Was The Reign Of Terror Justified Essay

The Reign of Terror: Was it Justified? September 1792 marks a turning point in history. A time of divided people, a time of beheading, and a time of terror. The Reign of Terror began with to imprisonment of Louis XVI in September of 1792. A new type of government was put in place, republic, causing the division of people. Some were counterrevolutionaires, against the new government, some were pro-revolution, for the new government. The two sides did not get along so the government turned to Terror. With the new invention of the Guillotine, and the power of Robespierre, the man behind the Reign of Terror, this time became brutal and violent. Although the counterrevolutionaries were becoming slightly out of control, the Reign of Terror was not justified because it violated the inalienable rights of citizens, the methods of execution were too extreme, and France was already stronger than all of its internal and external threats. …show more content…
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