Thermidorian Reaction

In the historiography of the French Revolution, the Thermidorian Reaction (Réaction thermidorienne or Convention thermidorienne, "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespierre on 9 Thermidor II, or 27 July 1794, and the inauguration of the French Directory on 2 November 1795. The "Thermidorian Reaction" was named after the month in which the coup took place and was the latter part of the National Convention's rule of France. It was marked by the end of the Reign of Terror, decentralization of executive powers from the Committee of Public Safety and a turn from the radical Jacobin policies of the Montagnard Convention to more conservative positions. Economic and general populism, dechristianization, and harsh wartime measures were largely abandoned, as the members of the convention, disillusioned and frightened of the centralized government of the Terror, preferred a more stable political order that would have the approval of the plurality. The Reaction saw the Left suppressed by brutal force, including massacres, as well as the disbanding of the Jacobin Club, the dispersal of the sans-culottes, and the renunciation of the Montagnard ideology. The name Thermidorian originated with 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794), the date according to the French Republican Calendar when Maximilien Robespierre and other radical revolutionaries came under concerted attack in the National Convention. Thermidorian Reaction refers to the remaining period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory; this is also sometimes called the era of the Thermidorian Convention. Prominent figures of Thermidor include Paul Barras, Jean-Lambert Tallien, and Joseph Fouché. Fall of Maximilien Robespierre Conspiracies against Robespierre, who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety, came together on 9 Thermidor (27 July) 1794. Jean-Lambert Tallien, a member of and previously President of the National Convention, impugned Saint-Just and then went on to denounce the tyranny of Robespierre.

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