War and Radicalization

The outbreak of war (April 1792) accelerated revolutionary radicalization while sealing monarchy's fate. Different groups supported war for contradictory reasons: Lafayette and constitutional monarchists believed victorious war would stabilize their system; Girondins thought war would expose traitors and spread revolution; the court hoped defeat would restore absolutism. Only Robespierre presciently warned that war would militarize revolution and create dictatorship.

Initial defeats seemed to confirm royal treachery. The cry "We are betrayed!" when armies retreated implicated the Austrian queen and her husband. The Brunswick Manifesto (July 1792), threatening Paris with destruction if the royal family were harmed, proved counter-productive. Rather than intimidating, it convinced patriots that monarchy conspired with enemies. The response was the journée of August 10.

The assault on the Tuileries (August 10, 1792) ended monarchy in fact if not yet law. Sans-culottes (working-class radicals) and fédérés (provincial volunteers) stormed the palace despite Swiss Guard resistance. The massacre of defenders after surrender showed revolutionary violence escalating. The royal family's refuge with the Assembly demonstrated their powerlessness. The suspension of royal functions and convocation of a National Convention elected by universal male suffrage marked revolutionary transformation.