The White Terror (France)

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The name White Terror was applied to a movement started in the south of France against the French Revolution by a group calling themselves The Companions of Jehu. They planned a double uprising to coincide with invasions by the United Kingdom on the west and Austria in the east. The movement was crushed by Hoche at Quiberon, 21 July 1795.

The White Terror took place in 1794, during the period known as the Thermidorian Reaction, in the aftermath of the Reign of Terror. It was organized by reactionary "Chouan" royalist forces, and was targeted at the radical Jacobins and anyone suspected of supporting them. Throughout France, both real and suspected Jacobins were attacked and often murdered. Just like during the Reign of Terror, trials were held with little regard for due process. In other cases, gangs of youths who had aristocratic connections roamed the streets beating known Jacobins. These "bands of Jesus" dragged suspected terrorists from prisons and murdered them much as alleged royalists had been murdered during the September Massacres of 1792.

Again, in 1815, following the return of King Louis XVIII of France to power, people suspected of having ties with the governments of the French Revolution or of Napoleon suffered arrest and execution. Marshall Brune was killed in Avignon, and General J.P. Ramel was assassinated in Toulouse. These actions struck fear in the population, dissuading liberal and moderate electors (48,000 on 72,000 total permitted by the census suffrage) to vote for the ultras. Of 402 members, the first Chamber of the Restoration was composed of 350 ultra-royalists; the king himself thus named it the Chambre introuvable ("the Unobtainable Chamber"). The Chamber voted repressive laws, sentencing to death Marshall Ney and Colonel Labédoyère, while 250 people were given prison sentences and some others exiled (Joseph Fouché, Lazare Carnot, Cambacérès).

[edit] See also

• White Terror