The first act of the new assembly, 21 Sept. 1792, was to proclaim the republic. Thus the Year I of the republic began. On 3 December the king was cited to appear before the assem bly. On 20 Jan. 1793, he was, by four succes sive votes, sentenced to death within 24 hours, and on the 21st the sentence was executed. This violent inauguration of the republic shocked public opinion throughout Europe, and armed the neutral states against France. Eng land, Holland, Spain and the empire joined the coalition. A levy of 300,000 men was ordered. It was necessary to send some of these new levies to suppress the Chouan insurrection in Main; Anjou and Brittany. Nearly all the officers of rank had emigrated, and Dumouriez, feeling that hostility was rising against him in Paris, resolved to regain his prestige by a bold stroke—the conquest of Holland. He was de - feated in the attempt, however, by the Prince of Coburg who administered a crushing defeat at Neerwinden, 18 March 1793. Dummies then secretly-agreed to evacuate Belgium and turning against the convention deserted to the allies on 4 April. Mainz was also lost by Cus tine. At home the army lost confidence in its rheads and became disorganized. Mutual suspi cion and distrust reigned in the convention itself. The convention took measures suited to the gloomy aspect of affairs. A revolutionary tribunal was appointed to try offenses against the state; a committee of public safety, with sovereign authority, was appointed (6 April), and the convention renounced the inviolability of its members. The period thus inaugurated is known in history as the Reign of Terror. The struggle between the Girondists and the Mon tagnards became violent. The latter, defeated in the convention, armed the sections of Paris. The convention, under pressure, ordered the arrest of 31 Girondists (2 June). Some of them escaped and excited insurrection in the provinces. A new constitution was adopted by the convention 23 June, called the Constitution of the Year I, and the Republican calendar was adopted on 5 Oct. 1793. The energy of the dominant party had risen to the danger, but it was accompanied by a ferocity without example. The revolutionary tribunal had already filled the prisons with victims. On 10 Oct 1793 the constitution was suspended and the government declared revolutionary, a term which included unlimited power. Both in Paris and the prov inces executions and massacres followed each other daily, and as new parties succeeded each other in the convention the leaders of the de feated parties were added to the usual list of suspected royalists or reactionaries. Thousands of paid committees were formed throughout France. The queen was executed on 16 Oct. 1793, the Girondists (against whom public anger had been more deeply aroused by the assassination of Marat on 13 July by Charlotte Corday) on 31 October (10th Brumaire), the Hebertists on 24 March 1794, the Dantonists on 5 April. Robespierre had a new law passed on 22 Prairial (10 June) to facilitate these execu tions, and from this date to 27 July about 1,400 persons are supposed to have perished. At length the Reign of Terror came to an end by the revolution of the 9th Thermidor and by the execution of Robespierre and his associates on 27 and 28 July 1794.
In the meantime the majority of the south ern towns declared against the convention. French territory was invaded both on the north and south and to all these dangers was added famine. Conde was taken by the allies 12 July 1793; Mainz surrendered 23 July; and Coburg took Valenciennes on the 28th. The convention fixed a maximum price for the sale of pro visions. A decree was passed excluding English manufactures from France. A levy was ordered of 1,200,000 men, and Carnot organized 14 armies. The revolted provinces were speedily reduced. At this time Napoleon first became prominent in France. In September 1793 he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of artillery and sent to Toulon to assist in the reduction of that city which was then in the hands of the English. By his strategy this was accomplished on 19 December, and Jourdan, in the north, was en abled to give his undivided attention to driv ing the principal forces of the coalition from the country. During the balance of 1793 and in
1794 the campaigns resulted favorably to the French arms. Jourdan defeated the Prince of Coburg at Wattignies 15 and 16 Oct. 1793. Hoche, after losing the three-day battle of Kaislerlautern (28 Nov.-1 Dec.) and winning the battle of Wissenberg (26 December), wintered in the Palatinate. In Italy and Spain the French had also been able to carry the war beyond their own frontiers. In the spring of 1794 the French armies took the offensive. An attack on Lille by Coburg's forces was repulsed with great loss on 18 May. Jourdan crowned a series of victories by the capture of Charleroi in June; and by the victory of Fleurus (26 June 1794) recovered Belgium; and Pichegru, by the beginning of 1795, had completed the con quest of Holland. A treaty of peace was signed 16 May. Holland, under French influence, con stituted itself the Batavian Republic. Tus cany concluded peace with France 9 February. By the successes of Jourdan the allies were driven across the Rhine, and Spain was invaded. These successes induced Prussia and Spain to lay down their arms. By the treaties of Basel (q.v.) signed by the former on 5 April, by the latter on 12 July (ratified 22) 1795, and by Hesse-Cassel on 28 August, these countries acknowledged the French Republic. (See PEACE TREATIES ) . The English during this time had been successful at sea and had made extensive captures among the French colonies. Mean while (in February 1794) Napoleon had been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of artillery and later in the same year was sent to Genoa to study its defenses and the political disposition of its inhabitants.
In 1795 the convention gave the republic a new constitution called the °Constitution of the Year HI"; a chamber of Five Hundred to propose the laws; a chamber of Ancients to ap prove them; an executive of five members, one elected annually called the directory. This tame bequest of that once terrible assembly marked the progress of a strong reaction. The royalists conceived sanguine hopes of a restora tion. Pichegru was gained, a royalist insurrec tion organized, and 30,000 men marched on the Tuileries, where the convention sat. Barras en trusted the defense to Napoleon who had lately 'returned. He with 5,000 men and his artillery, though he had only a single night in which to prepare, not only repulsed the insurgents but poured such murderous discharges of grape into their ranks that within an hour after actual fighting began he had secured victory for the convention. This event is called the affair of the 13th Vendemiaire (5 Oct. 1795). In recog nition of his services Napoleon was now ap pointed by the convention to the command of the army of the interior. The convention was dissolved on 26 October.
With the suppression of the revolution at Paris by Napoleon, the subjugation of the Ven deans and Bretons by Hoche, the crushing of the °Conspiracy of Babeuf," and the pacification of the other sections of the country came a dis tinct lull in political passion. For the first time in many years the armies of France were idle and so the directory planned further foreign conquests. Carnot, the °organizer of victory,' who was one of the five members of the direc tory, was depended upon for the military suc cess of the campaigns. He planned an attack on Austria and resolved to strike from three separate points. In 1796 he sent out three armies which were to hem in the Austrians on all sides and descend upon Vienna simulta neously. Two of these armies, each 70,000 to 80,000 strong, were to enter Germany to reach the valley of the Danube, one under Jourdan (the army of the Sambre and Meuse) by way of the valley of the Main, the other under Moreau (the army of the Rhine and Moselle) by way of the valley of the Neckar. Both were then to descend upon Austria. Napoleon with the third army (the army of Italy) 40,000 strong, was to menace Italy. Let us follow this last army.