Entangled in words: the Vendée genocide, liberals, and patriots

In recent days there has been some controversy on social media about the Vendée genocide (1793-1794) and liberalism.

The problem of whitewashing the Jacobin left and what happened in France in 1793
Pope Benedict XVI's words on the relationship between liberalism and Catholicism

Some people maintain that this genocide was the work of "the liberals." They base this on the premise that since the French Revolution is described by historians as a liberal revolution, then everything that happened during it is attributable to "the liberals," without further distinction. It is certainly a shame that a time machine doesn't exist, because if we were to travel back to France in 1793 and ask about "the liberals," no one would know who we were talking about, at least not in a political sense.

The word "liberal," of Latin origin, was used since the Middle Ages as a synonym for generous, selfless, magnanimous, or admirable. With the Enlightenment, the term acquired certain intellectual connotations, meaning free from prejudice. The use of the term "liberal" in politics originated in Spain in 1811, during the Cortes of Cádiz, where it was used to designate those who supported drafting a constitution that would limit the power of the monarchy. The word, in a political sense, spread from Spain to France and the United Kingdom, as well as to other countries, to refer to different trends in constitutionalism.

Today, in European and Spanish-speaking countries, the term "liberal" refers to classical liberalism, that is, a school of thought that advocates for a limited state, individual liberties, and private enterprise in the economy. Within contemporary liberalism, there are two major, often opposing, trends: on the one hand, conservative liberalism, which, as its name suggests, combines the tenets of classical liberalism with a conservative and reformist view of society; and on the other hand, so-called social liberalism or democratic liberalism, a center-left current that shares certain aspects with social democracy, and in many cases is as interventionist as the socialist left. In the United States, the word "liberal" is commonly used to refer to this second trend and even to progressive positions in general, using the term "classical liberal" to refer to its original meaning.

The Vendée genocide was perpetrated by the Jacobin Terror, a dictatorship established in France by Maximilien Robespierre, a deputy of the Jacobin Club. The National Assembly that emerged from the French Revolution was not only composed of liberals (in the modern sense): there were members of the nobility and clergy, supporters of a constitutional monarchy, conservative republicans, and also left-wing republicans. The Jacobin Club was one of the radical left-wing factions in the Assembly. Politically, they were very nationalist, in favor of a strong state and price controls, and radically anti-Catholic—positions not shared by many members of the Assembly, including their main rivals, the Girondins.

Politically, the Jacobin Terror was not a liberal state, but rather the first totalitarian regime of the modern era. In this sense, calling Robespierre a liberal would be as absurd as labeling Lenin or Hitler as such. In fact, Lenin championed Robespierre, perhaps because, like him, he was a ruthless dictator who used the state to murder those he considered his enemies.

The problem with using a word that had no political meaning at the time of the Vendée genocide, in order to blame "the liberals" for that anti-Catholic campaign of the Jacobin Terror, is that it can backfire on those who make that manipulation. In fact, Jacobin deputies called themselves "patriots". "The Jacobins, a term extended to all patriotic societies, refer to a “mass of revolutionary bourgeoisie”, nothing more, with “the Jacobin deputies” as the center", explains the French historian Jacques Guilhaumou in "The grammaire des ‘Jacobins’ ” dans l’Histoire de la Révolution française de Michelet" (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2024).

Obviously, no one with any sense would attribute the Vendée genocide to "the patriots," because although the Jacobins defined themselves as such, patriotism is much more diverse and has a very different meaning from the one those left-wing extremists gave it. For the same reason, it is absurd to blame "the liberals" for that genocide, in a twisted attempt to politically exploit in the 21st century a term that had no political significance at the end of the 18th century.

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Image: Lullaby pit. Exécution de la guillotine pendant la Révolution française.