La Patrie en danger (French: "The country (fatherland) in danger") was the start of a declaration by the French Assembly on 11 July 1792 in response to Prussia joining Austria against France. Along with the Levée en masse declared the next year, it was part of the growing idea of "people's war" which developed during the French Revolution, where ideology "not only conscripted manpower for the regular armies but also inspired ordinary people to fight on their own account."[1]
The text of the declaration reads:
According to Albert Soboul, the announcement of the fatherland in danger led to the unification of citizens at a time when their interests were jeopardized and intensified their participation both in political life and in military events.[3] The text of the declaration was read on the streets of French cities and villages. In Paris alone, 15 thousand volunteers enrolled in the army, or about 2.5% of the population.[4][5]
Along with the mass levy announced in 1793, this declaration became a stage in the development of the ideas of a "people's war" and an "armed nation" developed during the French Revolution.[6] The ideology of the people's war was "not only to mobilize human resources for regular armies, but also to inspire ordinary people to fight at their own expense".[7]
At the same time, the success of the declaration of 1792 was closely linked with the then prevailing revolutionary moods in French society. In 1799, an attempt to adopt a similar declaration in the face of military defeats in the War of the Second Coalition did not end there. As F. Wartell observes, seven years later, "the spirit of 1792 was already dead".[4]