Revolution+In+France+InNo+Maurice+Chiu+Chapter+39-49

Awesome Stuff Guillotine is a card game that is actually based on the French Revolution and in the game who try to behead nobles and that is a way to earn points in the game. I thought this is pretty cool and I would want to play this.

Source: Web. 5 Sep 2010. .

Road To War
 * Since King Louis and Marie Antoinette were arrested by the local authorities, Emperor Leopold believes that both king Louis and Marie Antoinette were in danger and prepared for war to save them.
 * King Louis gave a statement to help regain king Louis and Marie Antoinette's liberty and power and with the king of Prussia, he told all the european kings to help king louis with his situation.
 * While Emperor Leopold did not actually want to invade France, nobody in France knew that and they thought that since the foreign armies are gathering, they decided that war was inevitable.
 * Many people wanted the war because then it will show that king Louis supports the enemy and they would be able to de-throne him and make a republic country.

War
 * France eventually declared war on Austria in April 20th 1792 and the French army attacked Austrian bases across the frontier in Belgium but the Austrians fend off the French army easily.
 * People in Paris began to believe that they lost because of traitors and that there was an "Austrian Committee" in the Tuileries Palace and that it was passing French military secrets to Austria.
 * Prussia joined Austria in the war against the French in May.
 * The National Assembly ordered every soldier out to the frontier and also made a "The Fatherland in Danger" and it asks for people to volunteer for the war efforts.
 * King Louis disagreed with everything the measures the National Assembly made and especially at the fact that all priests who still disagreed with the National Assembly were exiled.
 * Because of his actions, 20,000 men went to the Tuileries Palace on June 20th and started shouting abuse at king Louis.
 * The Duke Of Brunswick threatened the French people that if they harm Louis, but this only caused the National Assembly to give weapons to everyone to defend and arm themselves and they could do whatever they want, thus endangering king Louis.

The Storming Of The Tuileries
 * On August 10th 1792 20,000 armed men and women stormed the Tuileries Palace in an attempt dethrone King Louis. The men and women were supported by the National Guards and they killed 600 Swiss Guards protecting the king and many of their bodies were mutilated.

The Overthrow Of The Monarchy
 * After the raid on Tuileries it quickly ended Monarchy in France.
 * King Louis was suspended from office and his family were thrown in jail.
 * A new assembly called Convention was created for the country's new law-making body.
 * In September 21st 1792 the Convention declared King Louis was de-throned and that France was a republic country.
 * Two months later Louis was put up in trial for high treason and he was beheaded in public on January 21st 1973.

The Sans Culottes
 * The people who overthrew King Louis called themselves the Sans Culottes. They are the working people of France and they range from different jobs.
 * The Sans Culottes hated the nobles and they refused to use any words that are related to nobles and nobility.
 * The Sans Culottes were republics and they hated monarchy and they believed power was in the people.
 * The Sans Culottes also gave the rights for people to carry and use weapons against enemies. and in September 1942 the civilians broke into prisons of Paris and murdered around 1,400 prisoners because they were thought to support Austria.

The War Spreads
 * The execution of King Louis shocked millions of people in Europe and it caused many of king Louis's fellow monarchs to be angry.
 * One by one different European countries sided with Austria and Prussia against France.
 * The French army decided to attack the three newest countries to the coalition against France: Britain, Holland, and Spain.
 * The French army were beaten in a series of battles the Austrian forces and the French Commander, general Dumoriez, abandoned France and joined the other side.

Inflation And Shortages
 * While the war was going on, food prices began to rose to a very high level in France and to pay for the high rising prices the government printed bank notes called "assignats".
 * But the more bank notes they printed the more worthless the money was and the currency was suffering from the inflation and by February 1793 a bank note is worth only half of what it used to be.
 * Not only are food expensive, farmers are unwilling to sell their crops for money that was getting worthless and hungry Sans Culottes began storming food stores for food they could not buy.

Rebellion
 * To defend the country the army required 300,000 more soldiers.
 * This order was very unpopular and thousands of peasants in the western France joined forces to rebel against the government.
 * In Paris the war led to conflict between two political groups in the Convention. the groups were Girondins and the Jacobins, with Girondins holding the important posts and the Jacobins supporting the Sans Culottes.
 * The Jacobins blamed the Girondins for the France's defeat in battles and for allowing food to rise and with that on June 2nd an angry crowd of Sans Culottes broke into the Convention and expelled all the Girondins.
 * The expulsion of the Girondins caused a string of revolts in the provinces that supported the Girondins and by the end 60 of the 83 provinces had joined the rebellion against the government.

The Reign Of Terror
 * With many problems in France, the Convention set up a "Committee Of Public Safety". The twelve people who controlled it were allowed to do anything in order to keep France from falling apart and they imposed strict rules in France.

The Law Of Suspects
 * In September 1973 groups of civilians of every town had to draw up a list they suspect of opposing the government. In that year over a quarter of a million people were arrested just because they were suspected off being against the government.
 * Many suspects were sent to Paris for a trial by the Revolution Tribunal and half the sentences the judges passed were death sentences.

The Guillotine
 * The guillotine was created by doctor Guillotin as a quick and painless way to execute prisoners.
 * Around 17,000 people were killed with the Guillotine during the Terror and one of the first ones to ever use the guillotine was Marie Antoinette on October 1973.

Terror In The Province
 * The Committee Of Public Safety started sending representatives to the country side to stop the rebellion in the country side and were to do anything possible to suppress it.
 * Since the guillotine was too slow as a way to execute people, 2000 people were drowned at Nantes and 2000 more were killed in Lyons.
 * To speed up executions, prisoners stand in open graves and are blasted into them by cannon fire.

Terror In The Army
 * In August 1793 the Convention ordered a "Mass Levy" that required everyone to help in the war effort.
 * Unmarried men are to be a soldier and married men were to make weapons with women making tents and serving in the hospitals. Even children were to work by making bandages and gunpowder.
 * The Mass Levy increased the French army to 800,000 men and it was almost three times the size of the coalition's army.

Economic Terror
 * In September 1793 the Committee tried to half food price rises with the Law Of Maximum. People can not raise the price for food that was fixed and raising it will cause death penalty.

Terror And The Church
 * The Reign Of Terror had caused the disappearance of the Christian religion and that San Culottes claimed that christianity was nothing more than superstition.
 * The Sans Culottes closed down all the churches and fired all the priests and stole all the valuables available in the churches.
 * The Convention created a new calendar and years were no longer counted from when christ was born but starting from September 1792 and 1792-1793 was called Year One.
 * Each year was divided into twelve - thirty day months with names describing their weather and growing season.
 * Months were divided into three ten-day weeks and sundays were abolished.

Results Of The Terror
 * The Committee Of Public Safety managed to save France from collapsing through its forceful methods.
 * By mid-1794 the French army drove the Austrian forces out of France territories and had occupied the Austrian Netherlands.
 * 35,000 to 40,000 people were executed during the reign or had died in filthy overcrowded prisons. Everyone's rights and freedom was sacrificed for the war effort and for preventing France from collapsing.
 * At the end of everything the Committee Of Public Safety basically became a twelve men dictator party.

The Coup Of Thermidor
 * By the summer of 1794 the Committee has become very unpopular due to what it put the population of France under and many of the deputies of the Convention did not agree to the Committee's methods and thought it became too powerful.
 * The Sans Culottes, who were the greatest supporters of the Committee, started to disagree and was unhappy about the Maximum law.
 * On July 24th 1793 the Convention decided to remove the Committee and they revomed Robespierr, the Committee leader, along with all his supporters.
 * twenty-one of the supporters were arrested and guillotined the next day. A further ninety-six supporters were executed the day after.
 * After Robespierr was dead the Convention reduced the Committee's power and freed a hundreds of suspects and abolished the Maximum law and also got rid of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
 * After the Convention fixed the Committee the reign of terror was officially over.

Summary: War broke out between France and Austria. After the storming of the palace of Tuileries King Louis was beheaded and his family imprisoned. As the war spreads France was struck with inflation and food price rises. A committee was created to help France improve in any way possible and the reign of terror begin. By 1792 committee was unpopular with everyone and even their supporters, the Sans Culottes. The committee was eventually disbanded with the members executed or imprisoned. the leader, Robespieres, was executed, which marked the end of the reign of terror.

Question: Why did the committee become unpopular amongst the French people?