Reign Of Terror Dbq

The French Revolution began in 1789 as an attempt, by the revolutionaries, to form a new government that would give the people more liberty, equality and value people’s rights. Between 1793 and 1794 the government used extreme ways to achieve their goals. This period of time, led by Robespierre, was called the reign of Terror because between 20,000-40,000 french people were killed by the government forces. The Reign of Terror was not justified for three reasons:The external and internal threat did not deserve it, they denied natural rights against people who opposed them and the methods of the Terror were too extreme.

The French Revolution is arguably the bloodiest period in French history, with men such as Maximilien Robespierre leading the country into a situation of state sponsored terror. Originally being quite a liberal thinker inspired by the works of Rousseau, Robespierre quickly gained a reputation for being a radical throughout the course of the Revolution, especially during the Terror. Early on terror was justified as a means to root out foreign and domestic enemies of the Revolution, however; once the foreign threat had been taken care of it became increasingly difficult for Robespierre to rationalize his use of terror to bring about a supposed Republic of Virtue. In his speech, the “Justification of the use of Terror” which he presented to

     Maximillien Robespierre is commonly viewed as the symbol of the Reign of Terror, the short period in which thousands of people were executed because they were thought to be traitors. However, Maximillien was actually an idealistic reformer with an image of peace and equality driving him on, who is unfairly credited with the Terror, and assumed to be a power-hungry tyrant.

The radical turning point of the revolution, marked by the Reign of Terror, was an atmosphere of mass executions and imposed paranoia, with more than ten thousand “counterrevolutionaries” (vaguely defined, which at the end turned out to be anyone with dissent) sent to death under the Law of Suspects. Robespierre himself states that “Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue… The government of the revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny”. “Severe and inflexible”, as justified by Robespierre, the revolution needed a push in order to reach its goals. France under the committee's total control sent anyone with dissent to the guillotine because they were considered to be a threat to the new government, which ironically named itself “for the people”. An anonymous eyewitness during the reign commented on the Reign of Terror collection of authentic narratives that “It seemed as if their blind fury was particularly directed against the weakest and most amiable.The loveliest, the youngest, and the most interesting females, were dragged in crowds into this receptacle of misery, whence they were led, by dozens, to inundate the scaffold” (325). The sickening extent of human toll

The Reign of Terror lasted from September 1793 until Robespierre was executed in 1794. The Reign of Terror’s main purpose was to protect France from foreign enemies and eliminate counterrevolutionaries. People who disagreed with the revolution were executed in town square in front of the town’s people. During the Reign of Terror, about 40,000 people were murdered or executed. Was this method of protecting France from external and internal enemies reasonable? The Reign of Terror was not justified because the external affairs were small, the internal affairs were not serious, and the methods of the Terror were too extreme.

On September 5, 1793, the National Convention of France declared terror “the order of the day,” which essentially meant that the government would take any and all necessary measures to maintain a sense of peace and stability. Strict laws and policies were imposed to ensure that the nation would continue to evolve and change. This day marked the beginning of the infamous Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror was a period of turmoil in France following the onset of the French Revolution in 1789. Extreme violence and unwarranted brutality became standard during this decade. The head of the revolution and primary leader of the Committee of Public Safety was a French politician named Maximilien Robespierre.

Maximilien Robespierre has always been known to be controversial and misunderstood. He was the face of the French Revolution. In accordance with the Jacobins, they controlled the time known as the Reign of Terror, due to their influence in the accumulation of murders of those opposed to the revolution. Reign of Terror was a symbolic time period within the French Revolution that involved corruption of power and influence and mass executions. With Robespierre at the forefront, he became one of the most important men in the Revolution. As soon as Maximilien Robespierre decided to react to enemies of the revolutions, mass execution being his choice of force; his implementation of the Reign of Terror was a villainous act striking those who

The Reign of Terror was a very horrific event that took place; although, people made it out to be somewhat helpful and resolve multiple issues it resulted in making society very miserable and quite sad, This act that took place was most definitely not justified because the leader was self elected and not giving society the right to vote for its new leader. Another example of this was people's hopes were manipulates and misguided leading up to this horrific historical event.The Reign of Terror was the third estate also know as the bourgeoisie had started a war with the first class because they did not treat them well. The Bourgeoisie had killed many people from the first and second estate. The leader of this act was none other than Robespierre

"Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government" (William Lyon Mackenzie King). In 1793, Maximilien Robespierre, head of the Committee of Public Safety, took over the unmanned French government. His ruling consisted of killing anyone that thought of enlightenment ideals or ill of him. Running as a dictator for only less than a years worth of time, Robespierre caused the Reign of Terror, a time where around 40,000 individuals who were rather innocent were killed for having slightly different

As the Reign of Terror came into effect, triggering the most radical phase of the Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre was determined to reconstruct France as a new republican democracy. According to Robespierre, this system could only be achieved if every and all forms of resistance to the Republic were to be eradicated. He declared that anyone who did not support the revolution as radically as he did was a traitor, a threat to the country, and deserved to be executed.

France was experience a great amount of change in the summer of 1793, when the Jacobins succeeded the moderates in the National Convention. With the radical Jacobins in power, the country was in tumult, and a Reign of Terror ensued due to a law of suspects that legalized local revolutionary committees. Because of this, thousands of people were killed by guillotine or other methods. Throughout the summer of 1793, the radical Jacobins’ control of the Committee of Public Safety instituted the Terror which was advantageous in it’s intended purpose, yet it was disadvantageous because of the enemies it created.

The Reign of Terror was one of history's symbolic events that have changed the world for the better. Have started with King Louis XVI's reign in 1789 to 1793 (document B); which lead France down a rabbit hole of poverty, starvation of the people, and an unfair tax system (background essay). All of France's problems have manifested into something that King Louis has done, but cannot stop. With the help of Maximilien Robespierre, the Reign of Terror was declared to fix a corrupted government. The Reign of Terror was justified to rebuild the government that problems that Louis XVI created. With the help of Robespierre and the death contraption known as the guillotine, the Reign of Terror served it's purpose and helped France with its

In this essay I shall try to find whether the Terror was inherent from the French revolutions outset or was it the product of exceptional circumstances. The French revolution is the dividing line between the Ancien Regime and the modern world. After France the hierarchy that societies of the time had been founded on began to change and they began to sweep away the intricate political structures of absolute monarchy, but however to achieve this was the Terror absolutely necessary? And was it planned/ or was it just the extraordinary circumstances, which the French had lead themselves into once they had deposed of Louis the

Twenty thousand to forty thousand died; it is still unknown exactly how many people were lost through the blood drenching event of the Reign of Terror.[Footnote] Throughout the French revolution, specifically the eleven month, 1793-1794 Reign of Terror, revolutionary leaders, such as Maximilien Robespierre believed in enforcing fear to resolve the instability of France. “Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue”-Maximilien Robespierre.[Footnote] This period in history signified great atrocities of massacres, and a time where fear was evoked within every French civilian. The National Convention of France was a great factor in encouraging the start of the Reign of Terror; they continued on

The Royal Family of France’s attempted escape on June 20th, 1791 made many people very unhappy with the King. The mob, ever ready to exercise the uncontrolled Rights of Men, made a mock parade of the King’s Arms in the market places, and, dashing them and the figure of a crown to the ground, they trampled upon them, crying out, “Since the King has abandoned what he owed to his high situation, let us trample upon the ensigns of royalty” (Ascherson 48)! The Royal Family not only lost many of its followers through their attempted escape, but also because King Louis XVI kept making bad decisions, ones that had no benefit to France or its people. The people wanted someone who would lead them into a revolution and change France for the better, not because they wanted the power, but because they believed in France and wanted it to become a great nation. That man was Robespierre, who after the flight of the King followed the Jacobin club in its move toward republicanism. He called for universal male suffrage and the end of property qualifications for voting and office holding (Blumberg 290). Robespierre wanted to make France a republic, a government for the people and by the people, a country where everyone had the freedoms and rights they deserved. In January of 1793, Robespierre voted on whether or not he thought that King Louis should be executed for his actions. At the Convention on the trial