In France, at that time, political inactivity was an impossibility.

Revolt against the Republic, or active participation in its measures, was the only choice left to those who did not choose to fly their country, and many of the seigneurs of Anjou and Poitou would not adopt the latter alternative.
In March, the Commissaries of the Republic entered these provinces to collect from that district, its portion towards the levy of three hundred thousand men which had been ordered by the Convention.

This was an intolerable grievance--it was not to be borne, that so many of their youths should be forcibly dragged away to fight the battles of the Republic--battles in which they would rather that the Republic should be worsted.

Besides, every one would lose a relative, a friend, or a lover; the decree affected every individual in the district.

The peasants declared that they would not obey the orders of the Convention--that they would not fight the battles of the Republic.
This was the commencement of the revolt.