The first French Republic began after the king abdicated and the National Convention took power. The National Convention started out united against the king, but after his abdication, it became divided into the moderate Girondistes and the radical Jacobins. In a close vote, the Girondistes took power. The newspaper writer Jean-Paul Marat notably criticized the effectiveness of the Girondistes in his pro-Jacobin publication.
One major problem that the moderate government faced was that the people were still hungry, even though the government kept discussing the new rights that the people had gained in France. In many cases, the people simply cared about feeding their family. The price of bread was still high, and to make matters worse, in 1792, the relatively weak government would face a wartime situation, as neighboring countries formed an alliance to restore the French monarchy.
As if matters couldn’t get any worse, the Jacobins and their radical leader, Maximilian Robespierre, claimed that the Girondistes had been ineffective. The Jacobins were obviously trying to take power. As the war began, and France started to struggle, especially from hunger and the perception of government ineffectiveness, there was another leadership vote. This time, some moderates flipped to the Jacobins, and Robespierre took power, hoping to restore some order to a crumbling French government.
