France Goes to Heck in an Handbasket

After King Louis XVI was imprisoned and the monarchy was abolished, the French Revolution came into a different phase known as the "Second Revolution." Now you may be wondering, "Hey, hasn't France already had a revolution thing going on?" and would be completely right. However, the main problem that drove the French Revolution in a sense, was still not fixed. This was the fact that still, many poor people did not have enough food to eat and therefore were pushing for even more extreme measures to prevent starvation!
 Additionally, Jacobins, a generally younger and more radical group of politicians took power in the Legislative Assembly (another representative body, formed  in 1791 after the National Assembly had disbanded.)  The French Revolution now no longer contained its hatred of monarchs to the French ones, but thought that it was their duty to free other nations from tyranny.

 From Hark, a vagrant!

 Obviously this did not go over well with the neighboring monarchies found in Austria and Prussia, and resulted in France fighting the Habsburgs along with Prussia. Unfortunately for France, their army was not able to beat the combined forces of Austria and Prussia.  Ironically, Robespierre argued against using force to "liberate others." His stance on this matter will pull a full 180 shortly...

Robespierre: Let me tell you about him

Even though the government in France was under the control of the Jacobins, this group was further segmented into the Mountains and the Girondists who both fought for control. Both groups espoused republican ideals, but the Mountain were more radical led by Robespierre and Danton, while the Girondists were more moderate. Food shortages forced the urban poor, known as the sans-culottes, to beg for more radical economic action to grant them food. Thus the Mountain, eager to gain an edge over the Girondists, joined with the sans culottes and drove the Girondists out of power.

In order to deal with a country fragmented by military defeat, peasant revolts, and famine, Robespierre formed the innocuous sounding Committee of Public Safety, which in reality had dictatorial power. Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety were able to bring France back from the brink of defeat. They employed radical economic techniques such as nationalization of industries, fixed prices, and rationing of bread. This helped to appease the sans-culottes and gained their support.
They also used revolutionary terror to ensure France was unified. Basically, Robespierre attacked anyone who might have opposed the current regime. This became known as the Reign of Terror, as many arrests and executions were made without a fair trial. Robespierre tried to rationalize this by saying that terror was needed to enforce justice and to support what was "virtuous." He thought that sometimes you had to be forced to be free.

By Kate Beaton; Hark, a Vagrant

Finally, the French gained a much greater sense of nationalism and the average French person became more involved with the war effort. This allowed a greater mobilization of French resources and men than had been previously and contributed greatly to the victory of France over the First Coalition of Prussia and Austria.