The French Revolution is often thought of as a Parisian, worker-led revolution, in the style of Les Miserables. Though the revolution was led and centred in Paris, this did not go unchallenged. During the federalist revolt, France saw the provinces rise up in arms against Paris and what they saw as its unchecked radicalism. Although the federalists would soon be defeated, their struggle sheds light on the controversy raging on what revolution looked like and who it served. So what were the causes of the Federalist revolts? What significant events occurred on the Federalist Revolts timeline? Let's find out!
Federalist Revolts Timeline
Below is the Federalist Revolts timeline in the late 18th century.
| Date | Event |
| 31 May - 2 June 1793 | The Montagnards, a radical left group in the National Assembly, excluded and arrested their political rivals, the Girondins, a moderate left group. |
| 5 June 1793 | 17 Deputies protested the arrest of the Girondins - similar protests took place outside of Paris, in other departments. |
| 7 June 1793 | 75 deputies denounced the actions of the Montagnards and urged the other deputies to join them. |
| 9 June 1793 | Two representatives-en-mission were captured by federalists and held hostage to try and secure the safety of the arrested Girondins. |
| 13 June 1793 | The departement of Eure, in the north, gave the signal for insurrection. It called for the mustering of 4000 men to march on the Convention. |
| July 1793 | The departements gathered some soldiers, but not enough to defeat the Montagnards, as many of the other departements had bigger concerns. The soldiers engaged Convention forces twice during the month but were defeated. |
| August 1793 | Over the late summer months, the Federalist revolts quickly collapsed around the country. |
Causes of the Federalist Revolts
The Federalist Revolts were a product of a long-standing political rivalry between the Montagnards and the Girondins, both factions with the Jacobin club. They disagreed over how France should be run and how the government should be structured. Below is a table highlighting the differences between the two groups.
| Characteristic | Montagnards | Girondins |
| Leaders | The main leaders of the Montagnards were Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, alongside others such as Paul Barras and Bertrand Barere. | The main leaders of the Girondins were Jean-Marie Roland, Pierre Brissot and Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud. |
| Structure of government | The Montagnards favoured a strong centralised government, with power held in Paris, that was tough on law and order. They wanted a stronger executive branch and a weaker legislative branch in government. | The Girondins wanted power to be equally shared between Paris and the provinces, giving them the chance to make their own laws for their own region (hence why they were called 'federalists'). They favoured a stronger legislative branch and a weaker executive branch. |
| Support base | The Montagnards had most of their support in Paris, especially among the radical and militant sans-culottes. Due to their ideal of a centralised government, they were more unpopular in the provinces. | The Girondins did have some support in Paris, but their main support base came from the provinces, particularly among the bourgeoisie. |
The Jacobins and the Girondins had polarising views on the way the country should be governed. The Girondins were certainly republican, but they held a more moderate position than the Montagnards. They supported democratic reforms, a strong legislative branch and a weaker executive branch. Such a stance can be contrasted with the more radical Jacobins, who supported a strong executive branch instead.
In a government, the legislative branch created laws, policies, and passed decrees. The executive branch of the government was the branch that 'executed' the government's legislation - such as dealing with diplomacy, controlling the military and enforcing the law.
The conflict between the Girondins and the Montagnards revolved around divisions of the centralisation of government in Paris. The Girondins wanted more power for the provinces, while the Montagnards wanted to keep the government centralised in Paris.
War with Austria and Prussia
One reason why the Girondins fell out of favour was due to their stance on the ongoing war with Austria. The Girondins supported the war with Austria, as they hoped it would fuel the fires of French patriotism and revolutionary fervour among the people. However, many Montagnards were set against war. They believed that it would be a waste of resources and would not instil the patriotism that the Girondins thought it would. Equally, the French people were also not keen to be signed up for another war. Therefore, the Girondins lost popularity because of their stance.
Federalist Revolts Arrest of the Girondins
Now we know the causes of the Federalist revolts, let's look at the revolts themselves. On 31 May 1793, a group of sans-culottes marched to the National Convention, demanding the arrest of the Girondins. The Girondin deputies were detained and put on house arrest just 3 days later.
Who were the sans-culottes?
The sans culottes were the male, urban workers of Paris during the French Revolution. Throughout the 1700s, their jobs became increasingly precarious and their wages were low.
The sans-culottes were some of the most fervent and militant participants in the Revolution. Their ideology was radical even by the standards of the French Revolution; they advocated for the abolishment of all privileges for the upper classes, the authority of the Catholic Church and a direct democracy.
Fig. 1 - Painting of a typical sans-culottes
They were the main base of support for the Montagnards, who aligned with much of their radical ideas. They also provided a lot of support to the Paris Commune, the revolutionary council set up in the capital. The Commune even consented to the creation of a sans-culottes paramilitary group in order to enforce law and order in Paris.
However, the sans-culottes began to lose popularity in 1794, when more moderate factions took over the National Convention and the reign of terror ended. Eventually, they had little to no influence on French politics.
On 5 June, 17 Girondin deputies protested against the arrest of their fellow deputies. In the following days, they also protested against the actions of the Paris Commune and the sans-culottes. They encouraged other departments to join them, and indeed some did, namely the Somme, Haute-Alpes and Haute-Vienne.
Some detained Girondins escaped house arrest, inciting department revolts. Some joined the armed groups organised by Norman and Breton departments; other Girondin politicians escaped to other departments that supported the Girondins, such as Eure and Caen.
Federalist Revolt France
After the expulsion of the Girondins, four cities in the provinces rebelled against Paris and the National Convention. These rebellions worried the Montagnards, since they were four of the largest cities in the country, next to Paris.
Federalism
A type of government in which there exists a central, national government, but also local governments in each province or state that have an equal power to make laws concerning the state or province. The best example of a federal government is the United States of America.
Federalist Revolt Map
The Federalists believed that the French provinces should have an equal say in lawmaking and an equal part in running the country. They were concerned that the Montagnards had too much power over the National Convention, especially since their support base was small outside the capital. They favoured a decentralised government; one in which the provinces were allowed to make their own decisions regarding their laws and have control over their own affairs.
Fig. 2 - Map of France showing major cities. Lyon, Marseilles, Caen, and Bordeaux were major hotspots of revolt
In the context of the Federalist Revolts and the conflict between the Montagnards and the Girondins, the Girondins wanted federalism, supported by the provinces, and the Montagnards wanted a centralised government, supported by Paris and the sans culottes.
Did you know? The United States has a federalist government. The Federal government in Washington D.C. controls the whole country, but each state has its own government that makes laws for itself. The Girondins or federalists wanted a similar situation in France between Paris and the provinces.
Federalist Revolt Geography
The Federalist Revolts were centred in the largest cities outside of Paris - Lyons, Marseilles, Caen and Bordeaux. It is hardly surprising that the provinces fiercely rejected a centralised government - they did not like the idea that a distant government could make laws for them without an understanding of the state of the province and what the people living there needed.
The Federalist revolts also had a link to the Vendée uprising, which was going on at roughly the same time. The Vendée felt its independence from Paris and the National Convention strongly, and so a link can be drawn between the desire for power of the provinces during the revolts and the rejection of the Paris government in the Vendée. There was also a lot of geographical overlap between the Vendée uprising and the Federalist Revolts.
Federalist Revolts Outcome
In spite of the Federalist Revolt, France largely remained unchanged. The Convention defeated the Girondins, and those who had been proscribed and arrested in the insurrection were executed in October 1793.
Here are the reasons why the revolts failed:
| Reason | Explanation |
| Distance | The cities in which the revolts took place were not close to Paris. To financially support an army to march to Paris from these cities would have been incredibly expensive. |
| Other Crises | At the same time as the revolts, the Vendée uprising and the war with Austria were also going on. Many Girondins who might have sympathised with the revolts decided that better use of their resources would be to stop the Royalist army from starting a full-on counter-revolution and restoring the monarchy. |
| Divisions within the Girondins | Even within the Federalists, there were divisions. Some Girondins were willing to make concessions and did not want a full revolt against the Convention. Robert Lindet, a Girondin, agreed to go and suppress a federalist revolt in Caen. |
| Organisation | Although anti-Montagnard sentiment was spread across many regions, they did not unify properly or coordinate their forces in order to launch one joint attack on the Convention. Some departments sent over a thousand soldiers, while others sent less than one hundred. |
Suppression of the Federalist Revolts
The Federalist revolts were finished by the end of 1793. Once the rebellion had been quashed, a series of brutal reprisals against those regions followed. In the spring of 1794, troops moved through Marseille, Lyon and Toulon and killed a huge number of peasants, burnt down their farms and destroyed their crops. Women were assaulted and mutilated in this so-called 'pacification'.
Thousands were executed and even more imprisoned - in the areas involved in the Vendée rebellion (which overlapped with the areas of the Federalist revolts), some 8700 people were sentenced to death. This number totalled more than half the executions that took place during the entire reign of terror.
Fig. 3 - Execution of Pierre Brissot and the other Girondins
Most of this violence was committed by the Revolutionary army at the behest of the representatives-en-mission, and wholeheartedly condoned by the Montagnard dominated National Convention. On the 24 of October 1793, 22 Girondins were tried in front of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Those who previously escaped from Paris were captured, executed or committed suicide.
Federalist Revolts Consequences
The Federalist Revolts had a lasting impact on the progress of the French Revolution and aided in creating the machinery that allowed the Reign of Terror to occur. The widespread outbreak of rebellion against the Convention increased fears of a counter-revolution. This made it easier for the Montagnards to pass decrees like the Law of 22 Prairial which allowed for state-sanctioned violence, arrests and executions in the name of protecting the Revolution.
Another consequence of the Federalist Revolts was the increasing centralisation of power in Paris. 'Federalism' actually became a crime, for which many people were executed during the Terror. The provinces had lost their chance to have even a modicum of power to control their own affairs. The Montagnard-dominated Convention was keen to keep power in Paris to stop any further unrest.
Federalist Revolts Historiography
Paul Hanson, a historian specialising in the Federalist Revolts placed the revolts within the wider context of the French Revolution. Hanson looked at the revolts as a culmination of two separate conflicts - the conflict between the Girondins and the Montagnards, but also exacerbated the tensions between Paris and the Provinces. The clash between Paris and the Provinces was an issue for the Girondin-Montagnard conflict to galvanise around.
It grew out of a longstanding struggle over sovereignty that was waged both in words and in practice in cities throughout France, a struggle that came to a head precisely at the moment that the battle between Girondins and Montagnards reached its crisis point in the capital."
- Historian of the French Revolution Paul Hanson1
The reprisals that followed the Federalist Revolts were not easily forgotten in the provinces. Although direct action was curtailed, resentment towards the National Convention only grew and kept growing over the next year as the reign of terror unfolded.
Federalist Revolts - Key takeaways
The Federalist revolts represented the struggle for power between Paris (the Montagnards) and the provinces (the Girondins).
The revolts broke out in the provinces after the arrest of the Girondins.
The revolts occurred in Lyon, Marseille, Caen and Bordeaux. These were major cities, which worried the Convention.
The Federalist revolts were crushed by the Convention, which strengthened the Reign of Terror and furthered the centralisation of power.
On the 24 of October, 1793, 22 Girondins were tried in front of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Those who previously escaped from Paris were captured, executed, or committed suicide.
References
- Paul Hanson, 'The Jacobin Republic Under Fire; The Federalist Revolt in the French Revolution'. 2003. p9.
- Figure 2. France map FR (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:France_map_FR.png) Public Domain (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/)
- Figure 3. La fournée des Girondins 10-11-1793 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_fourn%C3%A9e_des_Girondins_10-11-1793.jpg) Public Domain (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/)
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