A time during the French Revolution, there came the Reign of terror, a one year period that saw countless scores of innocent citizens being guillotined. What exactly made a country that was running successful war crusades abroad degenerate into social terror, mass incarceration, and blatant executions unprecedented before?
The economy was destitute, and the taxes were inflated. The poor do not have much liking for the rich, and in the French case, where the nobility was oppressive, an insurrection was therefore inevitable (Hunt, 33). Believing that the monarchy was tyrannical and that equality could not co-exist with the nobility, the peasant fought for democracy and food security (Hunt, 21). It is the execution of King Louis XVI on January 1793 that marked the beginning of the terror reign, but it was not until September when lawlessness was instituted. …show more content…
The Jacobins were violent and militant, the most radical faction in the National Assembly compared to the Girondins who preferred a monarchical leadership. The firebrand Jacobins had their way and Maximilien Robespierre took over the leadership. He would later be executed for the murder of 15,000 people. Any dissident voice was considered a confession to anti-revolt and therefore a candidate for execution. ‘Virtue without terror,’ Robespierre recorded, is ‘fatal’ (Robespierre, n.p). Without the Jacobins, lawlessness would have resulted.
Even though the revolution was a popular concept, not all regions supported it. Vendee was one of those regions. Democracy rather than monarchy was the real threat to them. The Jacobins viewed this stubbornness as open defiance. Jacobins reacted to this resistance by escalating the policy of terror, and many were imprisoned and others
The economy was destitute, and the taxes were inflated. The poor do not have much liking for the rich, and in the French case, where the nobility was oppressive, an insurrection was therefore inevitable (Hunt, 33). Believing that the monarchy was tyrannical and that equality could not co-exist with the nobility, the peasant fought for democracy and food security (Hunt, 21). It is the execution of King Louis XVI on January 1793 that marked the beginning of the terror reign, but it was not until September when lawlessness was instituted. …show more content…
The Jacobins were violent and militant, the most radical faction in the National Assembly compared to the Girondins who preferred a monarchical leadership. The firebrand Jacobins had their way and Maximilien Robespierre took over the leadership. He would later be executed for the murder of 15,000 people. Any dissident voice was considered a confession to anti-revolt and therefore a candidate for execution. ‘Virtue without terror,’ Robespierre recorded, is ‘fatal’ (Robespierre, n.p). Without the Jacobins, lawlessness would have resulted.
Even though the revolution was a popular concept, not all regions supported it. Vendee was one of those regions. Democracy rather than monarchy was the real threat to them. The Jacobins viewed this stubbornness as open defiance. Jacobins reacted to this resistance by escalating the policy of terror, and many were imprisoned and others