Reign of Terror Essay

The French Revolution spanned ten years and was a period of great change within France. The official beginning of the French Revolution was in May-August of 1789 when common citizens, upset with how the upper class was treated them, forced King Louis XVI (the king of France at the time) to sign the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (the DoRoMaC). The DoRoMaC was a document that described exactly what rights the citizens wanted, such as freedom of speech and religion and innocence until proven guilty. Over the next four years, commoners lobbied for a democracy and, when King Louis XVI was executed in early 1793, a new governing body was formed called Committee of Public Safety., which was designed to subdue counterrevolutionaries. A man named Maximilien Robespierre was part of the Committee, and on September 5, 1793, he decided that the best way to keep France under control was fear. That day marks the start of the Reign of Terror.

The National Assembly states that ignorance, neglect or contempt of the rights of man are the sole reason of public calamities and the corruption of the government (Doc A).According to Article 2, the aim of [government] is the preservation of the natural rights of man. These are liberty,property and security and resistance to oppression. However, Robespierre and Committee of Public safety violated Article 1,2,7,10. The government wanted to dechristianize france, they severely punished or even executed people who spoke out against the government. They denied rights and liberty and they prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control… they were hypocrites. In March 1793, the revolutionary tribunal was established. On April 6,1793, the revolutionary government established the committee of Public Safety ( Document E) THe tribunal was developed to try crimes against the state. Anyone could come under suspicion but just criticizing the government in small way could get a person in trouble with the Committee of Pf Public safety. This did not justify these actions that the government took. There wasn't enough controls on the government to protect individual rights, the Committee of Public safety was know for suspecting almost everyone.That is proven by the fact, 35,000 to 40,000 people executed by the commission in the

The French Revolution is arguably the bloodiest period in French history, with men such as Maximilien Robespierre leading the country into a situation of state sponsored terror. Originally being quite a liberal thinker inspired by the works of Rousseau, Robespierre quickly gained a reputation for being a radical throughout the course of the Revolution, especially during the Terror. Early on terror was justified as a means to root out foreign and domestic enemies of the Revolution, however; once the foreign threat had been taken care of it became increasingly difficult for Robespierre to rationalize his use of terror to bring about a supposed Republic of Virtue. In his speech, the “Justification of the use of Terror” which he presented to

Innocent lives lost, brawls on the streets, and blood splattered on the ground. These are all things you would find during the Reign of Terror, a period of time during the French Revolution where the newly-created government executed large amounts of people who were suspected enemies of the Revolution. The French Revolution started in 1789 as an attempt to rid of the absolute monarchy that ruled over the French people and create a new government that fit their needs. There were three leading factors that spurred the start of the Revolution. The first was the high debt that rose during this time, primarily from King Louis XVI sending money to aid in the American Revolution.

The Reign of Terror caused many enemies against the French Revolution. The Reign of Terror in France was justified because the Threats were required, however the methods were too extreme; It had supported the ideals of the Revolution. Due to the Reign of Terror, France rid itself of Monarchy and traits to France. On February 5, 1794 Robespierre had inferences of why the Reign of Terror was justified (Document G).

Later, when he was elected as the head of the Committee of Public Safety, he used his position to further impose his grandeur and beliefs onto the people of France. Simply, by being a part of the committee, the Jacobin Club and with help of the sans coulottes he brutally killed anyone he suspected of opposing him and his beliefs. In less than an year approximately 300,000 people suspected as enemies were arrested, more than 10,000 died in prison and 17, 000 were executed by guillotine. During this time, Robespierre also executed numerous political opponents. Overall, Maximilian de Robespierre had a significant impact on the French Revolution as he himself was the creator of the most symbolic part of

King Louis XVI and Marie Antionette were two people that should not have been ruling a country. King Louis was always gone on hunting trips and Marie Antionette spent every dime of French money. Once the Monarchy ran out money, they started to tax the Third, and poorest, estate. The third estate took up 97% of the population. 97% of the population was starving and the royal family kept spending large amounts of money until the people revolted. The people of France tried to reason with King Louis, but he refused to change his ways and kept taxing the third estate. When the people revolted, they stormed the Bastille and took all of the weapons they could. The people then went to the King’s palace and demanded he fix the way he was ruling before they killed him. The King didn’t listen and was executed along with his wife. Of the three kids that Marie Antionette had, the two boys died of Tuberculosis in jail and the daughter was sent to live the remainder of her life in exile in Austria. It may seem as though the people of France had successfully overgrown their monarchy and could begin a life of freedom, however this is not the case. The French had rushed into combat too fast and did not have a plan for what to do after they had killed their rulers. The right of Terror begins where Maximilian Robespierre beheads 40,000 people in the span of ten months for speaking against the revolution. In the end, Robespierre ends up getting

As more peoples blood is split to gain the rights not extended to them, the Terror grows becoming more and more gruesome. The French revolution began in late 1789 to obtain the rights that every citizen in born with. The motto of the French was liberty, equality, or death and the price to be paid for the civil liberties was blood. The revolutionary leader Robespierre and journalist Marat explained the more blood the better so that was what raged the people and started the Reign of Terror. Were the values expressed by the French Revolution necessary though? Even though, the French Revolution saw the Terror as a sign to create peace and restore a new France it was not justified because the extremities of the internal and external threats

They gained little attention and may have fizzled out but for the Catholic Church, they had been annoyed at the privileges given to protestants and wanted an end to the revolutionary committee. Tension had been rising slowly among the leaders of the revolution, they had started radicalism and now it had grown stronger and threatened even their own position. So in a quest to oversee this they went into talks with Louis xvi, when nothing could be gained from this, Louis felt it was time to flea and with his anti-revolutionary army he was going to gain back his power just as it had been taken from him. Louis failed miserably and was caught, this arose tension in Europe as the end to a monarchy in one country could spell disaster in other countries raising ideas. Louis was however restored to the throne under the revolutionaries' terms, however this threat from Europe would not go away and war with France was imminent. Revolutionary ideology would have to be dealt with. European monarchs did not want their stature threatened.

The revolutionaries used the Reign of Terror to their advantage, eliminating all of those in resistance. General Ronsin, who was a leader of the revolutionary army, strongly supported the use of guillotine and firing squad to execute the opposition (Document 5). These revolutionaries thought they had brought justice into France through the execution of those who were resisting the revolutionaries. In a speech to the National Convention, Maximilien de Robespierre explains how

In the year 1793-94, the Reign of Terror invoked by the twelve members of Committee of Public Safety (CPS) was unavoidable and led the way for a metamorphosis to occur within France during the French Revolution. While the word terror is often associated with Halloween or stories meant to be frightening for fun, the word held a far more serious meaning to the people of France. The theme of fear allowed the CPS members to change the monarchy to a revolutionary government in hopes of eventually enacting the constitution already written (75).

Twenty thousand to forty thousand died; it is still unknown exactly how many people were lost through the blood drenching event of the Reign of Terror.[Footnote] Throughout the French revolution, specifically the eleven month, 1793-1794 Reign of Terror, revolutionary leaders, such as Maximilien Robespierre believed in enforcing fear to resolve the instability of France. “Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue”-Maximilien Robespierre.[Footnote] This period in history signified great atrocities of massacres, and a time where fear was evoked within every French civilian. The National Convention of France was a great factor in encouraging the start of the Reign of Terror; they continued on

This paper focuses on one of the darkest times of the French revolution, which was the Reign of Terror. It aims to study how the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution reformed and reinvented France’s government and society, and how the Reign of Terror became the critical point of France’s transition from the

In defense to this France's constituent government issued a formal declaration of war against Austria and Prussia on April 20, 1792 (2016, M Issit). However France suffered defeats and the war had an adverse effect on the economy, with the currency value falling, prices rising further and food becoming in short supply. During this time there were emerging radical groups, intent on further revolution. In particular the Jacobins, who were led by Robespierre, advocating universal manhood suffrage, education for all and a secular state (2005, Calum Crosbie). Unrest in the city mounted high and the main constituent power the Girondists began to crumble under the pressure to the Jacobins, when they couldn’t tackle the problems presented. The King was also found out to be a traitor to the revolution leading to his execution.

The French revolution is one of history’s bloodiest and most important series of events that has ever occurred in the western hemisphere. From the start of the revolution at 1789 to the end at 1799, a massive number of complex political, and socioeconomic events took place forever changing the country. This decade long feud between France’s people and her government can be simplified into three major stages. The first stage of the revolution was, for the most part constitutional and the most peaceful of the three stages. The second stage however wasn’t so peaceful. At the time, France was one of Europe’s most influential and powerful country’s and since such an impactful revolution was being executed, this brought many aggressive supporters as