The Cordeliers Club was a political and revolutionary organization founded in 1790, during the French Revolution. It was officially called 'The Society of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The main purpose of the club was to prevent the abuse of power and infringement of the rights of man. Their members were politically extremist, that is to say, republican, opposing to any kind of monarchical government. Their members met at an old Cordelier convent in Paris.
This revolutionary club originated in the Cordeliers district, which was a political district of Paris. It was here where important historial figures of the Revolution lived, such as Camille Desmoulins, Georges Jacques Danton, Jacques-Rene Hebert, and Jean-Paul Marat. Since the Cordeliers leaders were opposed to the Parisian government, in may 1790, the National Assembly replaced the previous division of Paris of sixty districts by a new one of forty-eight sections, abolishing the Cordeliers district.
In order to avoid the dissolution, the leaders of the Cordeliers district founded, in April 1790, the Société des Amis des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, a popular society which would serve as an alternative means of pursuing the goals and interests of the district. This society held its meetings in the Cordeliers Convent. It quickly became known as the Club des Cordeliers, taking as its motto the phrase, Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
In 1791, when Louis XVI tried to escape to Varennes to establish contact with foreign kings' representatives and ask for help, the Cordeliers headed the republican movement to abolish the monarchy. After the violent events of August 10, 1792, they participated in the vicious political strife against the Girondins. However, after the execution of Jacques-Rene Hebert on the guillotine, the Cordeliers Club ceased to exist.
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