The Critical Period of the Revolution

French troops were victorious on several fronts. The Austrian-Prussian advance was checked at Valmy, France (September, 1792). French forces seized the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) and continued into Germany. Savoy and Nice were taken from Sardinia. After the beheading of Louis XVI, however, Great Britain, Holland, and several other countries joined Austria and Prussia against France, forming an alliance known as the First Coalition.

In the National Convention a struggle among factions ended in victory for the Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, Marat, and Danton. Girondists (moderates) were expelled. The Committee of Public Safety was formed in April, 1793, to crush opposition.

A period of mass political executions, known as the Reign of Terror, followed. By its end in July, 1794, Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and thousands of others were all dead. The more moderate period that followed was known as the Thermidorean Reaction. (Thermidor was the name used for July in the calendar France adopted in 1792.)

Military reverses in 1793 had caused the Committee of Public Safety to raise 14 new armies by conscription. (This was the first instance in modern history of compulsory military service under national law.) Later that year, a rebellion broke out in the Vendee, a region in western France near Nantes, largely because of the government's conscription policy. During the suppression of the rebellion, 1793-1800, more than 300,000 people were killed.

By the end of 1793 enemy forces were driven from France. The French retook Belgium and marched into Holland. By July, 1795, peace treaties existed with Holland, Prussia, and Spain.