ABSTRACT
When France entered into a republic, in the course of the summer of 1792, it did not solemnly proclaim the foundation of a new regime. The historian can look: nowhere will he unearth an official decree in the archives installing the first French Republic. He will only find, dated September 21, 1792, a suggestion from Camus, responsible for the national archives, henceforth to date the administrative documents from the “Year I of the French Republic.” 1 On the other hand, between August 10 and September 21, 1792, the deputies of the National Assembly kept proclaiming, to the whole world, the “suspension,” then the “abolition,” of the royalty in France. They knew what they wanted to destroy, but not yet necessarily what they needed to construct.
