3+Reign+of+Terror


 * Reign of Terror **



The Reign of Terror begins with the killing of Louis XVI and the suspicion that Marie Antoinette killed him after their separation. Maximilien Robespierre comes into play in early 1793, Robespierre a Jacobin leader, slowly gained power. His goal was to wipe out every trace of France's past, changing the calender, and abolishing religion, in hopes of building a "republic of virtue". Peasants rebelled, in early 1793, against the new French domineer assembly in the Vendee, which was an area on France's west coast, which is why the National Convention created the Committee of Public Safety. In July 1793, he became leader of the Committee of Public Safety(his task being to protect the revolution from it's enemies), which pretty much solidified his reign as a "technical" dictator. The Committee of Public Safety had "enemies" tried in the morning and guillotined in the afternoon. His Rule was the reason for the Reign of Terror.

The Reign of Terror was a bloody time during the French Revolution. It was titled the Reign of Terror because many people were killed for small allegations or bogus ones. Anyone that the Royalists thought were treasonists or sought out to be a threat to them, were immediately beheaded. There was an alteration of military defeats and civil mutinies that caused the Terror to begin. Meaning that all who were, "enemies of the revolution", or believed that the absolute monarchy was predominant over the French Republic.

But as time went on fewer of Robespierre's enemies were actual enemies, they were fellow radicals who started to question his ways. Many who helped him lead were excuted for questioning him, but in reality their only "crime" was that they were considered less radical than he. During this time the terror claimed, famous( Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Antoine Lavoisier, The great French chemist, and Georges-Jacques Danton, A Revolutionary leader) and not so famous. People were charged for the most absurd offenses, so absurd, in fact, that if they were tried in present day courts, it wouldn't even stand on the legs of the accuser. 85% of the 40,000 killed in the Terror were members of the middle class- and their the reason the revolution was set in place. Ironic, huh?

Realizing the ludicrousness of Robespierre's actions, some members of the National Convention turned on him. They feared their own safety after the beheading of Georges-Jacques Danton. On July 28. 1794, Maximilien Robespierre was executed by way of the guillotine.

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Famous Victims of Reign of Terror