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The fall of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794) ended the Terror but opened a period of political instability that lasted five years. The Thermidorian Convention and its successor, the Directory, struggled to find a stable middle ground between royalist restoration and Jacobin radicalism. The Directory's failure to achieve political legitimacy ultimately created the conditions for Napoleon Bonaparte's seizure of power.
Key Definition: Thermidor refers to the coup against Robespierre (27 July 1794) and the subsequent conservative reaction. The word became a political metaphor for the moment when a revolution turns against its own radicals.
| Factor | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Fear | The Law of 22 Prairial (10 June 1794) accelerated executions; deputies feared they might be next |
| Political isolation | Robespierre had eliminated both the Hébertists (left) and Dantonists (right), leaving him without allies |
| Vague threats | On 26 July, Robespierre denounced unnamed "conspirators" in the Convention; terrified deputies assumed they were the targets |
| Military success | The victory at Fleurus (26 June 1794) removed the military emergency that had justified the Terror |
| Coalition against him | Fouché, Tallien, Barras, and other Thermidorians united in self-preservation |
Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, and 19 allies were guillotined on 28 July 1794.
A-Level Analysis: Robespierre fell not because the Convention rejected the Terror in principle, but because individual deputies feared for their own lives. The Thermidorian reaction was driven by self-interest, not ideological conversion.
The period following Robespierre's fall saw a dramatic reversal:
| Change | Detail |
|---|---|
| Terror dismantled | Revolutionary Tribunal restructured; Law of Suspects repealed; Committee of Public Safety's powers reduced |
| Jacobin Club closed | November 1794 |
| Economic liberalisation | Maximum (price controls) abolished; severe inflation followed |
| White Terror | In southern France, royalist gangs murdered former Jacobins and republicans |
| Sans-culotte insurrections crushed | Germinal (April 1795) and Prairial (May 1795) risings in Paris suppressed; sans-culottes disarmed and permanently marginalised |
| Religious relaxation | Freedom of worship partially restored (February 1795) |
The Thermidorians drafted a new constitution designed to prevent both dictatorship and popular radicalism:
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Executive | A five-member Directory, one member replaced annually |
| Legislature | Two chambers: Council of Five Hundred (proposed laws) and Council of Ancients (approved or rejected them) |
| Franchise | Restricted to property-owning men; two-stage indirect elections |
| No declaration of rights equivalent | The emphasis shifted from rights to duties |
| Two-Thirds Decree | Two-thirds of the new legislature had to be drawn from the existing Convention |
The Directory faced fundamental problems:
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