Federalist Revolts

The Federalist revolts were uprisings that broke out in various parts of France in the summer of 1793, during the French Revolution. They were prompted by resentments in France's provincial cities about increasing centralisation of power in Paris, and increasing radicalisation of political authority in the hands of the Jacobins. In most of the country the trigger for uprising was the exclusion of the Girondins from the Convention after the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793. Although they shared common origins and political objectives, the revolts were not centrally organised or well-coordinated. The revolts failed to win any sustained popular support and were put down by the armies of the Convention over the following months. The Reign of Terror was then imposed across France to punish those associated with them and to enforce Jacobin ideology.

Origins

In 1793, facing repeated threats from the radical Paris Commune, the Girondins, (sometimes referred to as “federalists” because of their ideas about decentralising power) began preparing a resistance movement outside Paris in the regions, where they had significant support. In many parts of the country, local and departmental governments were still dominated by the same notable families who had run them before the Revolution, and held Girondist, or indeed royalist political views. At the same time, the Girondins’ political opponents in Paris, the Jacobins, also sought to mobilise the population outside the capital to resist this local establishment and mobilise the people for a radical egalitarian Republic.This led to violent confrontations, exacerbated by underlying social conflicts, in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes and Rouen, towns where each faction had a strong social base - part of the middle classes and the urban poor for the Jacobins, with Girondin support strong among both the more prosperous bourgeoisie and those elements of the urban poor affected by unemployment or hostile to the anticlerical measures of the Convention.Roger Dupuy, ''La République jacobine: Terreur, guerre et gouvernement révolutionnaire, 1792-1794'', vol 2 of ''Nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine'', Le Seuil, coll. Points Histoire, 2005, .

In most affected cities, the crisis broke after 29 Girondin députés were arrested on 2 June 1793. On 5 June, another 17 députés, including Condorcet, protested against their arrest. The same day, the départemental administrations of Somme, Haute-Vienne and Hautes-Alpes did likewise.Marcel Dorigny, « Fédéralisme », dans Albert Soboul (dir.), ''Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française'', Paris, PUF, 1989 (rééd. Quadrige, 2005, ). On 7 June, 75 députés from the right of the Convention denounced the actions of the Paris Commune and urged the départements across the country to support them. Meanwhile, several of the Girondin députés escaped house arrest and fled to join the armed groups which most Norman and Breton départements had begun to assemble in order to raise a revolt against the Convention. Thus Buzot and Gorsas went to Eure