The Vendee Rebellion and Its Place in the History of European Regional Antirevolutionary and Counterrevolutionary Movements

The western French department of the Vendee occupies a special place among regional counterrevolutionary and antirevolutionary movements in history European revolutions. peasant royalist rebellion, between 1793-1796, under leadership nobility Catholic clergy, has made region synonym for mass lower-class counterrevolutions. This article examines several aspects rebellion Revolution. accusations certain scholars about policy genocide by Jacobin government region’s population arouses heated debates contemporary historians. Many historians do recognize massiveness repressions but they object to use term genocide. elements similarity with many other anti-revolutionary emerging already first months after taking Bastille on July 14, 1789 revolutionary «federalist» departments 1793 against Parisian local Jacobins. All these contained civil war different groupings population, especially opponents supporters revolution. A deeper study helps us more objectively understand questions identities, consolidation political nation, wars within revolutions, dynamics movements, diversities violence.