The War in the Vendée

In March 1793 a major revolt broke out in the Vendée and neighbouring areas of western France. The immediate trigger was a call-up of 300,000 men for the army, but the region had long resented the Revolution's treatment of the Church, the expulsion of refractory priests, and a sense that urban revolutionaries ignored rural interests. Peasants and artisans, joined by some nobles as commanders, formed a 'Catholic and Royal Army' that won early victories. The Republic responded with great severity.

After the rebels' defeat in late 1793, 'infernal columns' under General Turreau swept the region in 1794, and mass drownings were carried out at Nantes. Historians' estimates of deaths on all sides commonly range from about 150,000 to over 200,000. Whether the repression should be called genocide is debated: a minority of writers use that term, while most historians describe it as brutal civil war repression.