On what date did the Thermidorian Reaction begin?

The Thermidorian Reaction began on 27 July 1794, the day corresponding to 9 Thermidor Year II in the French Republican Calendar.

The date marks the political downfall of Maximilien Robespierre and his allies. During a tense session of the National Convention, deputies turned against Robespierre, Saint-Just, and other leading figures of the radical revolutionary government. They were arrested after the Convention declared them outlaws, and Robespierre was executed on 28 July.

The term “Thermidorian” comes from Thermidor, the eleventh month of the revolutionary calendar. The reaction was not a single moment but a wider political shift that followed the 9 Thermidor uprising. The Convention reduced the power of the Committee of Public Safety, closed the Jacobin Club, relaxed some emergency measures, and moved away from the most radical policies of the Reign of Terror.

A frequent mix-up is the calendar conversion: 9 Thermidor Year II was 27 July 1794, while the executions took place the next day, 28 July. Historians often use 9 Thermidor and 27 July interchangeably when identifying the reaction’s starting point.