Robespierre And The Terror

The Reign of Terror was a period during the French Revolution where France’s people went through brutal oppression. The historical interpretation concerning the cause of the Reign of Terror has been heavily debated by historians. The writers of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Jack R. Censer and Lynn Hunt, state that the two largest debated causes were foreign war and internal counterrevolution versus the impact of the French Revolution’s ideology. The Law of Suspects, The Law of 22 Prairial, and The Debate on the Law of 22 Prairial documents better support the idea that the impact of revolutionary ideology, which includes democracy, liberty, authority, and Enlightenment ideals, caused the Reign of Terror.

The Reign of Terror did not support the ideals of the revolution. Unfortunately for French citizens, they were not able to elect tribunal members. The tribunal members, who have absolute power were “appointed by the National Convention” (Document E). French people were rejected in their own country, which is proven by the statement that “conspirators are, in its eyes, only strangers”(Document G). The original ideals were made to protect the people of France but instead they were killing

The external threat was not enough to justify the Reign of Terror. One example of this is that “churches are soon closed by revolutionary government” which is wrong, because people should be able to choose what they believe in (Document A). Another example is that the “Government denies legal counsel to accused enemies of the revolution” (Document A). People should be respected even when they believe differently than the rest of the society. This shows that the reign of Terror was not justified, because people are punished for their beliefs.

The revolutionary “justice” system is becoming the exact thing it is fighting against—a corrupted government. The guillotine is being used as a mental torture device for everyone. There is a constant fear in France—if someone says something just slightly out of line or not in the exact perfect tone, they will be executed. The trials of this system are set up so that the defendant cannot win. People can be accused, tried, and executed with little to no evidence.

What is agreed on is that the French revolution took place in 1789. Crane Brinton’s main argument about the revolution is that it follows a set pattern. He looks at different revolutions for a set or preliminary signs of the revolution (Brinton Pg. 2). Those revolutions included are the Russian, American, England and French revolution (Brinton Pg.2). These revolutions all have similar characteristics that connect them together. Some of the characteristics included the nobility questioning the government: fighting among the classes and oppression (Brinton). For the purpose of this paper we are only going to be looking at causes of the French revolution. One of the characteristics that a revolution is going to happen is that the country has a growing economy, but a broke

The Reign of Terror began in 1793 and ended in July of 1794. There was a total of 14,000 people executed by use of the guillotine, firing squad, and other methods. During this time period, the country of France was in total and constant chaos; they were being attacked by Prussian and Austrian troops, and their economy was a disaster. Utilizing terror as an instrument of the French Revolution had the advantages of making the people of France brave in any moment of action, but the number of deaths, the economic decline, and the fact that innocent people were killed made the large amount of disadvantages of the technique outweighs the

The French Revolution was a very problematic time period. After the execution of Louis XVI, the Reign of Terror began during the years of 1793 - 1794 which was led by French politician, Maximilien Robespierre and lasted for 18 months. This topic is controversial when the question, “Was the Reign of Terror justified?” is asked. The Reign of Terror was ultimately unjust because the promises for a democracy were put to the side due to a desire for power. It was inhumane to murder a colossal amount of people based on accusations and from being blinded from greediness.

Robespierre was the one elected to lead the Paris delegation to the new national convention when the people was against the king Louis XVI. Then when the king tried to run away from his kingdom he was a traitor and put on trail and Robespierre argued for the execution of the king and encourage the crowd to rise up. In July 27, 1793 Robespierre was elected to be on the committee of public safety. He had to face pressure from both sides out and in , revolutionary government instituted the reign of terror in September. Within some months 300,00 suspected enemies of the revolution were arrested and 17,000 or more were executed mostly by guillotined Robespierre was able to eliminate many of his political opponents. Robespierre wanted more purges and executions and later many revolutionary government began to question his motives and coalition of moderates and revolutionaries formed to oppose Robespierre and his followers. On July 27, 1794 him and his allies were arrested and then the next day he was executed . After heads of Robespierre and other radicals

The Great Fear was a surge of peasant riots that sweeped the countryside of France from July 17th to August 3rd 1789. Rumors arose of the overthrow and seizure of the Third Estate by a famine plot. A famine plot is burning and starving crops, essentially wiping out the entire Third Estate (peasants and farmers). These rumors spread like wildfire across the French countryside. This caused peasants to fight against their lords, burn feudal scripts, and seize manor houses. These riots that were propelled by hate, confusion, and conspiracy all kickoffed the infamous French Revolution. With King Louis, XVI reigning over France, there is a common question of “To what extent is King Louis XVI responsible for the Great Fear of 1789?” While there are many people to blame, King Louis XVI played the role of the peasants believing the outlandish rumors that caused the initial riots. He played this role by socially neglecting and placing harsh taxes on the Third Estate. King Louis XVI’s lackadaisical, inattentive, and unreasonable rule on the people of France, cause them to lose faith in their King

The terror was a period of paranoia and blood. Anyone could have been accused and killed on the spot. If people used the old forms of address, “Madame”and “Monsieur,” instead of “citizen,” they were killed. If they did not seem enthusiastic enough about the revolution, they were executed .

Robespierre’s actions would be very influential to future rulers because his rule was one of the first that truly involved terror. The two men that he would influence the most are Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. These were not the only ones though, as he influenced many other ruler and most importantly, the French people. He would negative impacts all over the place, but he arguably helped their society as well. Rulers like Robespierre can be prevented through. By not putting all your trust in one person, and distributing the power, one may not become power hungry.Terror begins when others don’t influence that ruler. Robespierre’s terror grew exponentially after he killed Georges Jacques Danton because he had all the power. Robespierre had all the power to himself and no one could stop him. Also, a society can prevent terror by limiting the amount of time one rules. Robespierre had to long to manipulate the people and form the right relations. Without this, he wouldn’t have had the same power because no one knew enough about him to formulate large scale opinions. It is still inevitable, he abused his power. There are plenty of “if’s” but none change the fact that abusers of power forever influence their society. Incidences like the Reign of Terror, The Holocaust, and Soviet Russia, are the reason for the United Nations and for government systems that include checks and balances. Countries are taking precautions to prevent another Reign of Terror,and that is important. Today, weaponry is even more advanced and can kill faster. The populations are larger and often more confined allowing for the opportunity of more killings. If the same precautions would have been taken in the 18th century, many abusers of power could have been stopped because the domino effect

In the early months of the war a jacobin leader Maximillien Robespierre slowly gained power. He had many supporters who helped him set out to build “republic of virtue” by wiping out all of Frances past. They then changed the way the calendar was, dividing it into 12 months of 30 days and renaming each month. Since the radicles considered religion old-fashioned and dangerous they didn't include Sundays on the calendar. They closed all the churches in Paris and cities and towns in France soon followed and did the same thing. In July of 1793 he became the leader of the Committee of Public Safety. He ruled as a dictator for about the next year and this ruling became known as the Reign of Terror. The whole point of the Committee of Public Safety was to protect the revolution from its enemies but with Robespierre as leader the people often had these enemies. He said that this use of terror enabled french citizens to remain true to the ideas of the revolution. The people who challenged his leadership the most where radicals. In 1793 and 1794 many of them received death sentences. On July 28, 1795 Robespierre was sent to

Its intriguing to note how many of the arguments used by members of the Convention against the pleas of the people of France were those used by their predecessors to justify why the Terror, the execution of the King, and the very revolution should not be done: those actions could lead to instability, they could exacerbate the problems faced by France, and they could cause France very dangerous and complex foreign policy problems in the long term.

The reign of terror is time you say described the time in history when the French Revolution hit an extreme. It was a result of conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins. The Girdondins wanted France to follow Britain’s example of government o societal hierarchy. Conversely the Jacobins wanted an entirely new system of government and society in which everyone was equal. The Jacobins we are radicals and felt the need to stop anyone in their way. Resting around 200000 people including roughly 17000 people their deaths. Anyone seen as the smallest to the rebellion was killed. Although this happened many many years ago the topic of whether or not the reign of terror was justified is still highly controversial. People argue as to when political groups should be able to restrict and control freedoms of its citizens. There are those people that would argue that the reign of terror unjust and went way too far, killing large numbers

On July 14, 1789, the build up of these events lead the middle class to storm the Bastille and release the seven prisoners; this marked the beginning of the French Revolution and “the symbolic end of the ancient regime” (Neal 131). The revolution continued until 1799, and approximately 40,000 people were executed during the “Reign of Terror” (The Reign of Terror). In today’s society, several groups of society are still marginalized and feel oppressed by the government. In the case of the French government, oppressed individuals ended up overthrowing the government since the monarchy would not improve their living situation. While it is idealistic to think a government can solve all of a society’s problems, individuals feel encouraged and hopeful when governing bodies make decisions to better their quality of life. In other words, we have history to prove that oppressed individuals will revolt over time if their living situations do not improve and continue to decrease in