> A Short History of Aveyron

The French Revolution in Aveyron

The soldiers of the Committee for National Security searched barns and investigated priests who were opposed to the oath of the Constitution. There were many in Aveyron. The Rouergats happily sheltered the priests despite the risks.

The whole scene changed quickly. On the whole the Rouergats understood the situation in the climate of change even though many castles were plundered.
The adoption of the name Aveyron as the new name for the department of Rouergue was not upsetting.

On the contrary, however, the choice of Rodez, rather than Millau or Villefranche-de-Rouergue as an administrtive centre caused jealousy amongst rivals. However, when the incorruptible Robespierre came to power the climate frankly became insufferable. Why should the young men have to go to fight in the highlands in the east? Rebellious counter revolutionary bands grouped in Aubrac.

The phenomenon was not as widespread in Vendee where the royalists were in charge. The emerging empire was happily accepted by the restoration of order as a result of the edict that there would be no enrolled soldiers ­ the first of the Napoleonic ambitions. Conscription which had always been unpopular was for a long time one of the principal torments.

However, the bourgeois, the principal benefactors of the revolution, gained their property by selling the national assets, and it is noteworthy that for some years the aristocrats refused to accept this.

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