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.

The Terror

On 2 June, Paris sections — encouraged by the enragés ("enraged ones") Jacques Roux and Jacques Hébert — besieged the Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a low fixed price for bread, and a limitation of the electoral franchise to sans-culottes alone. With the backing of the National Guard, they managed to convince the Convention to arrest 31 Girondin leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot. Following these arrests, the Jacobins gained control of the Committee of Public Safety on 10 June, installing the revolutionary dictatorship. On 13 July, the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat — a Jacobin leader and the mastermind of the September 1792 massacres – by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin, resulted in further increase of Jacobin political influence. George Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the King, having the image of a man who enjoyed luxuries, was removed from the Committee and on 27 July, Maximilien Robespierre, "the Incorruptible", made his entrance, quickly becoming the most influential member of the Committee as it moved to take radical measures against the Revolution's domestic and foreign enemies.

Related Topics:
2 June - Enragés - Jacques Roux - Jacques Hébert - Convention - Bread - Franchise - Sans-culottes - National Guard - Jacques Pierre Brissot - Committee of Public Safety - 10 June - 13 July - Jean-Paul Marat - September 1792 massacres - Charlotte Corday - George Danton - August 1792 uprising - King - 27 July - Maximilien Robespierre

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Meanwhile, on 24 June, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, variously referred to as the French Constitution of 1793 or Constitution of the Year I. It was ratified by public referendum, but never applied, because normal legal processes were suspended before it could take effect.

Related Topics:
24 June - French Constitution of 1793 - Referendum

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Facing local revolts and foreign invasions in both the East and West of the country, the most urgent government business was the war. On 17 August, the Convention voted general conscription, the levée en masse, which mobilized all citizens to serve as soldiers or suppliers in the war effort. On 5 September, the Convention, pressured by the people of Paris, institutionalized The Terror: systematic and lethal repression of perceived enemies within the country.

Related Topics:
17 August - Conscription - Levée en masse - 5 September

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La terreur n'est autre chose que la justice prompte, sévère, inflexible. ("Terror is nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice.") — Robespierre

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The result was a policy through which the state used violent repression to crush resistance to the central government. Under control of the effectively dictatorial Committee, the Convention quickly enacted more legislation. On 9 September, the Convention established sans-culotte paramilitary forces, the revolutionary armies, to force farmers to surrender grain demanded by the government. On 17 September, the Law of Suspects was passed, which authorized the charging of counter-revolutionaries with vaguely defined crimes against liberty. On 29 September, Convention extended price-fixing from grain and bread to other essential goods and fixed wages.

Related Topics:
9 September - 17 September - Law of Suspects - 29 September

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The heads began to fall under the guillotine: Queen Marie-Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité despite his vote for the death of the King, Madame Roland and many others. The Revolutionary Tribunal summarily condemned thousands of suspects to death by the guillotine. Mobs beat some victims to death. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but often for little reason whatsoever beyond mere suspicion, or because some others had a stake in getting rid of them. Most of the victims received an unceremonious trip to the guillotine in an open wooden cart (the tumbrel). Loaded on these carts, the victims would proceed through throngs of jeering men and women.

Related Topics:
Guillotine - Marie-Antoinette - Philippe Égalité - Madame Roland - Tumbrel

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Another anti-clerical uprising was made possible by the installment of the Revolutionary Calendar on 24 October. Against Robespierre's concepts of Deism and Virtue, Hébert's atheist movement initiated a religious campaign in order to dechristianize society. The climax was reached with the celebration of Goddess "Reason" in Notre Dame Cathedral on 10 November.

Related Topics:
Anti-clerical - Revolutionary Calendar - 24 October - Deism - Virtue - Atheist - Dechristianize - Notre Dame - 10 November

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The Reign of Terror was able to save the revolutionary government from military defeat. The Jacobins expanded the size of the army, and Carnot replaced many aristocratic officers with younger soldiers who had demonstrated their ability and patriotism. The Republican army threw back the Austrians, Prussians, British, and Spanish during the autumn. At the end of 1793, the republican army began to prevail and the provincial revolts were defeated one by one. The Terror became identified with ruthless, centralized revolutionary government. The economical dirigiste program didn't solve the problems. Suspects' goods were confiscated by the Decrets of Ventôse (February-March 1794), in order to prepare for the redistribution of wealth.

Related Topics:
Carnot - Austria - Prussia - British - Spanish - Decrets of Ventôse

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Because dissent was now regarded as counterrevolutionary, extremists such as Hébert and moderate Montagnards such as Danton were guillotined in the spring of 1794. On 7 June Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason, advocated a new state religion and recommended the Convention to acknowledge the existence of God. On the next day, the worship of the deistic Supreme Being was inaugurated as an official aspect of the Revolution. Compared with Hébert's popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was received with signs of hostility by an amazed Parisian public.

Related Topics:
Montagnards - 7 June - Cult of Reason - God - ''Supreme Being''

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