The First Republic
The National Convention began meeting in September 1792. The purpose of the Convention was to draft a new constitution and serve as a ruling organization for France. It was made up of mostly lawyers, professionals, and property owners, two thirds were under the age of 45. Since most people in the Convention didn't like the king, their first move was getting rid of the monarchy and making the French Republic.
Execution of The King And Queen
In 1789 there were many new politcal groups, some wanted to keep the king alive, and some wanted him killed. These people tried to influence the undecided people in the Convention. In 1793 the Mountain political group convinced the Convention to pass a decree to kill Louis XVI. On January 21 the king was beheaded by the guillotine. Later Marie Antoinette was tried and sentanced to death. She was brought through Paris in an open cart and was beheaded by the guillotine.
Constitution of 1793
One of the main things that the Convention was supposed to do was come up with a constitution. They finally got it done in 1793 and the vote passed. The constitution stated many of the rights that the people wanted and the issues people wanted resolved. Because of of other issues like war it appeared that the revolution would be destroyed. To counter this, the National Convention gave a lot of power to the Committee of Public Safety. The Committee included radical leaders like Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre.
Reign of Terror
When the Committee of Public Safety came to power, they used extremely strict policies to maintain order. Any person who opposed the revolution was killed. During the Reign of Terror, almost 40000 people total were killed and about 16000 of those were beheaded by the guillotine. Other steps were taken to reshape French society like abolishing slavery, having a new "dress code", and laws for better education. All of the social classes were affected by the Reign of Terror.
The Revolutionary Army
A big problem for the National convention were the invaders from other countries trying to take advantage of the chaos in France. Mainly the Austrians. In under a year, the new government had created a huge army of over 1 million soldiers. It was one of the largest armies ever in Europe and it got rid of the Austrian invaders. Most of the soldiers weren't professionals, they were ordinary people, but there were so many of them foreign opposition didn't stand a chance.
The Fall of Robespierre
After the French had defeated their foreign enemies, there was no need to continue the reign of terror. Even so, Robespierre kept on arresting people and accusing them of treason. He was completely obsessed with trying to get rid of all of the corrupt people in France. In June 1794, the Law of 22 was passed and it gave Robespierre even more power to execute and arrest people. Others in the National Convention feared Robespierre because of all the power he had and thought he would accuse them so they acted first. They passed a vote to have him beheaded. Robespierre died on July 28, 1794. After his death, Jacobins lost power and other middle class leaders had more power in the Convention. Later the Law of 22 was repealed and prisoners were released. This ended the Reign of Terror.