Who were the Jacobins, the ruthless radicals of the French Revolution?

From the earliest stages of their formation, the Jacobins advocated for the complete abolition of monarchy and the establishment of a republic grounded in the sovereignty of the people.

They argued that freedom could only exist where equality replaced privilege, and they called for reforms that would strip the aristocracy and clergy of their traditional powers.

In speeches and publications, Jacobin deputies demanded a republic where laws expressed the will of the general population and where political participation extended to all male citizens.

They publicly supported the 1793 Constitution, which proposed universal male suffrage and economic measures, even though it was never implemented. 

During the early 1790s, as the revolution spread across France, Jacobin leaders declared that the nation had to be rebuilt from its foundations and that old institutions must be dismantled completely.

They supported state-funded education and strict regulation of grain prices to prevent price gouging.

They initially supported the Le Chapelier Law of 1791, which outlawed guilds and trade unions, though many Jacobins later shifted toward more state regulation and distanced themselves from its liberal economic principles, and they called for the seizure of property that belonged to émigrés and clergy.

Many Jacobins believed that civic virtue had to be enforced by law and that freedom required active defence against both internal sabotage and foreign invasion. 

As a result of their alignment with the sans-culottes, they secured strong support from the radical working-class sections of Paris.

They had consistently presented themselves as the voice of ordinary citizens who demanded immediate action on food shortages, measures to relieve economic hardship, and firm punishment for suspected treason.

According to Jacobin leaders, liberty would collapse unless the enemies of the revolution were identified and eliminated. 

After first meeting in 1789 under the formal name Société des Amis de la Constitution, the Jacobin Club began as a group of deputies from the Estates-General who aimed to promote revolutionary ideas.

Their meetings took place in the former Dominican convent on the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, and as their influence grew, they came to be known by the name of the religious order that once occupied the building.

By 1790, they had opened their membership to non-deputies, which greatly increased their popularity among the citizens of Paris and other major towns. 

Over the next three years, the Jacobins built a national network of affiliated clubs, with around 1,200 linked branches and thousands of members who spread their message across France.

Their newspapers, pamphlets, and speeches quickly filled the public debate with radical ideas.

At the same time, they built close ties with the Parisian sections who provided armed support during street demonstrations and revolutionary actions.

They had repeatedly accused the moderate Girondins of weakening the revolution, and that the Girondins favoured compromise and that they had failed to defend the nation.

On 10 August 1792, after the fall of the Tuileries Palace and the suspension of the monarchy, the Jacobins led the charge to place the king on trial.

When the Convention voted to execute Louis XVI on 21 January 1793, their victory over the monarchy was complete.

That same year, with France at war against multiple European powers and with rebellion at home, the Jacobins pushed for stronger central control and emergency powers.

On 2 June 1793, they forced the Girondins out of the Convention and then they took control of the Committee of Public Safety, which gave them control of the revolutionary government.

From September 1793, the Jacobins imposed a state of emergency across France because they declared that the Republic would survive only if it destroyed its internal enemies.

Under Robespierre, the Committee of Public Safety introduced laws that expanded state power and restricted individual rights.

The Law of Suspects, which was passed on 17 September 1793, effectively allowed the arrest of anyone who was accused of being hostile to the revolution. Importantly, the law required no proof of guilt. 

Each day, the Revolutionary Tribunal tried dozens of cases and routinely delivered guilty verdicts in a matter of minutes.

In Paris alone, the Tribunal sentenced 2,639 people to death. Public executions became an increasingly common occurrence in Paris and other major cities.

The Jacobins used the guillotine as both a punishment and a symbol of revolutionary justice.

According to Robespierre, who declared that "terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice," virtue without terror was powerless. 

At the same time, the Jacobins had launched a campaign against religion, which meant that they had closed churches, removed symbols of Christianity, and had arrested priests.

In May 1794, Robespierre introduced the Cult of the Supreme Being, which promoted civic morality under a deistic framework.

He had claimed that France must replace superstition with reason and remove vice from public life.

During the Festival of the Supreme Being on 8 June 1794, Robespierre appeared in a toga before large crowds in Paris, which drew criticism from deputies who viewed his performance as delusional and a self-important display. 

The Jacobins insisted that these actions were necessary, as they claimed that the survival of the Republic depended on removing all threats, whether political, religious, or ideological.

Because of this belief, they treated dissent as treason. In December 1793, the Law of 14 Frimaire further centralised power under the Committee of Public Safety and gave it almost complete control over the government. 

According to official records, the Reign of Terror resulted in at least 16,500 legal executions by guillotine.

An additional 10,000 people died in prisons or through extrajudicial killings.

Victims included nobles, clergy, Girondins, moderate republicans, and ordinary citizens.

Some were convicted after public trials, but many were condemned without defence or evidence.

In Paris alone, more than 2,500 people were executed. Among them were Queen Marie Antoinette, Georges Danton, and Camille Desmoulins.

Elsewhere, the killings became even more brutal. In Nantes, Jean-Baptiste Carrier organised the mass drowning of priests and suspects in the Loire River, known as the noyades, and reportedly killed thousands, with estimates ranging from 1,800 to as high as 5,000.

In Lyon, revolutionary forces used grapeshot to execute prisoners in groups, with modern estimates suggesting that between 300 and 500 people were killed. 

The Committee of Public Safety justified the killings by claiming that France was at war on all sides.

They said that mercy would embolden traitors, and because of that, fear soon replaced debate and suspicion became a weapon.

Across the country, families feared denunciation, and communities turned against themselves. 

By the middle of 1794, discontent with Jacobin rule had spread widely throughout France because many people blamed Robespierre for the escalating violence, the economic crisis, and the collapse of trust within government.

His speeches had become more obscure, his accusations had become more vague, and his sense of isolation had increased. 

On 10 June 1794, the Law of 22 Prairial removed the right to defence, silenced witnesses, and accelerated executions, and as a result, the period that followed became known as the Great Terror.

Over the next six weeks, more people were guillotined in Paris than during the entire previous year.

Robespierre’s refusal to name enemies when addressing the Convention had caused panic among his former allies because they feared that they would be next.

On 26 July, Robespierre delivered a speech attacking unnamed traitors, and because of that, the following day, deputies acted and ordered his arrest along with his closest supporters, including Saint-Just and Couthon.

That evening, Paris turned against him. During the chaos, Robespierre had attempted suicide but only shattered his jaw.

He was captured and taken to the Conciergerie. 

On 28 July 1794, Robespierre and twenty-one others were executed. The Thermidorian Reaction had begun, ending the Reign of Terror and the period in which the Jacobins held power over the revolutionary government. 

After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention had ended the instruments of terror, and as a result, the Revolutionary Tribunal had lost its power, the Committee of Public Safety had been reduced in authority, and revolutionary surveillance had stopped.

The Jacobin Club had once been the most powerful political body in France and had been shut down by decree in November 1794. 

Several Jacobin leaders who had participated in the Terror faced justice. Jean-Baptiste Carrier was arrested, tried, and executed in December 1794.

Others, such as Billaud-Varenne and Collot d’Herbois, were deported to French Guiana in 1795.

In what became known as the White Terror, royalist mobs lynched or assassinated many former Jacobins.

Only a few escaped punishment, often temporarily because they denounced Robespierre or because they retreated from public life. 

Over time, people saw Jacobin policies as increasingly excessive, and as a result, public opinion turned against their methods.

The new regime blamed them for the worst crimes of the Revolution. When Napoleon rose to power in 1799 during the coup of 18 Brumaire, he rejected their ideology and promised order and stability. 

By the early nineteenth century, the word “Jacobin” had become a warning. It warned about revolutionary extremism and the violence that could follow when ideology replaced law.