War in the Vendée

The Vendée rebellion was a particularly harsh period of France's immediately after revolution. At the time, historians divided it into two categories: revolution and counter-revolution. However, as time has passed, we now understand that it was far more complex than that. The majority of the insurgent populace identified as Catholic, royalist, conservative, and in favor of the monarchy's restoration. The local petty bourgeoisie, including priests, administrators, military commanders, and others, as well as working-class individuals with unique ideas of freedom, were also fully represented.

Since the beginnings of the French Revolution in 1789, the threat of counter-revolution had been an element of revolutionary philosophy. The Vendée rebellion was the first coordinated counterrevolutionary attempt to reclaim France, blurring the distinction between popular revolt and revolution because in this instance, popular feeling favoured the restoration of the Ancien Régime.

Many theories have been proposed by historians to explain it, notably the Vendée's predominately Catholic and conservative populace. Whatever the reasons, the insurrection lasted from 1793 to 1796 and saw some of the most terrible assaults against civilians in post-revolutionary France. The revolt had swiftly escalated into full-fledged warfare.

Various estimates suggest that between 117,000 and 200,000 individuals perished during this conflict. The majority of them were also civilians, and the Vendée region was rife with incidents of rape, torture, summary executions, and purposeful destruction of civilian property.

Date: 3 March 1793 – 16 July 1796
Location: Western France : Maine-et-Loire, Vendée, Loire-Atlantique, Deux-Sèvres (or former provinces of Anjou, Poitou, Brittany)
Result: French Republican victory