{"id":2748,"date":"2016-07-28T22:04:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T22:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2748"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:33:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:33:51","slug":"national-convention-french-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/national-convention-french-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"National Convention (French Revolution): A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The National Convention was established in 1792 during the events of the French Revolution<\/a>. It replaced the Legislative Assembly<\/a> and declared France a republic. The National Convention played a crucial role during this phase of the French Revolution, including the trial and execution of King Louis XVI<\/a>. Also, controlled by the more radical Jacobins, the National Convention oversaw the Reign of Terror<\/a>, which saw thousands of people executed by guillotine. The National Convention eventually lost support, due to its violence and excesses, and was replaced by the more moderate Directory<\/a> in 1795.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GOVERNMENTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beginning in 1789, the French Revolution saw the French people overthrow their\u00a0absolute monarchy<\/a>\u00a0and bring about a republic that was based on the principles of equality, liberty and fraternity.\u00a0 Throughout the years of the revolution, there were four different revolutionary governments, including: National Assembly<\/a>, Legislative Assembly<\/a>, National Convention and the Directory<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"French
‘Storming of the Bastille and arrest of the Governor M. de Launay’ by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand. (1790) The Storming of the Bastille was an important events in the beginning of the French Revolution.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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NATIONAL CONVENTION (FRENCH REVOLUTION) – SUMMARY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The National Convention occurred from September 1792 until October 1795, during some of the most violent periods of the French Revolution<\/a>.\u00a0 It formed following the end of the Legislative Assembly and would later be replaced by the Directory.\u00a0 The National Convention was extremely important to the events of the French Revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the convention was the first government in France based on universal male suffrage.  All males 25 years and older were allowed to vote for representatives of the National Convention, regardless of their class in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the first major act of the convention was to abolish the absolute monarchy and to transform France into a republic.\u00a0 This action helped lead into the trial and execution of Louis XVI<\/a>, which was carried out by the National Convention.\u00a0 While the early stages of the revolution were carried out by the moderates in the National Assembly and the Legislative Assembly, by 1792 it was firmly in the hands of the more radical National Convention.\u00a0 On December 11th, 1792, the king was brought before\u00a0the convention to hear the charges against him. He was charged with treason due to his attempt to flee the country earlier that year, which was viewed as him abandoning his country.\u00a0 Next, on January 15th, 1793, the representatives voted and passed their verdict of guilty.\u00a0 The famous revolutionary, Maximilien Robespierre<\/a>, commented that \u201cLouis must die so the nation may live.\u201d\u00a0 Louis\u2019 punishment was death and on, January 21st, 1793, he was beheaded by guillotine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maximilien
Portrait of Maximilien Robespierre by an unknown artist. (1790)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the National Convention oversaw the most violent period in the entire revolution which was the Reign of Terror<\/a>.\u00a0 The Reign of Terror occurred from September of 1793 until July of 1794, and was a time period of extreme violence and paranoia during the French Revolution.\u00a0 Following the execution of Louis XVI<\/a>, the more radical revolutionaries, the Jacobins, were concerned that foreign and domestic groups would threaten the continuing of the revolution.\u00a0 As such, the Jacobins worked to remove the more moderate Girondins from positions of power within the revolution.\u00a0 Next, the Jacobins began carrying out the Reign of Terror against anyone who they thought would threaten the revolution.\u00a0 The paranoia of the Reign of Terror would cause the deaths of tens of thousands with most being beheaded by guillotine<\/a>.\u00a0 It was at the beginning of the Reign of Terror that the queen, Marie Antoinette<\/a>, was executed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Convention ended in October of 1795 following the execution of Maximilien Robespierre and the excesses of the Reign of Terror.  The Directory formed out of and replaced the National Convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Directory\"
Napoleon Bonaparte confronts the members of the Council of Five Hundred in November of 1799. Painted by Fran\u00e7ois Bouchot. (1799)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Convention was the revolutionary government of the French revolution from September 1792 until October 1795. This article details the history and significance of the National Convention in relation to the French Revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":28,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[87,15],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-french-revolution","tag-french-revolution","tag-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5595,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions\/5595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}