Guillotine

As Charles Dickens once said, “Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!” The French Revolution has been seen as a war that caused death, pain, and prosperity. Many primary documents, like Simon Schama Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, have mentioned that the amount of human lives lost during the French Revolution was unnecessary. The amount of deaths in the revolution explains the outcome of how much violence took place. Was the…

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…

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…

been sent to the guillotine. Most of the people sent to the guillotine have been aristocrats and supporters of the monarchy. Most of those aristocrats have done nothing but have been born into a higher family, but they are getting charged with treason or supporting the king. The goal of the Reign of Terror was to purge France of the people against the Republic and all enemies of the revolution. During the time of the Reign of Terror over 40,000 people were beheaded by guillotine. The Reign of…

a series of trials and accusations most of them ending in death by guillotine. If someone, man or woman, rich or poor, was accused of treason they would be unfairly tried, then executed or thrown in prison. The Reign of Terror was headed by the radical rebel group known as The Mountain, with Maximilian Robespierre as the leader of the pack. It was oddly similar to the Salem Witch Trials. The first blood tasted by the guillotine during The Reign of Terror belonged to Marie Antoinette. She was…

absolute control with no power check. “We must smother the internal and external eneimes of the Republic or perish…” (Document G). With the power granted to Robespierre ny The Committtee of Public Safety, he could send all of his enemies to the guillotine, which he did. Robespierre had become an absolute monarch without the title, murdering all those who opposed him and justifying it by reasoning that it was for the sake of the revolution. The revolutionary government had untimately become an…

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…

There have been numerous quintessential examples of wicked downfalls throughout the world. A famous example would be when Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt and because of that it caused the emperor to go mad and because of his madness, that is what killed him and his empire. But the French Revolution is one of the most devastating attacks against the Roman Catholic Church. It cost the lives of some many great people at the time. “God writes straight with crooked lines” is a perfect…

Adam Michnik, a Polish historian believed that “After the French Revolution, it was not the treason of the king that was in question; it was the existence of the king. You have to be very careful when you judge and execute somebody for being a symbol.” When the colonists declared war on Britain in 1776, they promoted “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Declaration of Independence par. 2).” When the citizens of France and the Third Estate became weary of the tyranny and despotism of…

executed by guillotines , which were large falling blades that immediately eliminate an individual. The Reign Of Terror is not justified because of three major reasons: threats did not require the Reign of Terror, the methods were too extreme, and the Reign of Terror did not support the ideals…