Essay

The Reign of Terror Final Essay: Some of the reasons that the reign of terror occurred in France in 1793 were a high national debt, very unequal taxation, high unemployment rates and a scarcity of food. Also, in addition to economic matters, there were social and political matters which had come into focus due to the rise of the enlightenment ideals. Some of these ideas were the resentment of royalist absolutism, the resentment of manorialism and aspirations towards liberty. Robespierre was not a cruel tyrant and has been cruelly judged by many people over time. He would always have preferred a more peaceful resolution to what ended up happening. Some of the ideas that will be discussed are what was the reign of terror, who were the main characters in the reign of terror, what was the committee of public safety and lastly, who was Maximilien Robespierre. The Reign of Terror was a time when many different groups were struggling between one another for power and this led to the massive number of executions by the means of the guillotine. It began with the execution of the queen, Marie Antoinette. The aim was for the supporters to eradicate anyone who was opposing the revolution. Robespierre, who was the mastermind behind the terror, said, “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe inflexible”. This shows that they were just trying to do the right thing and that they thought that they were simply acting within the laws of justice. While Robespierre was only trying to stop any form of counter-revolution taking place he was being quite extreme about his methods and even the Jacobins who were his supporters said that the methods were too extreme. Overall, the Reign of Terror was a time when the supporters of the Revolution acted against all the people who they suspected of counter-revolutionist activity by executing them by the means of the guillotine. It was this time that accounted for almost all of the deaths in the French Revolution. During the reign of terror some of the important and influential characters were Maximilien Robespierre and Jean-Paul Marat. Robespierre was the main character and was the mastermind behind the whole of the revolution and the terror. Everyone listened to what he said but by the end of the terror some people were accusing him of being very coldhearted and murderous so he lost some of his popularity. Jean-Paul Marat was a Swiss-born scientist who moved to France just before the revolution. He was a fiery journalist who was an advocate of such violent measures as the September 1792 massacres of jailed people who were supposedly enemies of the revolution. He was also a member of the Jacobin faction and it was he who compiled death lists and published them. He in turn was killed by Charlotte Corday whilst he was in his bathtub. Both of these men were very influential and important during the time of the Reign of Terror. The Committee of Public Safety which was set up by the national assembly on the 6 April 1793 acted as a stand-in government during the Reign of Terror. The committee was responsible for thousands of executions, mostly by the guillotine, of people who they thought were against the revolution. The reign of the committee was ended in 1795. Some of the achievements of the committee were the stabilization of prices, the mobilization of France’s physical and human resources, the prevention of counter-revolution and the execution of a few tens of thousands of “enemies of the state”. Two of the committee’s failures were that they killed thousands of innocent French citizens and that they alienated tens of thousands of people from the revolution. The Committee of Public Safety ended up being a government who killed tens of thousands of people for what they thought was a good cause and it finished with some of these actions being for better and some of them being for worse but I would have to say that they were mostly for worse. The Committee of Public Safety was an integral part of the Reign of Terror and it was them who caused the revolution to become a terrible time of death and terror. Maximilien Robespierre was born in 1758. He was admitted advocat in 1781 and became part of the Estates General in 1789. He was extremely left wing and he gained a lot of influence over the people who admired him greatly. In 1791 he carried the motion that no member of the present Assembly should be eligible for the next, and was appointed public accuser. In April 1792 he resigned as public accuser and in August he presented to the Legislative Assembly a petition for a Revolutionary Tribunal and a new Convention. He was then elected as first deputy to the national convention. Robespierre vigorously opposed the Girondist idea of a special appeal to the people on the king's death, and Louis's execution on January 21, 1793, opened up the final stages of the struggle, which ended in a complete triumph of the Jacobins on June 2. The original Committee of Public Safety was decreed in April 1793 and Robespierre now became one of the 12 rulers of France. Next came the time when many thousands of people were sent to their deaths at the guillotine. Over the next 3 months, he took control of the committee. This meant that he had complete power and he nominated all the members of the Government Committees, placed his men in all places of influence in the commune of Paris, and assumed complete control of the Revolutionary Tribunal. But, now as his power increased his popularity began to drop. He advocated a new city religion, which he had formerly opposed, and more and more people were being sent to the guillotine. At a convention on July 27 1794, Saint-Just could not get a hearing and Robespierre was attacked. A deputy proposed his arrest and that was the end of his reign of power. He ran away to the Common Hall where they stated that he was an outlaw. The next day, July 28 1794, he was sent to the guillotine to be killed along with Saint-Just, Couthon and 19 others. During the early 1790’s in France it was a time of great distress. Many different groups were fighting for power, people like Jean-Paul Marat and Robespierre had lots of power and influence over all the people in the country, the Committee of Public Safety was sending people to the guillotine almost every day and once again I mention that Maximilien Robespierre had all the power over the people and he was able to do whatever he wanted at the time because he had the support of the mob. In closing I have come to the conclusion that the reason that the Reign of Terror happened was because of very bad governing of the country like unequal taxation and unfair rules that only counted for people depending on their wealth and also because the people had come to see a new set of rules like the resentment of manorialism and aspirations towards liberty. I have also come to the conclusion that Robespierre was not a cruel tyrant, as he originally did not want to use force (murder, executions) to solve the problems but would rather have had a peaceful resolve but he saw that the people wanted him to use force and he got carried away ending up doing harm to the country and that is why he got a bad reputation. My conclusion is that the Reign of Terror happened because of bad government and the new ideas that the people had and also that Robespierre was not a bad tyrant. Bibliography: Internet: www.wikipedia.com/reignofterror.htm www.frenchrev.net Books: Franklin, D. 1998, The French Revolution-through the eyes of the French, Puffin Books, London, Eng. ----------------------- JJ Selwyn 2 CAJ 20/4/07