Reign Of Terror Justified DBQ

Was the Reign of Terror Justified? During the French revolution an estimated 40,000 people were gruesomely beheaded. Most of these deaths occurred during a time called the Reign of Terror. At the time, mostly due to economic troubles and income inequality, there was chaos and a call for the end of the monarchy whose corruption knew no bounds. Despite the apparent need for the revolution, there is no reason that such a horrid event like the Reign of Terror was justified. The Reign of Terror was not justified because it caused more foreign hostility, it involved an abysmal manner of determining who was executed or not and it caused damage within the country itself. Firstly, the Reign of Terror caused hatred towards France among foreign countries. Austria and Prussia did not want the Terror to spread to their countries so they decided to preemptively take action. Furthermore, emigres(nobles who fled France) decided to leave to these countries and form armies. (Document B) Despite the fact that France won the wars against these countries the impacts of this were harmful. Not only do these wars create longer lasting anger among the countries, …show more content…
During the Reign of Terror thousands were murdered by guillotine for not siding with or acting on revolutionary ideals. All of the people accused with things like this were given a trial. These trials however, were not conducted fairly whatsoever. A single controversial sentence could get an individual executed. (Document E) Furthermore, the manners in which information was gained were hazy at best. Some might argue that if people were attempting to prop up the monarchy, they deserved the punishment they got. This is incorrect because people do not deserve to be punished for a slip of the tongue or for stating their opinion. This is another reason why the Reign of Terror was heavily unjustified because it is not just to murder innocent people over minimal