The Mountain, also known as the Montagnards, was a political group during the French Revolution who made a name for themselves as the most radical faction of the National Convention during the early 1790s, opposing the Girondins. The "Montagnards" gained their nickname from the fact that they sat on the highest benches of the Legislative Assembly, and they quickly became one of the most popular factions of French politics, with the Jacobin Club and Cordeliers affiliating themselves with the Montagnards. In 1793, the Montagnards under Maximilien Robespierre gained a majority of Committee of Public Safety seats and unleashed the Reign of Terror upon the enemies of the French First Republic, and the Montagnards would be purged of their moderate Dantonist and radical Hebertist elements by Robespierre's followers. On 27 July 1794, the Montagnards were overthrown in the Thermidorian Reaction, and the party collapsed after the execution of its leaders. The surviving Montagnards were arrested, executed, deported, or joined the leftist faction of the Thermidorians.
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