The Girondins

The Girondins is a  political group of moderate republicans in the French Revolution, so called the Brissotins (named after their initial leader, Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville). Girondist leaders advocated continental war; they support Liberty, but oppose Equality. They are representatives of the educated, provincial middle class of the provinces; they were lawyers, journalists, and merchants who desired a constitutional government. Early in 1792 they succeeded, against Maximillien Robespierre's opposition, in having war declared on Austria. In the Revolutionary assembly, the Convention, they engaged in personal rivalry against Robespierre, Georges Danton, and Jean Paul Marat—leaders of the opposition, known as the Jacobin-influenced Montagnards. The Girondists championed the provinces against Paris, and in particular against the commune. They were unable to prevent the trial of King Louis XVI, or his death sentence. The leftist Mountain became dominant in the Convention. The treason of Dumouriez, who defected to the Austrians (Mar., 1793), further weakened the position of the Girondists, who also aroused popular hostility in Paris by opposing workers' demands for economic controls. On May 31 an armed crowd organized by the Paris sections surrounded the Convention and demanded the arrest of the Girondists. The Convention at first resisted, but continued popular pressure forced it to order the arrest of 29 Girondists on June 2. Brissot, Vergniaud, and other leaders were subsequently executed. The fall of the Girondists assured complete control by the Mountain.

So long as it was a question of overthrowing the old régime of absolute monarchy, the Girondins were in the front rank. High-spirited, fearless poets imbued with admiration for the republics of antiquity, and desirous of power at the same time --- how could they adapt themselves to the old régime?

Therefore, while the peasants were burning the châteaux of the landlords and their tax-registers, while the people were demolishing the relics of feudal servitude, the Girondins were busy chiefly with establishing the new political forms of government. They saw themselves already in power, masters of the destiny of France, sending forth armies to carry Liberty into the four quarters of the earth.

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/girondists.html http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/frenchrev/xl.html

http://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/girondins/

This picture represents the Girondins. The river, is the path that the Girondists planned to take. Although it is very curvy showing all that impacted their way, causing them to change direction and take a different approach, while the red mountains in the back, can represent the people who didn't agree with them, and stood tall in their way, one being the Montagnards, whom they had many conflicts with. They block the path of the river causing it to curve around them. Furthermore, the greenish mountains in the front, that are all flat at the top and worn down by wind or water are those who agreed with the Girondists, after they had been worn down by how the French Revolution had affected them. Though all of the people/mountains have one thing in common, they had impacted the Girondins, either or by them joining their group or disagreeing with their ideas. The patches of sunlight and shadows, resemble the good and bad times throughout their journey. The sky, symbolises their fate, and future. How it is open to anything, depending on what decisions they make. They saw it as their destination, the end of the Monarchy. In all this picture of the Grand Canyon, represents the Girondins, their path/plan, conflicts, and goal.