• Home Page
  • The Importance Of The Reign Of Terror

The Importance Of The Reign Of Terror

Improved Essays
Show More
The period of 1792 to 1795, or commonly regarded as the ‘Reign of Terror’ served as a vital turning point for the French Revolution and effectively, the future of France. This period of time was distinguished by the fall of monarchy and the creation of the National Convention. Additionally. the Reign of Terror demonstrated more brutal punishments for counter revolutionaries and foreign enemies, in the hunt for freedom and liberty by French revolutionaries. The events that would take place under the Reign of Terror, would shape the outcome and effectiveness of the French Revolution.

The year of 1792 was characterised by an outbreak of Revolutionary Wars and the establishment of The French Republic by the National Convention. …show more content…
Rumours began to circulate that royalists in prison due to treason were planning to break out and attack revolutionary armies. As a result, crowds of Parisian workers entered the prisons and murdered more than a thousand of the prisoners, in an attack which was known as the September Massacres of 1792. Nothing was conducted by the Jacobin-influenced Commune or the government to aid in resisting these attacks. As a reaction, many foreign intellectuals lost their admiration for the French Revolution and caused a spread of shockwaves throughout other European …show more content…
The guillotine was re-introduced as a method of punishment in order to move away from what was deemed as barbaric punishment, such as burning, drowning or hanging. The use of the guillotine symbolised that despite your social class, everyone will receive the same punishment for the crime they commit. When King Louis XVI was put on trial, 380 voted for his execution, among those was Robespierre, and 310 voted against it. On 21 January 1793, Louis XVI, a once respected and feared King of France, became the first political subject to the guillotine. This event is what has thought to be the trigger on the Reign of Terror, after years of build up. For the period of 15 months, it is believed that over 40,000 people who were believed to be or were counter-revolutionaries were executed by guillotine. This including King Louis XVI’s wife and France’s last queen Marie Antoinette. Along the same route as her husband, Marie was placed on trial for high treason and was found guilty. She is executed nine months after King Louis XVI on 16 October

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Reign Of Terror Dbq Analysis
    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Reign Of Terror Dbq Analysis

    During the French Revolution, revolutionaries wanted to create a government that would value people’s rights. Unfortunately, violence started to play a role in order to achieve the goals of the revolution. The period in which the violence started became known as the Reign of Terror. Individual rights were being ignored and thousands of people were being executed because they were suspected of aiding or being an enemy. The Reign of Terror was not justified because the actions toward external threat did not require it, the actions toward internal threat did not deserve it, and the methods that were used were to extreme.…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Was The Reign Of Terror Justified Essay
    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Was The Reign Of Terror Justified Essay

    For example, the guillotine. The guillotine was a wooden block with an angled, movable blade. When the time came for execution, the heavy blade fell on a guided path to meet the neck of the victim, chopping of their head for a “quick” and “painless” death. It was the most popular way of death during the Reign of Terror. An engraving created by Faucher-Gudin in the 1800’s shows a man holding Louis XVI’s head after being guillotined. The guillotine killed over 30,000 people, including King Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, and Reign of Terror advocate, Robespierre (Document F). The new invention of the guillotine was originally supposed to be used as a way to have a clean, swift death but ended up as a necessity for a violent execution. The guillotine quickly became the symbol of the French revolution, or more specifically, the Reign of Terror. Because it was exceedingly violent the guillotine was not justified nor was the Reign of…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Reign Of Terror: Was It Justified?
    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Reign Of Terror: Was It Justified?

    The French Revolution was an important movement in world history. It marked the first time that the lowest class in a country had overthrown the highest class. In France, the Third Estate had decided that they had had enough of unfair taxes and inequality, and so they wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and forced the king at the time, Louis XVI, to share power with the National Assembly. As the Revolution gained more power, its leaders became more paranoid. In 1793, Maximilien Robespierre, who had assumed most of the power in France, declared that a reign of terror would begin. During this period of time, the French government’s first priority was keeping the Revolution safe from people who wanted…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Reign Of Terror Justified Dbq Analysis
    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Reign Of Terror Justified Dbq Analysis

    One of these methods is expressed in Document D. In this Document the conflict is that there is crowd gathering outside, and more counter revolutionary activity has been proven. While all of this is going on there are Prussians invading in the north. The source is a letter from Vendee, from a local government official asking for more help. The method put in place was the draft. The draft was easily put in place because local governments were now given the final say. They are limiting the peasants rights, and giving them no right to appeal. By limiting their rights, they are able to control the mobs rioting outside. In order to limit their rights however, they need suspicion of counterrevolutionary activities. They further limit these rights in Document E, by taking away the idea of suspicion. They denied lawyers, and were basically allowed to kill people just to kill them. They used the guillotine to carry out the execution. The guillotine itself was an enlightened killing method, able to kill everyone in the same way. By using this machine, they killed 35,000 - 40,000 people they may or may not be suspected of being traitors. Of these 35,000 - 40,000 people, one of them was King Louis XIV. King Louis death is explored in Document F. In this Document 2 methods are used. They kill the king by using the Guillotine. Once he was killed two things happened: cries of joy and laugher filled the street, and a republican government was put in place. King louis death was planned, because in order to start the republic, the monarchy needed to end. The methods in this Document are both replacement and death. The methods above were used in order to defeat outside threats and replace the government in order to get France on the track to stable living. From these methods, can ideals constructed by the…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Reign Of Terror DBQ
    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Reign Of Terror DBQ

    It was not justified because there is absolutely no reason to kill 20,000-40,000 with the guillotine. He killed a thousand people and took away their rights. This was Robespierre’s way of trying to make peace. “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible,” said Maximilien Robespierre. This quote explains how terror would…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Reign Of Terror DBQ
    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Reign Of Terror DBQ

    The French Revolution is an important part of our history that will never be forgotten, there were many controversial events that took place in this historical timeline. The French Revolution was an attempt by the French to demolish Britain control and is also seen as a second Glorious Revolution by the Americans. There was extreme unnecessary violence that occurred during 1793 and 1794 that affected roughly 20,000 to 40,000 people that were killed by the guillotine during The Reign of Terror, including King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette(King 's Wife), and even Robespierre. The government used extreme ways to achieve its ends, in which many ways were wrong and cruel. In fact, The Reign of Terror was not justified because: The methods of the disaster were too extreme, the peasants and lower class citizens were not treated as well as the clergy, and it took away the citizens freedom.…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    An Analysis Of Maximilien Robespierre's Reign Of Terror
    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages

    An Analysis Of Maximilien Robespierre's Reign Of Terror

    The great social theorist and philosopher, Isaiah Berlin once stated, “Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible.” In simpler terms, Berlin is saying that to cure injustice and poverty, men may use revolution and reform but they cannot “live only by fighting evils”, they must also live by positive goals that protect society’s interests as a whole and not become guided by their own ignorance. And it is for these reasons that Maximilien Robespierre’s Reign of Terror was not justified. The revolution in and of itself was essential to combat the incompetence of the French monarchy, but the heinous acts and crimes…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Reign Of Terror Justified DBQ
    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Reign Of Terror Justified DBQ

    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.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Reign Of Terror DBQ
    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Reign Of Terror DBQ

    These supreme methods that the government used included the Guillotine which is a blade that eliminated an individual immediately , whether or not it's painful we do not know. However, the guillotine did become one of the powerful symbol of the French Revolution. Maximilien Robespierre whom is the leader of the Reign Of Terror , had no doubt on how people were killed but instead declares “Terror the order of the day “ which is the beginning of the ROT . (Document B) Many people died especially people who were suspected of a crime, historians estimate that 16,000 people were guillotined. (Document F) But the question is how did they know to suspect an individual without proof and evidence? The tribunal was established to try all crimes against the state and no one was safe from suspicion. A careless word of criticism spoken against the government could put one in prison or worse. (Document E) This demonstrates how they decided on the 16,000 people to kill and it is a very insufficient way of doing so, which gives even more reason on why the ROT and their methods were not…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Absolutism And The French Revolution
    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Absolutism And The French Revolution

    Absolutism led to unfit monarchs to take rule, enlightenment ideas to be spread and bias rights to be established. The revolution lasted from 1789-1799, during that time the National Assembly made most decisions, although Robespierre, a philosopher and lawyer took on the role as a leader. Later on, during 1793 Louis XVI was put on trial and was then found guilty, where he was sentenced to death while Marie Antoinette remained in prison. At the same time a Catholic and royal army rebelled and started to attack against the revolution leading into a civil war. Overtime more and more people were sentenced to death under Robespierre's rule and the rights of freedom and inequality ended once again. Leading up to what is known today as the Reign of Terror, where thousands of people lost their lives. The idea of an end to a continuous French Monarchy was monumental because it sets out for different systems of government to be established. It also was a direction to what we have today, freedom and equality amongst…

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    History Of The Reign Of Terror DBQ
    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages

    History Of The Reign Of Terror DBQ

    Murdered for saying the wrong thing. In 1793 the Reign of Terror began. The French had a monarchy and the people were tired of it. The French people revolted against their government under the lead of Maximilien Robespierre. During the Reign of Terror over 16,000 people died from guillotine. The Reign of Terror was not justified because it was unnecessary, it was brutal, and the people had their basic rights denied.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Was The Reign Of Terror Justified
    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Was The Reign Of Terror Justified

    The Reign of Terror was a significant time in the French Revolution impacting the nation and killing many individuals. The Reign of Terror lasted less than two years. During that time, the Revolution was in extreme debt, due to wars. To solve the financial crisis, they created the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen which ensured liberty, equality, and fraternity. However, Austria and Prussia were unhappy. They feared it increased the chance of a revolution. Led by chief prosecutor, Maximilien Robespierre, found that the king was guilty against the state. In 1793, he was guillotined. The execution lead to the Reign of Terror. 20,000 people were executed.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Was The Reign Of Terror Justified?
    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Was The Reign Of Terror Justified?

    Robespierre spoke on February 5, 1794 to inspire the crowds of the revolution to eliminate the internal threats, which included spies and anyone who spoke of counter revolutionary thoughts. Robespierre expressed the idea that royalists were not enemies, but simply strangers that needed to be stopped for the safety of everyone. He also speaks of the peaceful times that will come after this happens and after the revolution is over (Doc G). The translation of Robespierre’s speech waters down to by eliminating the spies and royalists, the public would be safer and all threats against the revolution would be abolished inside of France. Unfortunately, Robespierre was too driven by power and fear, he was executed for using his power the wrong way. This proves that the Reign of Terror was a good way to end internal threats inside of…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Reign Of Terror Justified Essay
    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Reign Of Terror Justified Essay

    As stated in article A, the "Declaration of the Rights of Man" was made for "the preservation of the natural ... rights of man. These are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." While this seems logical, The Reign of Terror took these rights away from every citizen of France. Every citizen was subjected to having these rights, and taking them away is absurd. In fact, many were executed for rejecting Maximilian’s ideals. Further, it is written in Article E that, “On April 6, 1793, [the revolutionary government established] the Committee of Public Safety…. The purpose was to “protect the public safety” from enemies both inside and outside of France. The Committee soon employed a shadowy network of informers and spies to achieve these ends.” In fact, anyone who spoke negatively about the government was executed. This lead to the deaths of up to about 40,000 people, provoked by “ruthless commissions.” As a matter of fact, the guillotine was an inhumane device used by the government that took the lives of thousands of people considered guilty. Article F reads, “The guillotine was regarded as a humane way to execute criminals. It had a sharp, angled blade, which dropped quickly on a guided track.” Although the government considered it humane, a public execution involving a disturbing view of a head being sliced off is not humane. The…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Terror, By Maximilien Robespierre
    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Terror, By Maximilien Robespierre

    Many historians have found it difficult to precisely define a reason as to what caused ‘The Terror,’ this is due to it being a culmination of terrible events leading to tyranny. ‘The Terror’ can be defined as the period within 1793 and 1794, when the Robespierre subjugated Jacobian group executed, without remorse, any opposing citizens to their regime. Through the critical analysis of Maximilien Robespierre’s speech ‘On the moral and political principles of domestic policy’ in conjunction with Revolutionary France written by Furet Francois and other secondary sources, this essay will argue the differing perspectives provided by historians to discover a definitive cause to ‘The Terror’ through a common relationship that it holds with the theme of virtue. The context of this period being, the Industrial…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2023 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings