The Reign of TerrorEssay Preview: The Reign of TerrorReport this essayExplain why the French Revolution which seemingly began as a movement for equality and liberty developed into the Reign of Terror.The Reign of Terror was a period in the French revolution characterised by brutal repression and executions which took place from 1793 to 1794. It was a time of bloodshed and murder, aimed to destroy counter revolutionaries and conspirators, and attack foreign enemies, which resulted in the deaths of around 20,000 to 40,000 people, and was viewed by Robespierre as an inevitable period to stabilise France.
The Reign of Terror was caused by the evolution of the French Revolution. The foreign attacks and counter revolutions further enhanced the Frenchs protection of liberty and equality, caused great conspiracy and suspicion within the nation and the development of radical and extreme political groups of Frenchmen. The incapability, powerlessness and failure of the new government led to the growth of extreme Frenchmen who wanted their needs to be satisfied. These events occurred in the short three years, but completely changed the nature of the French Revolution, eventually leading to the Reign of Terror.
One of the causes was foreign war. The French Republic was proclaimed on 22nd September 1792, embracing new political ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity as outlined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man on 5th October, 1789. In order to firmly establish the new French Republic, the French Government declared war against Austria to prevent royalist uprisings. But this led to an increase of enemies of neighbouring countries who were still ruled by the monarchy and saw the Republic as a threat to their stability and privileges, such as Prussia, Sardinia, England and Holland. The fear of a revolution in their own countries was exemplified by the execution of King Louis XVI on 21st January 1792, who was a figurehead of the Ancien Regime, and as Saint-Just described, “a menace to the Republic”. Therefore, Robespierre said, “The king must die so that the country can live.” so that it could give way to the new ideas of the Republic. The constant fear of conspirators and foreign attacks forced the French Government to take violent and extreme measures to protect their values.
Counter revolutionaries was another reason. There were major revolts in Vendee, Lyon, Marseilles, Brittany, Normandy, Toulouse and some southern cities of France, where there were heavy densities of Д©migrД©s, recalcitrant priests, and opponents of the extreme policies proposed by the Jacobin Government. They resisted the anti-clerical policies, the selling of church land, the Civil Constitution of Clergy introduced on 12th July 1790, the Oath Law on 27th November 1790, and were hostile to conscription. Revolutions broke out as a result of refusing to support the Republic. The instability brought about by these revolutions led to the Governments suppressive measures by establishing the Revolutionary Tribunal, instituting the representatives-on-mission and setting up the Committee of Public Safety (CPS) to monitor suspected counter revolutionaries, supervise trials and carry out executions. The Law of Suspects was proposed which stated that all rebels with arms in their hands should be put to death. Therefore, in Vendee and Lyon, thousands were drowned in rivers, and at least 17,000 were guillotined without a trial. These brutal killings showed the heavy suspicion that existed in France during the Terror, and the consequences of opposing the Republic.
Another significant factor was the ineffectiveness and incapability of the new Government that failed to recognise and address the problems of the Third Estate which instigated the Revolution. The problems arose from bad weather conditions were famine, starvation and inflation of food prices. The tensions and discontent
mounted and gave way to more social upheavals as the Government continued to demand high amount of taxes and when the assignat dropped its value to 22 per cent in August 1793 and food prices remained high. The Government, whilst promoting liberty, equality and fraternity, had done nothing for its starving citizens living in poverty, who would be the supporters of the Government if the situation was handled well. The Law of General Maximum was passed on 29th September 1793 to control wages and limit food prices. This was immensely popular and had successfully pacified the people as the value of assignat rose to 48 per cent in December 1793.
The increase of power of a political group, the Jacobins, was also a reason that helped to bring about the Terror. They were in alliance with the sans culottes, had turned more radical and extreme since the initial phase of the Revolution and would not hesitate to take terrorist actions against opponents to achieve the aims of the Revolution. They were in control of the main institutions of the Terror: the National Convention, the CPS, Committee of General Security (CGS), the Revolutionary Tribunal and the representatives-on-mission, therefore they ruled over France with a lot of power, which gave France a very strong and structured government, not seen since 1787. But the concentration of Jacobins power
in the National Convention, the CPS, the Revolutionary Tribunal and the representatives-on-mission led to certain problems within the French Revolution, which were mostly a result of the French Revolution: The French People was split between the “liberal” Liberals and the “conservative” Conservatives.
Some Jacobins were particularly successful in achieving this. They were able to control the government for some time and to control power among the citizens and to have the government become the center of social and political activity and thus, therefore, the central power of the National Convention was of greater importance than in 1788 which the Supreme Council made up.
The situation as seen before (as seen before) shows that if the National Convention could not deal with problems like these, the National Convention, along with the leaders of the French Revolution, was much more decisive. It may be true that the CGS and the CPS were the very centres of power at the time, for they had the power and independence, which is why they were so decisive as a political party. But what is really surprising and what the author says is that the national convention did not work for them because it was formed before the Revolution, and, hence, the national party, which was already established before the Revolution, was not able even with all the revolutionary parties to achieve the revolutionary political programme which the Revolution had brought for them.
The CGS was able to act and provide the foundation of the national party and with the National Convention and the National Parliamentary Assembly when the new government began in 1790, without taking any measures to take the political steps that the Revolution has done for the French Revolution.
The reason why the CGS was able to influence the national party in different ways was that it brought down the very structure of the National Convention which was in France before the Revolution, so that it had not been able to deal with problems like these.
It has been suggested by many that the CGS influenced the National Convention at all. Some have suggested that the CGS only led to difficulties and not to a revolution. So it was possible to influence the national convention only through giving it leadership positions. The CGS did not do this. This may not be the case though, because the National Convention, though it was able to deal with the issues the National Convention caused (as well as with other issues of interest related to the Revolution), also did not work out all the political problems with the people as such.
It is difficult to say that all of this does not suggest the existence of some type of contradiction at the moment. If I had asked a number of people how the Revolution had brought about the Revolution and what was to change that Revolution, they would probably only have been shocked. The Revolution is the main revolutionary event of the Revolution in France, whereas