Committee of Public Safety Established
On 6 April 1793 the National Convention created the Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public) as a war cabinet with extraordinary executive powers, replacing the unwieldy and factionalised Committee of General Defence. The timing was acute: French armies were retreating on all fronts after General Dumouriez's defection to the Austrians; the Vendée uprising was spreading in the west; the Girondins and Montagnards were paralysingthe Convention with factional warfare; and food shortages threatened Paris. The Committee initially had nine members, expanding to twelve by July 1793. Its composition evolved through the summer: the purge of the Girondins in June brought in Montagnard radicals, and the 'Great Committee' that formed in late July — including Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, Carnot, Lindet, and Prieur — collectively governed France for the next year with a cohesion and effectiveness remarkable for a twelve-man executive. The division of labour was significant. Lazare Carnot, the military engineer, took control of the armies — reorganising command, promoting officers by demonstrated merit rather than birth or seniority, and orchestrating the mass mobilisation that would put 750,000 men in the field. He is credited with creating the modern concept of total national mobilisation. Robert Lindet managed food supply and the controlled economy under the Maximum (price and wage controls). Robespierre, Saint-Just, and Couthon handled ideology, political surveillance, and the Terror — working closely with the Revolutionary Tribunal to identify and eliminate 'enemies of the Republic.' The Committee saved the Republic from external invasion and internal revolt by 1794, driving Austrian and Prussian forces back and suppressing the Federalist and Vendée rebellions. But its success intensified internal suspicions: by July 1794 the Committee had turned on itself, with Robespierre preparing new purge lists. On 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) the Convention arrested Robespierre, Saint-Just, and Couthon; all three were guillotined the next day. The Committee's extraordinary powers ended; France entered the Thermidorian Reaction.
- Year: 1793 CE
- Category: Political
