Pseudonym ANACHARSIS CLOOTS.
Radical democrat of the French Revolution who became a leading exponent of French expansionism in Europe.
Born into a noble Prussian family of Dutch origin, Cloots left France in 1784, travelled throughout Europe, and returned to Paris at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789.
He quickly became an ardent democrat and a member of the Jacobin Club.
As head of a delegation of 36 foreigners (his self-pro-claimed "embassy of the human race"), he adressed the revolutionary National Assembly on June 17, 1791, declaring that the whole world adhered to the democratic ideals of the Revolution. He henceforth titled himself "the Orator of Mankind" and adopted the pseudonym "Anacharsis".
He became a naturalized French citizen and in September 1792 was elected to the National Convention. There he advocated that France "liberate" the rest of Europe.
The Convention backed his call for a revolutionary crusade, and France, already at war with Austria and Prussia, was soon at war with most of the European powers.
After the Jacobins took of the government in June 1793, Cloots identified himself with the Jacobins left wing under Jacques Hébert. In December the Jacobin leader Robespierre had Cloots expelled from the Jacobin Club for supporting the Hébertist destroy all Roman Catholic institutions. Accused by Robespierre of being a foreign agent, Cloots was guillotined with the leading Hébertists.
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