Girondins, moderate Republican faction active in the French Revolution from 1791 to 1793. Called Girondins because many of their prominent members represented the department of Gironde, they were also named Brissotins, after Jacques Pierre Brissot, one of their leaders. The group first emerged in the Legislative Assembly elected in October 1791. It was originally identified with the Jacobins, but the two groups split on the issue of war with Austria, which the Girondins favored, believing it would unite France behind the Revolution. Led by Brissot and Jean Marie Roland de La Platière, they persuaded the assembly to vote for war in April 1792. After that their influence declined. Opponents of the economic controls and radical democracy favored by the Paris-based Jacobins, they tried unsuccessfully to win armed support in the provinces in October 1793. When Brissot and 30 of his followers were guillotined by the Jacobins on October 31, the power of the Girondins was destroyed.