An Question of Justification of The Reign of Terror

Was the Reign of Terror justified or not? It was necessary for the revolution. Even though the Reign of Terror didn’t protect the rights of man like the starters of the French Revolution wanted, it allowed the military to secure victories for the French against external enemies, the counterrevolution was calmed ( which was started in France due to nobility and clergy), and the powerful speeches of political leaders, such as Robespierre, helped convince the common peoples to join the Reign of Terror in fighting external and internal enemies of France.

The Reign of Terror opened the door for the government of France to secure military victories with thus decreased the amount of stress on the government. Both Documents B and C, show what different organizations in france did to give France the victory against foreign enemies. In Document B it shows a timeline of the events leading up to the Reign of Terror and we can see how the actions taken by the Committee of Public Safety, such as the Levee en Masse, helped bring French Victory. Document C supports this deduction from Document B as Document C talks about the effect of the revolution and the Reign on the outside threat to France.

We can also deduce from Document C that due to the reaffirmation or revolutionary ideas that the Reign of Terror would have caused that the soldier fighting the foreign enemies would have a refueled fire of passion burning in their hearts as they would want to spread the ideas of the revolution The French Revolutionary Committee of Public Safety, set up to protect the nation and people of France, ironically murdered thousands during what came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the Committee, was put in charge to start the very successful French army and to protect against counter-revolutionary uprisings. The Committee sent thousands to their deaths by guillotine to protect against the “enemies” of the republic. In the end these actions by Robespierre sent him to his own death.

On July 27, 1793, Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, where he became a very powerful figure in the French government. He opposed the extreme left, under Jacques Hebert, and the moderates, under Georges Danton. Both of these groups were arrested and saw the end at the guillotine. The Committee got its power from the Law of Suspects, which allowed them to arrest “those who by their conduct, relations or language spoken or written, have shown themselves partisans of tyranny or federalism and enemies of liberty”. Any of these people who were arrested were likely to be sentenced to death by guillotine.

From the years 1793 to 1794 over 200,000 people were detained under the Law of Suspects. Over 10 thousand of these people were put in horrific jails where they perished. Another 20 to 40 thousand were put to death by guillotine. To help the Committee carry out all of the arrests they set up local authorities to create paramilitary forces. These forces became known as the instruments of Terror in the provinces. The Committee ruled with more sovereignty than the monarchies of the past.

Robespierre pushed the use of force to protect his country that it led to the fall of the revolution and his own death. With the Committee killing off so many people it began to anger other political powers. The tensions between the new government and the people grew.