Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror (June 1793 – July 1794) was a period in the French Revolution characterized by brutal repression. The Terror (see also state terrorism) originated with a highly centralized political regime that suspended most of the democratic achievements of the Revolution, and intended to pursue the Revolution on social matters. Its stated aim was to destroy internal enemies and conspirators and to oust the external enemies from French territory.

Background

In the summer of 1793, the French Revolution was threatened both by internal enemies and conspirators, and by foreign European monarchies fearing that the Revolution would spread. Almost all European governments in that era were based on royal sovereignty, whether absolute or constitutional, rather than the popular sovereignty asserted by the revolutionary French. Foreign powers wanted to stifle the democratic and republican ideas. Their armies were pressing on the border of France (see French Revolutionary Wars).

Related Topics:
Europe - Monarchies - Popular sovereignty - Republic - French Revolutionary Wars

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Foreign powers had already threatened the French population with horrible retaliation if they did not free King Louis XVI and reinstate him as a monarch. (See Brunswick Manifesto) Louis XVI himself was suspected of conspiring with foreign powers who wished to invade France and restore the absolute monarchy.

Related Topics:
Louis XVI - Brunswick Manifesto

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The former French nobility, having lost its inherited privileges, had a stake in the failure of the Revolution. The Roman Catholic Church was also generally hostile to the Revolution, which (through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy) turned the clergy into employees of the state, requiring them take an oath of loyalty to the nation. About half the clergy, mainly in western France, refused the oath, becoming known as refractory priests or non-jurors.

Related Topics:
French nobility - Roman Catholic Church - Civil Constitution of the Clergy - Non-juror

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Catholic priests and the former nobility entered into conspiracies, often invoking foreign military intervention. In the western region known as Vendée, an insurrection led by priests and former nobles and supported by Great Britain began in the spring of 1793. The extension of civil war and the advance of foreign armies on national territory produced a political crisis, increasing the rivalry between the Girondins and the more radical Jacobins, with the latter having the support of the Parisian population.

Related Topics:
Vendée - Insurrection - Great Britain - Girondins - Jacobins - Paris

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