Vendée, Wars of the

In the French Revolution, a series of peasant uprisings against the republican government that began in the Vendée département of western France in 1793, and later spread to other areas of the country. The revolutionary government put down the rebellion with brutal force, but did not finally succeed in suppressing it until 1795 to 1796.

The uprising in the Vendée – traditionally a staunchly royalist and Catholic region – was sparked when priests and aristocrats incited peasants to take up arms against the National Convention in Paris. Resentment was fuelled by enforced conscription into the revolutionary armies, and anticlerical policies. Around 30,000 rebels succeeded in capturing a number of local towns before being heavily defeated by republican forces at the Battle of Le Mans in December 1793. The capture and execution of rebel leaders finally quelled the revolt. The Vendée was the scene of further antigovernment unrest in 1799, 1815, and 1832.