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The Reign of Terror ( when struggles between rival factions led to mutual radicalization which took on a violent character with mass executions by '' Guillotine ''. It is generally associated with the figures of Robespierre and Georges Danton , and is popularly represented as an archetype of revolutionary violence. The Terror itself started on September 5 1793 . The repression accelerated in June and July 1794, a period named ''la Grande Terreur'' (The Great Terror) and lasted until the executions following The Coup Of 9 Thermidor Year II ( July 27 1794 ), in which several key leaders of the Reign of Terror were themselves executed, including Saint-Just and Maximilien Robespierre . The Terror took the lives of between 18,500 to 40,000 people (estimates vary widely, due to the difference between historical records and statistical estimates). In the single month before it ended, 1,900 Execution s took place. While some consider modern tyrannies to be the legacy of the Reign of Terror, others argue that this view overlooks the French Revolution's influence in the ascendency of representative democracy and constitutionalism. BACKGROUND In the summer of 1793, the French Revolution was threatened both by internal enemies and conspirators, and by foreign Europe an Monarchies fearing that the Revolution would spread. Almost all European governments in that era were based on Royal Sovereignty , rather than the Popular Sovereignty asserted by the revolutionary French. Foreign powers wanted to stifle the democratic and Republic an ideas, which they feared would pose a threat to their own respective countries’ stability. Their armies were pressing on the border of France, leading the new Republic into a series of Wars Against Its Monarchist Neighbours . 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. The Prussian Duke Of Brunswick threatened to "pilfer" Paris if the Parisians dared to touch the royal family, which only infuriated Paris. Louis XVI himself was suspected of conspiring with foreign powers who wished to invade France and restore absolute monarchy. The former French Nobility , having lost its inherited privileges, had a stake in the failure of the Revolution. The Church as well was generally against the Revolution, which (through the Civil Constitution Of The Clergy ) had turned the clergy into employees of the state and had required that they take an oath of loyalty to the nation. About half of the clergy, mainly in western France, refused the oath, making themselves known as ''refractory'' priests or '' Non-juror s''. Members of the Catholic clergy and the former nobility entered into conspiracies, often invoking foreign military intervention. In the western region known as the Vendée , priests and former nobles led An Insurrection , which began in spring 1793 and was supported by Great Britain . The extension of civil war and the advance of foreign armies on national territory produced a political crisis, and increased the rivalry between the Girondins and the more radical Jacobins ; the latter were eventually grouped in the parliamentary faction called The Mountain , and had the support of the Parisian population. THE TERROR by Briton George Cruikshank . Titled "The Radical's Arms", it depicts the infamous '' Guillotine ''. "No God! No Religion! No King! No Constitution!" is written in the republican banner]] On , 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. {Link without Title} 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 normal legal processes were quickly suspended. 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 for 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 institutionalized ''The Terror:'' systematic and lethal repression of perceived enemies within the country. On December 25, 1793, Robespierre stated: ''The goal of the constitutional government is to conserve the Republic; the aim of the revolutionary government is to found it... The revolutionary government owes to the good citizen all the protection of the nation; it owes nothing to the Enemies Of The People but death".. These notions would be enough to explain the origin and the nature of laws that we call revolutionary ... If the revolutionary government must be more active in its march and more free in his movements than an ordinary government, is it for that less fair and legitimate? No; it is supported by the most holy of all laws: Martin Guerre!(''Martin Guerre''; "safety/welfare/or salvation of the people").''Robespierre: «Le but du gouvernement constitutionnel est de conserver la République; celui du gouvernement révolutionnaire est de la fonder. Le gouvernement révolutionnaire doit au bon citoyen toute la protection nationale; il ne doit aux Ennemis du Peuple que la mort. Ces notions suffisent pour expliquer l'origine et la nature des lois que nous appelons révolutionnaires [... . Si le gouvernement révolutionnaire doit être plus actif dans sa marche et plus libre dans ses mouvements que le gouvernement ordinaire, en est-il moins juste et moins légitime? Non; il est appuyé sur la plus sainte de toutes les lois: le salut du Peuple.» He would later state, more succinctly: ''La terreur n'est autre chose que la justice prompte, sévère, inflexible.'' ("Terror is nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice.") — Robespierre (17 pluviôse an II / February 5 1794 ) The result was policy through which the state used violent repression to crush resistance to the government. Under control of the effectively dictatorial Committee, the Convention quickly enacted more legislation. On summarily condemned thousands of people to death by the guillotine, while mobs beat other victims to death. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but many for little reason 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 onto these carts, the victims would proceed through throngs of jeering men and women. The victims of the Reign of Terror totaled approximately 40,000. Among people who were condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about 8 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 14 percent middle class, and 70 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft, desertion, rebellion, and other purported crimes. Harvey, Donald Joseph FRENCH REVOLUTION, History.com 2006 (Accessed April 27,2007) Of these social groupings, the clergy of the Roman Catholic church suffered proportionately the greatest loss. Another Robespierre, who had previously condemned the '' Cult Of Reason '', advocated a new state religion and recommended that the Convention 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 somewhat popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was received with signs of hostility by an amazed Parisian public. THE END The repression also brought thousands of suspects before the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal , whose work was expedited by the Law Of 22 Prairial ( June 10 1794) which had led to the Terror. As a result of Robespierre's insistence on associating Terror with Virtue, his efforts to make the republic a morally united patriotic community became equated with the endless bloodshed. Finally, after June 26 's decisive military victory over the Austrians at the Battle Of Fleurus , Robespierre was overthrown by a conspiracy of certain members of the Convention on 9 Thermidor ( July 27 ). Following their failed attempt to raze Paris, the Robespierrists and most members of the Commune were Guillotine d on July 28 . This led to the '' Thermidorian Reaction '', which was characterized by a much lesser known White Terror . This reaction killed hundreds of Jacobins. This continued intermittently for some years afterward in the form of unchecked violence by gangs of Muscadin s as well as rigged trials by the authorities. LEGACY The Terror has been often presented as a highly centralized government prefiguring 20th century underscored the "absence of a strong state" from Spring 1793 to Summer 1794 and the fact that the state at the time was actually riven by factions — while totalitarianism is, to the contrary, characterized by a very powerful state. According to J.-C. Martin, the Committee Of Public Safety , created in April 1793 and usually considered the Executive Power of the Terror, did not control much, at least until March 1794. It was opposed by rival state institutions, such as the Committee Of General Security , which controlled the police, and the Paris Commune , which held military power after August 10 , 1792 and was linked to the '' Sans-culottes '' (the poorer working classes of Paris — literally "without knee-breeches", the fashionable trousers of the upper classes), who themselves controlled the Ministry of War. Rather than the implementation of a strong state's policies, the Terror was the result of the struggle between these various competing powers who radicalized each other. Jean-Clément Martin , historian and professor at Paris-I , "France was cut in half by the Revolution", in '' L'Histoire '' n°311, July–August 2006 Furthermore, some scholars assert that to present the Terror as a prefiguration of totalitarianism does not take into account the French Revolution's influence in the ascendency of Representative Democracy and Constitutionalism . French Revolution The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05. TREATMENT IN FICTION
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