1794 | Political Events
Political Events
The bishop of Lyons goes to the guillotine after a trial January 11 and Republican troops under General Turreau begin a systematic destruction of the Vendée region (see 1793). Jacobin newspaper editor Jacques Hébert of Le Père Duchesne calls for an insurrection but is guillotined along with other Hébertist extremists March 24 as Robespierre crushes his rivals at Paris, the sans-cullotte revolutionary army is dissolved March 27 by order of the Convention. Georges Jacques Danton is arrested March 31 along with Camille Desmoulins and others on charges of having conspired with foreign rulers against the French republic, and they are guillotined April 5. Robespierre establishes a dictatorial Committee of Public Safety April 19, former revolutionary leader Jean Le Chapelier returns from a visit to England and goes to the guillotine at Paris April 22 at age 39. Robespierre ends the Cult of Reason, wins unanimous election June 4 as president of the Convention, and establishes himself June 8 as high priest of a new Festival of the Supreme Being. Alexandre, vicomte de Beauharnais, was named general in chief of the Army of the Rhine last year but is seized along with other noblemen and guillotined at Paris June 23 at age 34 as the Reign of Terror continues.
French forces invade Piedmont in April. Napoleon Bonaparte has been promoted to general of brigade in February and leads an offensive to support "Piedmont's revolutionaries"; he captures the Piedmontese enclave of Omeglia on Genoan territory April 18.
Britain signs a treaty with Prussia and the Netherlands against France at The Hague April 19. Austrian general Peter Ott leads a force of 300 British and Austrian light cavalrymen in a reconnaisance operation near Cambrai April 24. He runs into strong opposition at Villers-en-Cauches, but after scattering the first French cavalry force, he attacks a 12,000-man infantry position, overruns its guns, and after a 12-kilometer pursuit has killed, wounded, or captured some 1,200 Frenchmen while suffering only 66 casualties. Landrecies in northern France surrenders to Austrian forces April 30. French troops enter Catalonia in northern Spain May 1, and French forces under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau, 31, defeat an Austrian army led by Friedrich of Saxe-Coburg at Tourcoing May 14 then capture Tourcoing May 17, opening the way for French troops to enter the former Spanish Lowlands. British-financed Prussian forces defeat a French army in Poland June 15 and force the French to leave Warsaw. French forces under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, 32, seize Charleroi in the Netherlands; Saxe-Coburg's 185,000 Austrians far outnumber the 80,000 Frenchmen under the command of General Charles Pichegru, 32, June 26, but Pichegru uses intelligence communicated by members of the Corps Aerostatique from observation balloons high above the field (see transportation [Charles], 1787) to see how the Austrians are deployed and defeats Saxe-Coburg June 26 at the Battle of Fleurus in a 14-hour engagement. The French expel the Austrians from Ostend July 1 and capture Brussels July 8.
French forces occupy Cologne and find that the city has remained predominantly Roman Catholic, with Protestant Church services not permitted in public. No Jew is permitted to remain overnight.
The conspiracy of 9 Thermidor (July 27) topples Robespierre from power before he can have the comte de Rochambeau and other leaders guillotined. Moderates arrest Robespierre, his brother, and his associates Georges Couthon, 39, and Louis (-Antoine-Léon) de Saint-Just, 26. Supporters of the "incorruptible" Robespierre release him and his companions but are taken by surprise July 28 at the Hôtel de Ville; he is sent to the guillotine with 18 others, including Saint-Just. More than 80 of Robespierre's sympathizers go to the guillotine July 29 as opponents resist efforts to make France "a republic of virtue," but Bertrand Barère and other Committee of Public Safety members quickly lose their popularity and public opinion forces Robespierre's successors to end the Great Terror that began June 10. The Thermidoreans (moderates) close Jacobin clubs but readmit to the Convention those Girondists who have escaped the carnage with their lives.
English chemist-clergyman Joseph Priestley flees to America after his outspoken statements in support of France's revolutionists provoke further ire (see 1791).
British forces in the Caribbean recapture Martinique from the French March 23, capture Port-au-Prince in Saint-Domingue June 4, but are ousted from Guadeloupe June 7. The British held Martinique from 1762 to 1763; this time they will hold it until 1802.
A Royal Navy fleet under the command of Admiral Richard Howe, now 68, defeats a French fleet in the North Atlantic June 1, capturing six French ships and sinking a seventh. Most of the former French Navy officers have either been executed or gone into exile. Louis Villaret de Joyeuse has been escorting 130 grain ships from the United States into Brest, and Lord Howe has sighted the convoy 430 miles west of the Breton island of Ouessant (Ushant) May 28. Each fleet has 26 ships of the line (four more come to reinforce Villaret as the battle progresses), and fighting has continued for 2 days, but although the British will celebrate the encounter as the Battle of the Glorious First of June, Villaret has succeeded in drawing the Royal Navy away from the grain ships and permitting them to arrive safely at their destination. The British raise £21,281 for distribution to the widows and orphans of those lost.
Former royal governor of Quebec (and of Minorca) General James Murray dies near Battle, Sussex, June 18 at age 73.
British forces take Corsica from the French August 21 after bombardment by Captain Horatio Nelson of the Royal Navy and harassment by nationalists under the command of the island's patriot governor Pasquale de Paoli, 69. Scottish-born American Revolution veteran John Moore, 33, distinguishes himself in the action.
An anti-French pact signed at St. Petersburg September 28 allies Britain with Russia and Austria, but French military successes in Germany lead Prime Minister Pitt to cut financing of Prussian troops October 10. General Jourdan takes Coblenz October 23, Prussia denounces the Treaty of The Hague October 25 and pulls her troops out of the Netherlands, French forces invade the Netherlands December 27, and France signs an armistice with Austria December 31.
Polish revolutionists rise against the Russians in March under the leadership of American Revolution veteran Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who arrives at Kraków, gains the support of dissident officers, and proclaims a provisional government giving him dictatorial powers (see second partition, 1793). Helped by General Jan Henryk Dabrowski, 38, the Poles defeat a superior Russian army at Raclawice April 4 and enter Warsaw April 19, forcing the Russians to withdraw after a 2-day revolt in the city; the Jacobins seize Vilna April 22, Kosciuszko enters that city the next day, but a Russian army under General Aleksandr Vasilyevich Suvorov, 65, crushes the Poles at Maciejowice October 10; Kosciuszko is injured and taken prisoner (Czar Paul I releases him on the promise that he will not take up arms against Russia again). The surviving Polish rebels are massacred at Praga November 4, and the Russians enter Warsaw November 9, putting an end to the uprising (see third partition, 1795).
The Persian city of Kerman surrenders to Kajar forces after a 4-month siege, the Persian king Lutf Ali Khan escapes but is wounded and captured, whereupon he is blinded, tortured, and, finally, strangled at Teheran on orders from the brutal Kajar chieftain Agha Mohammad, who takes power, founding the Kajar dynasty that will rule Persia until 1925 (see 1791). The death of Lutf Ali Khan at age 25 after a 5-year reign ends the Zand dynasty founded in 1750. The women of Kerman are raped and then killed or sold into slavery, and Agha Mohammad demands 20,000 pairs of men's eyes, which are delivered to him. Castrated at age 5 or 6 to prevent him from becoming a political rival of Adil Shah, he nevertheless became de facto governor of Azerbaijan Province at age 15, succeeded his father as head of the Kavanlu clan the following year, was captured by a rival chieftain at age 20 and sent as a prisoner to Shiraz, spent 16 years as a political hostage, escaped 15 years ago, and made his way to the Kavanlu stronghold of Astarbad. Now 54, he will be crowned next year and reign until his assassination in 1796.
Burma's king Bodawpaya sends an army to suppress a revolt in his province of Arakan (see 1785); when thousands of people take refuge across the border in British territory he sends troops to pursue the rebel leaders (see 1795).
British colonial officer Francis Light dies at Penang Island October 21 at age 54, having governed the settlement since 1786.
The 50-year Tembe civil war in southern Africa ends in triumph for the Maputo kingdom, which gains exclusive rights to trade with Portuguese ships in Maputo Bay, but vast stretches of Natal and Swaziland remain open to conquest by Ndwandwe and Mthewa chiefs.
Congress grudgingly authorizes construction March 27 of some frigates to resist "the depredations committed by the Algerian corsairs [pirates] on the commerce of the United States," thus providing for the basis of a permanent U.S. Navy (see Jones, 1779). Thomas Jefferson and others have opposed the measure, calling it an infringement on states' rights, and although the law calls for building six frigates, it contains a provision that would reduce the number to three in the event that a peace treaty can be signed with the Algerians, who have been seizing merchant vessels that did not meet their demands for tribute and have held seamen for ransom, as they have for centuries. A treaty will be signed next year, but it will have little real effect. Philadelphia shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys, 43, submits plans to Secretary of War Henry Knox that call for construction of super-frigates—longer, broader, and lower in the water than brigs or sloops but smaller and less costly than conventional European ships of the line, which are slower and less maneuverable (see 1797; Stoddert, 1798).
The Whiskey Rebellion begun by frontier farmers July 17 brings the first show of force by the new U.S. government (see Insurrection Act, 1792). The farmers have converted their grain into whiskey in order to transport it more efficiently to market but have resisted a cash excise tax imposed on whiskey, which is itself a medium of exchange in western Pennsylvania. Federal militiamen put down the rebellion without bloodshed. Americans consume absolute alcohol (in the form of whiskey, rum, applejack, other spirits, wine, beer, ale, and cider) at the rate of 7.1 gallons per person per year, a rate that will continue until 1830 (see Insurrection Act, 1795).
The Battle of Fallen Timbers August 20 ends the Indian threat to American settlers in the Ohio-Kentucky region. British provocateurs have encouraged the Shawnee chief Tecumseh (Tecumtha, or Tikamthi), 26, to attack the whites; he has persuaded the other tribes of the Ohio Valley that the frontier belongs to all of them and that no land may be purchased from any single tribe; his army of 1,300 braves from various tribes have attacked Fort Recovery in June, but General Anthony Wayne's forces outnumber the tribesmen almost two to one, and he hands them a decisive defeat (see Treaty of Greenville, 1795).
Jay's Treaty is signed at London November 19 and settles disputes that remain between the United States and Britain. Resisting popular demands that the United States take France's side in her war with the British, President Washington has sent Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay to London, the British agree to evacuate their posts in the U.S. Northwest between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, and the treaty will spur settlement in the area. Federalist congressman Fisher Ames, now 36, has been reelected for a third time and delivers a speech that persuades the House to pass an enabling appropriation; a modification of the treaty permits U.S. ships to carry cocoa, coffee, cotton, molasses, and sugar from the British West Indies to any part of the world (see 1795).
Patriot Richard Henry Lee dies at his Virginia estate, Chantilly, near Stratford, June 19 at age 62; Virginia patriot-explorer-land speculator Thomas Walker on his Albemarle County plantation November 9 at age 79, having worked on a committee in the 1780s to promote his state's western land claims; Baron von Steuben dies at his Remsen, New York, farm November 28 at age 64.
Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel is married by proxy December 4 to Britain's Prince of Wales, with the earl of Malmesbry standing in for the prince. The prince has agreed to the match with his cousin on the promise of an income of at least £100,000 per year (see 1795).