Timeline of the Era of Attacks

This page presents all events related to the Era of Attacks (1892-1894).

General overview

This timeline is largely based on the list provided by Hélène Millot, ^[1] with additional references from the more comprehensive works of John M. Merriman and Vivien Bouhey. The start and end dates of the period follow Millot’s framework, beginning with the Saint-Germain bombing (11 March 1892) and ending with the massacre of anarchist convicts (22 October 1894). ^[1] However, Bouhey offers a broader perspective, considering the period from 1890 to 1894, which is not adopted here. ^[2] The Fourmies massacre and the Clichy affair are included in the timeline, as most sources regard these two events as immediate precursors to the Era of Attacks. ^{[3] [4]}

Events

  Judicial affair - Legal repression

  Terrorist attack

  Execution - Massacre

Date	Event	Place	Instigator(s)	Outcome	References
1 May 1891	Massacre at Fourmies	Fourmies	French state French army	Massacre of a dozen peaceful demonstrators in Fourmies 9 dead, 35 (at least) injured	[1] [4]
1 May 1891	Clichy affair	Paris	French state French police	Violent arrest of three anarchists High-profile trial which radicalised the anarchists through its harshness	[1] [4]
10 February 1892	Jerez uprising executions	Jerez	Spanish state Arsenio Martínez Campos Guardia civil	Four anarchists hanged in Jerez.	[5]
29 February 1892	Saint-Dominique bombing	Paris	French anarchist (?)	Explosion in a wealthy residence on rue Saint-Dominique, in Paris 0 dead, 0 injured	[6]
11 March 1892	Saint-Germain bombing	Paris	François Koenigstein (Ravachol) Rosalie Soubère (Mariette) Joseph Jas-Béala (Béala) Charles Simon (Biscuit)	Symbolic start of the Era of Attacks They failed to kill or injure Benoît, the judge in the Clichy affair. 0 dead, 1 injured. Shift from ‘person-based’ terrorism to ‘location-based’ terrorism	[1] [4] [7]
15 March 1892	Lobau bombing	Paris	Théodule Meunier (Pied Plat)	0 dead, 0 injured. Shift from ‘person-based’ terrorism to ‘location-based’ terrorism	[1] [7]
27 March 1892	Clichy bombing	Paris	Ravachol	0 dead, 6 injured. Failed to kill or injure Bulot, the prosecutor in the Clichy affair. Shift from ‘person-based’ terrorism to ‘location-based’ terrorism	[1] [7]
30 March 1892	Arrest of Ravachol	Paris	French state French police Jean-Marie Véry	After being denounced by the owner of the restaurant Le Véry, Ravachol was arrested. The other members of Ravachol's group had already been arrested.	[4] [8]
25 April 1892	Véry bombing	Paris	Théodule Meunier Jean-Pierre François (Francis) Pieds plats	Explosion at the restaurant Le Véry targeting the owner, who was killed. 2 dead, at least 1 injured.	[1] [4]
26 April 1892	First trial of Ravachol	Paris	French state French justice system	Rosalie Soubère and Joseph Jas-Béala acquitted. Charles Simon and Ravachol sentenced to penal labour for life. High-profile trial that radicalised the anarchists	[1] [9]
21 June 1892	Second trial of Ravachol	Montbrison	French state French justice system	Ravachol sentenced to death.	[1]
30 June 1892-	Homestead strike	Homestead	American state American bourgeoisie Henry Clay Frick	Suppression of the Homestead strike Henry Clay Frick employed 300 armed men to break the strike	[10]
11 July 1892	Execution of Ravachol	Montbrison	French state	Ravachol was guillotined. He became a martyr for the anarchists, who radicalised in response to his execution	[1] [11]
23 July 1892	Attempted assassination of Henry Clay Frick	Homestead	Alexander Berkman	Failed to kill Frick despite having shot him twice and stabbed him three times.	[10]
August 1892	Carmaux strike	Carmaux	French state French army	The army intervened in the Carmaux mine to force the workers back to work.	[12]
23 September 1893	Attempted assassination of Arsenio Martínez Campos	Barcelona	Paulí Pallàs	Took revenge for the Jerez uprising executions by throwing two bombs at the general (who survived) during a parade 1 soldier and 5 civilians killed. Beginning of a period of instability and terrorism in Spain, culminating in the assassination of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1897)	[5]
6 October 1893	Execution of Paulí Pallàs	Barcelona	Spanish state Spanish army	Pallàs summarily tried and then shot.	[13]
7 November 1893	Liceu bombing	Barcelona	Santiago Salvador	Took revenge for the execution of Pallàs by throwing two bombs in the Liceu theatre in Barcelona. Between 20 and 30 people were killed. Between 27 and 35 were injured. A founding attack of modern terrorism, the first indiscriminate attack in history.	[14]
8 November 1893	Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing	Paris	Émile Henry	Henry sent a bomb to the headquarters of the Compagnie minière de Carmaux in response to the strike; it exploded at the police station. 5 dead (4 police officers and 1 civilian), no injuries. Most lethal attack of the French side of the Era of Attacks.	[1] [15]
13 November 1893	13 November 1893 stabbing	Paris	Léon Léauthier	Stabbed diplomat Rista Georgievich ‘because he looked bourgeois’. 0 dead, 1 wounded. A founding attack of modern terrorism, one of the first indiscriminate attacks in history.	[1] [14]
9 December 1893	National Assembly bombing	Paris	Auguste Vaillant	Threw his bomb into the French National Assembly. Several people were slightly injured (including Vaillant) but no one was killed. The session of the Assembly continued even after the attack.	[1] [16]
12 December 1893	First loi scélérate ('vilainous law')	France	French state French lawmakers	Law against freedom of the press. Introduced the criminalisation of the 'incitment to terrorism' and cutted out parts of the presumption of innocence.	[1] [17]
18 December 1893	Second loi scélérate ('vilainous law')	France	French state French lawmakers	Law against criminal organisations. Any agreement to commit terrorist acts, even if they are not committed, is criminalised.	[1] [17]
1 January 1894	Repression of January and February 1894	France	French state	Start of a vast crackdown targetting anarchists, arresting hundreds of them. Radicalizes the anarchists that manage to escape the police, often the most radical ones.	[18]
10 January 1894	Trial of Auguste Vaillant	Paris	French state French justice system	Auguste Vaillant was condemned to death.	[1]
5 February 1894	Execution of Auguste Vaillant	Paris	French state	Auguste Vaillant was guillotined.	[1]
12 February 1894	Café Terminus bombing	Paris	Émile Henry	Attempted to assassinate President Sadi Carnot to avenge Vaillant but failed, chosing instead to detonate his bomb in a Parisian café. A founding act of modern terrorism, one of the first indiscriminate attacks in history. 1 dead, 17 injured.	[1] [14]
15 February 1894	Greenwich Observatory bombing	Greenwich	Martial Bourdin	Attempted to plant a bomb at the Greenwich Observatory but died from the explosion. Louise Michel gave the eulogy at his funeral. 1 dead, 0 injured.	[19] [20]
20 February 1894	20 February bombings	Paris	Désiré Pauwels	Sought to avenge Ravachol and Henry, who was his friend. Bomb trapped two rooms and asked the police to come. 1 dead (the concierge), 1 injured (a police officer)	[6]
23 February 1894	Trial of Léon Léauthier	Paris	French state French justice system	Léon Léauthier sentenced to life in penal labor.	[1]
15 March 1894	Madeleine bombing	Paris	Désiré Pauwels	Pauwels went to the Madeleine church with a bomb but blew himself up with it. He probably committed suicide shortly afterwards. 1 dead, Pauwels, 0 injured. Shift from ‘person-based’ terrorism to ‘location-based’ terrorism	[6] [7]
4 April 1894	Foyot bombing	Paris	?	?	[1]
27 April 1894	Trial of Émile Henry	Paris	French state French justice system	Émile Henry sentenced to death.	[1]
19 May 1894	1894 Marseille stabbing	Marseille	Célestin Nat	Nat stabbed a bourgeois on the Quai des Augustins in Marseille to avenge Henry's death sentence. 0 dead, 1 injured.	[21]
21 May 1894	Execution of Émile Henry	Paris	French state	Émile Henry is guillotined.	[1]
24 June 1894	Assassination of Sadi Carnot	Lyon	Sante Geronimo Caserio	Caserio stabbed and killed the President of the French Republic, Sadi Carnot.	[1]
26 July 1894	Trial of Théodule Meunier	Paris	French state French justice system	Théodule Meunier sentenced to life in penal labour.	[1]
28 July 1894	Third loi scélérate ('vilainous law')	France	French state French lawmakers	Ban on anarchist propaganda and press.	[1] [17]
2 August 1894	Trial of Sante Geronimo Caserio	Lyon	French state French justice system	Sante Geronimo Caserio sentenced to death.	[1]
3 August 1894	Trial of Célestin Nat	Marseille	French state French justice system	Célestin Nat sentenced to 20 years in penal labour.	[22] [23]
16 August 1894	Execution of Sante Caserio	Lyon	French state	Caserio was guillotined.	[22] [24]
22 October 1894	Massacre of anarchist convicts	Salvation Islands	French state French colonial and concentrationary administration	Organization of a plot within the Île Saint-Joseph penal colony to assassinate the anarchist convicts. The massacre resulted in 12 deaths among the prisoners and 4 among the guards. Among the anarchists, Charles Simon and Léon Léauthier were killed.	[1] [25]

References

1. Piarotas 2000, p. 141-142.
2. Bouhey 2009, p. 220-235.
3. Piarotas 2000, p. 113.
4. Merriman 2016, p. 70-90.
5. Merriman 2016, p. 120-135.
6. Merriman 2016, p. 160-180.
7. Salomé 2011, p. 31.
8. "Jules Lhérot un cruxois dans la Grande Histoire". crux-la-ville.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 2023-02-04. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
9. Ferragu, Gilles (2021-10-01). "En quête de rupture : de Ravachol à Émile Henry". Histoire Politique. Revue du Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po (in French) (45): 3–6. doi:10.4000/histoirepolitique.2169. ISSN   1954-3670.
10. Avrich & Avrich 2012, p. 50-70.
11. Piarotas 2000, p. 110-120.
12. "Les grèves de Carmaux en 1892". RetroNews - Le site de presse de la BnF (in French). 2018-04-20. Archived from the original on 2024-12-20. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
13. Falk 2003, p. 549.
14. Ferragu 2019, p. 21-31.
15. Badier, Walter (2010-12-22). "Émile Henry, le « Saint-Just de l'Anarchie »". Parlement[s], Revue d'histoire politique (in French). 14 (2): 159–171. doi:10.3917/parl.014.0159. ISSN   1768-6520.
16. Merriman 2016, p. 138.
17. Chambost 2017, p. 65-87.
18. Merriman 2016, p. 139-144.
19. Dupuy, Rolf; Enckell, Marianne (2020-03-18), "BOURDIN Martial", Le Maitron (in French), Paris: Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier, retrieved 2025-03-19
20. "Astronomers and the anarchist bomber | Royal Museums Greenwich". www.rmg.co.uk. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
21. Bouhey 2009, p. 270-280.
22. Delpech 2006, p. 38.
23. "Un nouveau Léauthier" [A new Léauthier]. L'Étendard. 8 August 1894. p. 3.
24. "Acte de décès no 2103 du 16/08/1894" [Death certificate no. 2103 dated 16/08/1894]. www.fondsenligne.archives-lyon.fr (in French). Retrieved 2025-03-19.
25. Frémion 2011, p. 190-220.

Bibliography

• Avrich, Paul; Avrich, Karen (2012). Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0-674-06598-7.
• Bouhey, Vivien (2009), Les Anarchistes contre la République[The Anarchists against the Republic], Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes (PUR)
• Chambost, Anne-Sophie (2017), "« Nous ferons de notre pire… ». Anarchie, illégalisme … et lois scélérates" [«We’ll Do our Worse». Anarchy, Illegalism … and Evil Law], Droit et Cultures, 74 (2): 65–87, doi: 10.4000/droitcultures.4264
• Delpech, Jean-Marc (2006), Parcours et réseaux d'un anarchiste : Alexandre Marius Jacob : 1879-1954 (PhD thesis) [The life and networks of an anarchist: Alexandre Marius Jacob: 1879-1954](PDF), Nancy: Université de Nancy 2
• Falk, Candace, ed. (2003). Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years; Volume One: Made for America, 1890–1901. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN   978-0-520-08670-8.
• Ferragu, Gilles (2019), "L'écho des bombes : l'invention du terrorisme « à l'aveugle » (1893-1895)" [The echo of bombs: The invention of indiscriminate terrorism (1893–1895)], Ethnologie française, 49 (1): 21–31, doi:10.3917/ethn.191.0021
• Frémion, Yves (2011), Léauthier l'anarchiste. De la propagande par le fait à la révolte des bagnards (1893-1894)[Léauthier the anarchist. From propaganda by the deed to the convicts' revolt (1893-1894)], Paris: L'Échappée, ISBN   9782915830477
• Merriman, John M. (2016). The dynamite club: how a bombing in fin-de-siècle Paris ignited the age of modern terror. Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-21792-6.
• Piarotas, Mireille (2000). Regards populaires sur la violence[Popular looks at violence]. Saint Etienne (France): Presses Universitaires de Saint-Etienne (PUSE). ISBN   978-2862721804.
• Salomé, Karine (2011), L'Ouragan homicide : L'attentat politique en France au XIXe siècle[The homicidal Hurricane: political assassination in 19th century France], Paris: Champ Vallon / Epoque, ISBN   978-2-87673-538-5