The Imagination Of A Child

The initial impulse of the French revolution was destructive. For those who lived through all, or even part, of these vast upheavals, the shock was overwhelming. Maximilien Robespierre was a proud disciple of the enlightenment and declared that no political writer had foreseen this revolution. Robespierre (1758-1794) was one of the leaders of the Committee of Public Safety, the effective governing body of France during the most radical phase of the revolution. The leaders of this revolution attempted, perhaps more than any other revolutionary leaders before or since, to totally transform human society in every way. (Supreme Being) Although Robespierre began with patriotic intent he still was the face of the Reign of Terror and was viewed as being a radical person.

People know Robespierre’s role in the French Revolution, but do they know about his personal life? Maximilien Robespierre was born in 1758 in the old province of Artois, France. He was born into a family of lawyers (Reil and Wilson). His father worked for the Council of Artois (Reil and Wilson), so Robespierre was familiar with politics and government at a young age. Robespierre also had a brother, Augustin, and two sister. At an early age he distinguished himself as a student showing great potential. While in school he studied the writings of the Enlightenment which would greatly influence him for years to come. In 1781 (Reil and Wilson), he attained a degree in law and soon after he represented the Third Estate which was the French bourgeoisie and the working class of France before the French Revolution had occurred. He was now on his way to being head of France but he still had some obstacles set before him.

had to raise his two brothers because their father wasn’t able to care for them after he became an alcoholic because of the passing of his wife.

The radical views of Robespierre cost thousands of people’s lives. He ordered the death of 45,000 to 50,000 throughout all of the Reign of Terror. Nothing compared to the levée en masse deaths by people just fighting for their right to worship God. In October 1793, Revolutionaries decided to reenact an example of counterrevolutionaries in Lyons. One day, revolutionaries destroyed 1600 homes and chopped off 12 heads just in 5 minutes. Robespierre is sending his revolutionary followers basically just to torture people and take away their rights. The people the revolutionaries were members of the aristocracy, priests, farmers, and townspeople especially. He killed them because he thought they weren’t in support of the French Revolution, they didn’t support him, or they supported the Catholic Church. By August of 1793, people were fed up of Robespierre and his radical ways so they started revolting against him. 3,000 national guardsman were sent to establish order and peace in Niort, France (Doc D). Even this wasn’t enough as a government official had to ask the National Convention for more troops and assistance in calming

brothers had to move in with relatives, then he had no family left and had to become a man after

young child around the age of 6 his mother died. He didn’t get along well with his family. He

The recently established constitutional monarchy no longer had a reigning monarch. The new National Convention soon after came into power. The Convention was far more radical than the Assembly; in its first meeting, the Convention declared France a republic. Not long after, it executed Louis XVI, demonstrating its removal from monarchical government as well as its drive to protect the liberty of the people and the security of the state. The Reign of Terror began In March of 1793, when the dictatorial Committee of Public Safety began executing so-called 'traitors', or anyone who disagreed with the new regime. The Convention believed they had created a “republic of virtue,” which was largely founded on ideas from Rousseau’s Social Contract. Civic virtue, the sacrifice of oneself for the good of a republic, was to replace selfish aristocratic and royal corruption. It was in the name of common good that the Committee of Public Safety carried out the policies of the terror. These policies became increasingly violent and cruel as the revolution went on. The guillotine became a popular way to quiet those who didn’t agree with the new regime (doc. 9). Maximilien Robespierre embodied this republic of virtue defended by terror. Robespierre believed that the republic of virtue meant wholehearted support of the republican government and the protection of the state

La Fayette was born on September 6, 1757 in the Castle of Chavagnac, in the southern region of France to a distinguished noble family. His lineage was already renowned throughout France for

He had two sisters and a brother, yet had the slightest relationship with them do to the early memory of the separation from their mother.

One of the most influential figures of the Revolution of 1789 and one of the principal exponents of the Reign of Terror, Maximilien-Marie-Isadore de Robespierre was born in Arras to a bourgeois family and was educated in Paris at the Lycée Louis le Grand, where Camille Desmoulins was his classmate. Through his studies, he became an enthusiastic devotee of the social theories of the philosophes of the 18th century, especially those of Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, whom he visited at Ermenonville and whose theory of the general will, as stated in the Contrat social, became Robespierre's guiding principle. An attorney, Robespierre was elected in 1789 as a deputy for the Third Estate to the Estates General, and subsequently to the National Constituent Assembly, where his oratory brought him to the attention of his

During the war his dad got killed in one of the concentration camps. They don’t know how he died in the camp. His sisters were killed because the husband of the person they were staying with could not take

During the period of The French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre, French lawyer and politician, was probably one of the most influential and well – known figures. I selected him because I found his personality interesting, and wanted to know more about him. To this day, among historians, Robespierre is a very controversial figure. Some support his actions during the Reign of Terror, while others do not. Furthermore, in his early days as a politician, he was known as ‘The Incorruptible’ due his strict moral values and ideas, yet, during the Reign of Terror, he was responsible for the executions of thousands. I found the contrast between his two ideologies really shocking, and wanted to know more about historians’ perspective of him, so I decided to research and do this project on Robespierre.

The son felt estranged

parents, of whom all three have died by the time he was 22 years old.

The Royal Family of France’s attempted escape on June 20th, 1791 made many people very unhappy with the King. The mob, ever ready to exercise the uncontrolled Rights of Men, made a mock parade of the King’s Arms in the market places, and, dashing them and the figure of a crown to the ground, they trampled upon them, crying out, “Since the King has abandoned what he owed to his high situation, let us trample upon the ensigns of royalty” (Ascherson 48)! The Royal Family not only lost many of its followers through their attempted escape, but also because King Louis XVI kept making bad decisions, ones that had no benefit to France or its people. The people wanted someone who would lead them into a revolution and change France for the better, not because they wanted the power, but because they believed in France and wanted it to become a great nation. That man was Robespierre, who after the flight of the King followed the Jacobin club in its move toward republicanism. He called for universal male suffrage and the end of property qualifications for voting and office holding (Blumberg 290). Robespierre wanted to make France a republic, a government for the people and by the people, a country where everyone had the freedoms and rights they deserved. In January of 1793, Robespierre voted on whether or not he thought that King Louis should be executed for his actions. At the Convention on the trial