The Vendée uprising

Course Name: European History Highlights

Course Code : EHH 2105

Prepared By
Name :Bony Amin Niloy
ID :222431056
Batch :32th(Section B)

Prepared For
MD. SHAHREAR MAHMOOD
Lecturer
Department Of English , SMUCT
 The Vendée uprising

The Vendée uprising was the biggest counter revolutionary movement during the French
Revolution. It began in the region of Vendée in western France in 1793 , people of those
provinces paid heavy price; more than 58000 people lost their lives during the time of
rebellion. The main aim of this assignment is to learn more about this historical event and the
aftermath.

Rebellion

The Vendée's provincials mobilised and took up arms against the National Convention in
March 1793 because they were disinterested in the Paris revolution and its ideals. Rising land
taxes, attacks on the church by the national government, Louis XVI's execution, the
escalation of the Revolutionary War, and the implementation of conscription were some of
the main causes of this uprising.

The Vendée rebellion started out slowly but swiftly grew. The execution of Louis XVI in
January 1793 and the Levee des 300,000 hommes, an order from the National Convention the
following month requesting 300,000 more military recruits from the provinces, served as the
catalysts.

Regicide and forced conscription combined to push the peasants of the Vendée from isolated
resistance to a full-scale counterrevolution. Small groups of peasants engaged in mildly
provocative attacks on republican government symbols as the winter snows began to melt.
Republican supporters, priests, and department officials were beaten, insulted, driven from
the area, or killed.

Counter Revolution

Counterrevolutionary forces in the Vendée came together to form the Catholic and Royal
Army in April 1793. This army would number 80,000 at its height. The majority worked as
labourers and farmers; some were girls dressed as men or boys as young as twelve.
The rallying cry of the counter-revolutionaries was Dieu et Roi, which translates to "God and
King." The soldiers wore the Sacre Coeur, or "Sacred Heart," while their officers wore the
white cockade of the Bourbon monarchy. They were ill-prepared, lacking in training, and
many of them carried pikes and scythes instead of muskets.

The republican armies had been left weakened and disorganised by four years of disruption
and desertion, while the Vendeans lacked the discipline and training to hold their own against
a professional army. The Vendée royalists swept everything in their path for three months,
taking important towns like Beaupréau, Vihiers, Saumur, Angers, and Chemillé. They also
took control of Fontenay-le-Comte, the département capital, and Cholet, the Vendée's most
significant commercial town.

Empire strikes back

When the Catholic and Royal Armies advanced north and besieged Nantes, one of France's
biggest cities, in late June 1793, the tide began to turn. Their two-day attack proved to be
unsuccessful due to inadequate planning and coordination. One of the more capable
commanders among the Vendeans, Jacques Cathelineau, was slain in battle on Bastille Day in
1793.
A 40,000-strong Vendean force attempted to advance on a smaller republican army in the
vicinity of Cholet in October, but they were outwitted and routed. They changed their
strategy and went on a "northern spree," or "Virée de Galerne," in an effort to connect with
counter-revolutionaries in Normandy and Brittany. The Vendeans marched into Granville, a
port city, in November with the intention of joining forces with an English marine regiment.
They besieged Granville but were forced to disperse because they discovered only
Republicans there, not any English

Now just under 8,000 soldiers left, the Catholic and Royal Army withdrew southward and
took control of Savenay. The next day, an 18,000-strong Republican force that had been in
combat before arrived, and the Vendeans were quickly surrounded and annihilated.
The Aftermath

The National Convention finally mobilised a robust military response to quell the rebellion,
though it took several months. A campaign of accusations that verged on genocide transpired
in the Vendée.

Republican forces, led by représentants en mission from Paris, started executing Vendean
royalists without regard to their age, gender, or occupation. After endorsing the Reign of
Terror, the National Convention approved the creation of twelve army divisions known as the
Colonnes Infernales, or "Infernal Columns."

These columns, commanded by General Louis Marie Turreau, swept across the Vendée
during the first part of 1794. They tore down buildings, set fire to crops, and left death and
devastation in their wake as they made their way across the province.

The Vendée was the focus of the Terror's instruments, which caused the massacre of over
6,000 individuals, 400 of whom were minors. While some were executed by hanging, the
majority were forced to drown, shot, stabbed, or bayoneted. All throughout the Vendée,
farms, crops, and forests were set on fire, affecting both the rebels and the innocent. Even in
1796, measures to suppress the possibly insurgent Vendée would remain in place.

The history of the Vendée was not written by the victors , it was completely written out of
french history , french revolution was supposed to preserve the liberty, equality but in twisted
fashion it gives birth of a terror that symbolise the revolution
 References

The French Revolution, the Vendée, and Genocide - Taylor &

Francis Online,
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2019.1655953.
Accessed 30 Nov. 2023.

History, Alpha. “The Vendée Uprising.” French Revolution, 28

Nov. 2023, alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/vendee-uprising/.

History, Alpha. “The Vendée Uprising.” French Revolution, 28

Nov. 2023, alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/vendee-uprising/.

Vendee, In The, et al. “The Vendée Wars.” In The Vendée,

inthevendee.com/tourism-leisure/the-vendee-wars/. Accessed 30
Nov. 2023.