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Reign Of Terror Dbq

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The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that succeeded the beginning of the French Revolution; it was caused by conflict between two rival political parties, and tens of thousands were executed by guillotine on account of being ‘enemies of the revolution’. The French Revolution started with the storming of the Bastille, and since then the government had been in a state of constant turmoil. Civil war broke out in multiple regions and various foreign countries started attacking France on all sides; a man named Maximilien Robespierre, who belonged to a radical group known as the Jacobins, saw his chance and seized the government along with his fellow extremists. The Jacobins felt that “it was their duty to preserve the revolution, even if it meant violence and terror” which …show more content…

Robespierre and his group named themselves The Committee of Public Safety, and introduced several laws such as the Law of Suspects which proclaimed that “anyone who was even suspected as an enemy of the Revolution was to be arrested” (French Revolution). These outrageous laws promoted the deaths of many innocent people, men and women alike, and led to an increase in paranoia as all anyone had to do “was accuse someone, and they were considered guilty” (French Revolution). One of the first people to be executed during the Reign of Terror was Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XIV and the former queen of France. Her death and the death of many other aristocrats greatly increased the public’s desire for bloodthirstiness since the people felt as though they were finally getting the justice they deserved and righting the wrongs that were done by the nobility. The public guillotine executions were seen as a form of entertainment and education; women were “encouraged to sit and knit during during trials and executions” and kids would be brought along with their parents to view the gruesome beheadings (The Reign of

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