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| Maximilien Robespierre |
La Terreur or The Reign of Terror or The Terror is the label given by some historians to a period during the French Revolution.
Several historians consider the reign of terror to have begun in 1793, placing the starting date at either 5 September, June or March, birth of the Revolutionary Tribunal, while some consider it to have begun in September 1792, September Massacres, or even July 1789, when the first beheadings took place, but there is a general consensus that it ended with the fall of Robespierre in July 1794.
Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris. However, the total number of deaths in France was much higher, owing to death in imprisonment, suicide and casualties in foreign and civil war.
There was a sense of emergency among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793 between the widespread civil war and counter-revolution. Mr. Barère exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the Convention: Let's make terror the order of the day!
They were determined to avoid street violence such as the September Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government.
More information: History Today
On 9 Thermidor Year II, 27 July 1794, the French politician Maximilien Robespierre was denounced by members of the National Convention as a tyrant, leading to Robespierre and twenty-one associates including Louis Antoine de Saint-Just being arrested that night and beheaded on the following day.
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| Execution of Maximilien Robespierre |
The fall of Robespierre was brought about by a combination of those who wanted more power for the Committee of Public Safety, and a more radical policy than he was willing to allow, and the moderates who completely opposed the revolutionary government. They had, between them, made the Law of 22 Prairial one of the charges against him, so that, after his fall, to advocate terror would be seen as adopting the policy of a convicted enemy of the republic, putting the advocate's own head at risk.
Between his arrest and his execution, Robespierre may have tried to commit suicide by shooting himself, although the bullet wound he sustained, whatever its origin, only shattered his jaw. Alternatively, he may have been shot by the gendarme Merda. The great confusion that arose during the storming of the municipal Hall of Paris, where Robespierre and his friends had found refuge, make it impossible to be sure of the wound's origin. In any case, Robespierre was guillotined the next day.
The reign of the standing Committee of Public Safety was ended. New members were appointed the day after Robespierre's execution, and limits on terms of office were fixed, a quarter of the committee retired every three months. The Committee's powers were gradually eroded.
More information: History Extra
Robespierre, however, was not the type of leader finally
destined to emerge from the Revolution.
Irving Babbitt
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