When you get a lit degree you study this:
en.wikipedia.org
I blame my French teacher (hey there, Madam Herrick) for me thinking of
this first.
The
Society of the Friends of the Constitution (
French:
Société des amis de la Constitution), renamed the
Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality (
Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité) after 1792 and commonly known as the
Jacobin Club (
Club des Jacobins) or simply the
Jacobins (
/ˈdʒækəbɪn/; French:
[ʒakɔbɛ̃]), was the most influential
political club during the
French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the
Reign of Terror, during which time well over ten thousand people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes.
Initially founded in 1789 by
anti-royalist deputies from
Brittany, the club grew into a nationwide
republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more.
[2] The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s,
The Mountain and the
Girondins.
[4] In 1792–1793, the Girondins were more prominent in
leading France when they
declared war on
Austria and on
Prussia, overthrew
King Louis XVI, and set up the
French First Republic. In May 1793 the leaders of the Mountain faction led by
Maximilien Robespierre succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government featured high levels of political violence, and for this reason the period of the Jacobin/Mountain government is identified as the Reign of Terror. In October 1793, 21 prominent Girondins were
guillotined. The Mountain-dominated government executed 17,000 opponents nationwide, as a way to suppress the
Vendée insurrection and the
Federalist revolts and to deter recurrences. In July 1794 the
National Convention pushed the administration of Robespierre and his allies out of power and had
Robespierre and 21 associates executed. In November 1794 the Jacobin Club closed.