  Thermidorians

No.	Portrait	Name (birth and death)	Term of office		Political party	Ref.
		Georges Danton (1759–1794)	21 September 1792	9 October 1792	Cordeliers (The Mountain)
		Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière (1734–1793)	9 October 1792	23 January 1793	Girondins
		Étienne Clavière (1735–1793)	23 January 1793	2 June 1793	Girondins
		Georges Danton (1759–1794)	2 June 1793	10 July 1793	Cordeliers (The Mountain)
			10 July 1793	27 July 1793
		Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794)	27 July 1793	27 July 1794	Jacobins (The Mountain)
		Lazare Carnot (1753–1823)	27 July 1794	6 October 1794	The Plain
		Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès (1753–1824)	6 October 1794	8 November 1794	The Plain
		Lazare Carnot (1753–1823)	8 November 1794	3 March 1795	The Plain
		Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès (1753–1824)	3 March 1795	2 November 1795	The Plain
		Lazare Carnot (1753–1823)	2 November 1795	4 September 1797	Independent
		Paul Barras (1755–1829)	4 September 1797	18 June 1799	Thermidorians
		Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836)	18 June 1799	9 November 1799	Independent
		Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821)	9 November 1799	18 May 1804	Bonapartist
On 18 May 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the Conservative Senate.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to French First Republic.

• French Republican Calendar
• French Revolutionary Wars
• French Second Republic
• French Third Republic
• French Fourth Republic
• French Fifth Republic