The Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror, also known as the terror or La Terreur began September 5th 1793 and lasted until July 27th 1794. This era lasted for a total of one year and two months. During this time over 17,000 people were executed and about 300,000 were arrested. They were all victims of the guillotine. The guillotine was a new instrument of the egalitarian justice. It was a contraption that had a heavy blade that slid vertically in grooves. It was used for beheading its victims. The spark of this terror all started with the Jacobins gaining control over the French government and its leader Maximillian Robespierre. The Jacobins or the radical Jacobins were supporters of Robespierre. The Jacobins were known as the public safety. It was solely created to preserve the reforms of the French revolution. There were twelve members and Robespierre was the leader. Their goal was to change France from a monarchy to a democratic republic. They called this their revolution. The Jacobins used fear to persuade the people of France. Robespierre printed copies of his thoughts and posted them on church doors. Robespierre had said that “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, …show more content…
The French revolution and the American Revolution both had people rebel against the government; a monarchy government. This was significant because they were ordinary people fighting for their rights. They both were fighting for equality. They are both different though by that the American Revolution was free from their ruler and could have freedom of choice, but the French revolution ended with no ruler but overtime there soon became a ruler of France. Another being difference between the two revolutions were that the American Revolution never went as far as the French did with executing so many
The Reign of Terror began by the public beheading by guillotine of Louis XVI, This event took place on the 21st of January. As evidenced by Document F, An attendee says “The king’s blood flowed and cries of joy from eighty thousand armed men struck my ears. I saw people pass by arm in arm laughing and chatting familiarly as if they were at a festival.” (Document F.) This depicts the graphical display put on by the executioners. which is an example of the French government implementing fear tactics to rule over their people. Shortly after his wife Marie Antoinette was guillotined to death publicly. The Reign of Terror lasted 18 months. During this period a man named Maximilian Robespierre led the government. He executed a large number of people who he thought could be enemies or somewhat threats to his new fragile form of government. It was rumored that he had spies everywhere who would turn others in, just for not being enthusiastic about the revolutionaries form of government. also if an individual complained or made a comment pertaining negatively to life in France after the revolution they would be executed. His Reign of Terror not only focused upon the citizens of his country but it also focused upon specific groups. For example his Reign of Terror also focused upon the catholic church. The catholic church had been in power for a very long time, and had a very large influence on modern society and culture.
On September 5, 1793, the National Convention of France declared terror “the order of the day,” which essentially meant that the government would take any and all necessary measures to maintain a sense of peace and stability. Strict laws and policies were imposed to ensure that the nation would continue to evolve and change. This day marked the beginning of the infamous Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror was a period of turmoil in France following the onset of the French Revolution in 1789. Extreme violence and unwarranted brutality became standard during this decade. The head of the revolution and primary leader of the Committee of Public Safety was a French politician named Maximilien Robespierre.
In the French Revolution, Robespierre had begun ruling in July 1793. Historians call this time period the Reign of Terror. Textual evidence written by historians includes this, “Robespierre justified his use of terror by suggesting that it helped French citizens to remain true to the ideals of the Revolution” (Modern World History).
One of the groups, the Committee of Public Safety, tasked themselves with the protection of the rights of individuals; unfortunately, the committee soon developed into one of espionage where “no one was safe from suspicion” (Document E). Any criticism against the new National Convention would be deemed as “counterrevolutionary”, which inevitably led to the execution of over 35,000 people. Robespierre, significant member of the Committee of Public Safety, also believed that the democratic republic must be protected at any cost—even if it meant “[smothering] the internal and external enemies of the Republic” (Document G). However, because of Robespierre’s relation with the Committee of Public Safety, an enemy of the republic may be equivalent to a critic of the government; by restricting the people’s freedom of opinion, the very definition of democracy is
The American and the French revolutions had many similarities and differences. One similarity being is that they both wanted to escape the rule of their King. Second, they both started by an uprising of people against unfair taxation by the monarchy. The French peasants were not represented by the Parliament. It was mainly composed of middle and upper class people. Now, the American colonists were not represented in England because of their lack of presence. Both wanted to set up a Republic, which provided liberty and justice to all classes of citizens. Just like France, the American colonists were composed up mainly middle and lower class citizens. The American Revolution started out by not wanting bloodshed and violence. France started
The French Revolution and the American Revolution have many similarities but there are definitely some differences between these two wars as well. Yes, both wars were focused around liberty and equality and both were trying to gain freedom but the main difference between these two wars were the context. (www.quora.com) America wanted to gain freedom from rules and taxes that Great Britain had put upon them, whereas France wanted to abolish the French monarchy and form a better government where people had more freedom of speech.
Maximilien Robespierre has always been known to be controversial and misunderstood. He was the face of the French Revolution. In accordance with the Jacobins, they controlled the time known as the Reign of Terror, due to their influence in the accumulation of murders of those opposed to the revolution. Reign of Terror was a symbolic time period within the French Revolution that involved corruption of power and influence and mass executions. With Robespierre at the forefront, he became one of the most important men in the Revolution. As soon as Maximilien Robespierre decided to react to enemies of the revolutions, mass execution being his choice of force; his implementation of the Reign of Terror was a villainous act striking those who
The French and American Revolutions are more similar than different due to their parallelism in their cause of revolution such as high taxation and use of Enlightenment ideas and also the impact of the legacy of the Bill of Rights and the government of Republic of each revolution that governs the people today.
The American Revolution was when the British colonies in America revolted against British rule for being taxed by people not even living on their land and gained independence by overthrowing British imperial rule under King George III. The French Revolution was a period of social and political upheaval in France, marking the decline of powerful monarchies and churches and the rise of democracy and nationalism. The French Revolution began less than two decades after the American Revolution. In many ways, the American experience was an inspiration for the citizens of France. But the people of the two countries had different situations and had different concerns, which influenced the way each revolution began, progressed, and ended.
The French Revolution began in 1789 as an attempt, by the revolutionaries, to form a new government that would give the people more liberty, equality and value people’s rights. Between 1793 and 1794 the government used extreme ways to achieve their goals. This period of time, led by Robespierre, was called the reign of Terror because between 20,000-40,000 french people were killed by the government forces. The Reign of Terror was not justified for three reasons:The external and internal threat did not deserve it, they denied natural rights against people who opposed them and the methods of the Terror were too extreme.
The French and American revolutions were both countries fighting for independence, almost one after another, the American first, and then the French. Both were very similar, while also, very different. Both were inspired by Enlightenment thinkers, and both involved citizens against the king. The French revolutionists were inspired by the American patriots.
The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution were both very different movements from what history had seen before. The French Revolution was powered by enlightenment ideals and even though the revolution became more radical as it progressed, it still held some of those principles. On the other hand, the Russian Revolution was powered by communist ideals, which was a relatively new concept. Both of these revolutions had leaders that were intelligent, periods of instability, and eventually led to long term stability.
During the summer of 1793, the radical phase of the French Revolution was intensified by the Terror, created by The Committee of Public Safety. The Terror successfully preserved the Revolution by weeding out counter-revolutionaries to eliminate corruption within the government and giving equality to all social classes which untied France under one government. However, these successes were undermined by the many failures of the Terror due to the oppression of citizens which would lead to many executions and the paranoid slaughtering of citizens from all social classes which led to the changes in support of the Revolution.
In Document G the speech by Robespierre stated that the goal of the revolution was to make a peaceful reign of constitutional law. It also states that social protection is only for peaceful citizens. Robespierre says that people for the revolution should be protected. When the Reign of Terror was going on the enemies of the revolution were killed. The enemies were killed so the people of the revolution were protected. With the enemies killed everyone was for the revolution so everyone was safe. In Document D the writer of the letter writes that 3,000 guardsmen were called to keep order after a revolt. The number of guardsmen made sure that the people for the revolution were
The Reign of Terror was a time during the French Revolution hundreds of thousands of people were executed by various means: guillotine, shot, and drowned. The Committee of Public Safety, lead by Maximilien de Robespierre, were in charge of these executions, and with the job of finding anti-revolutionaries forces. Many thought that what Robespierre was doing would just lead to a greater anti-revolution movement, which would in turn increase the number of executions. Others did not take action against the terror; for fear that they themselves might be executed. Those who were still loyal to the revolution saw the terror as a noble cause; they saw it as a way to rid France of anti-revolutionary forces. While the terror started as an