The Reign Of Terror Essay, Research Paper

The Reign of Terror

History is said to be written by the victors, but is it possible to

rewrite history? In a manner, the Gallic, like many who have preceded them, and

many who will continue them hold done the impossible, rewriting history. From

fiddling folklore, such as George Washington chopping down a cherry tree, to the

improbably incorrect, the African slave trade ; people & # 8217 ; s positions of history can be

shaped and molded. The Gallic have done a brilliant occupation of transfusing all of us

with the construct that their Revolution was a battle for autonomy, justness and the

good of all Frenchmen everyplace. Their glory of the Bastille with it & # 8217 ; s

word pictures in picture and sculpture and how the Revolution was the beginning of

a new age pickets to some of the events during this period. In fact, the storming

of the Bastille was simply a hole in the butch, and more would follow. The

National Guard, the Paris Commune, the September Massacre, are all words that

the Gallic would prefer us non to hear. These events were a elusive vitamin D? nouementto

an flood tide that was filled with both blood and hurting. The Reign of Terror, or the

Great Terror, was a monolithic apogee to the horror of the Gallic Revolution,

the troughs fluxing with blood as the people of Paris watched with an

entertained oculus. No affair what the Gallic may claim, if one chooses to open

his eyes and read about this calamity, they are most surely welcome.

The revolution begins softly in the financial crisis of Louis XVI & # 8217 ; s reign.

The authorities was running profoundly into bankruptcy, and at the goad of his

fiscal advisers, he called the Estates General. The regulating organic structure had non

been called for about two centuries, and now it & # 8217 ; s workings seemed out-of-date. A

little figure of people said that the Third Estate, that which was drawn from the

towns, should hold power to be the other Estates. Clubs of the middle class,

the in-between category, were formed, proclaiming, & # 8220 ; Salus populi lex est. & # 8221 ; It was a

simple call significance & # 8220 ; the public assistance of the people is law. & # 8221 ; To these people, the

Estates General was like a brace of places that no longer tantrum. Reformed seemed

iminent, the phrase, & # 8220 ; The Third Estate is non an order, it is the state itself & # 8221 ;

began to circulate.1

With much ostentation and circumstance, the three estates were called

together. However, on seeking to run into, the Third Estate found the doors to their

run intoing topographic point locked. Traveling to the tennis tribunal, with much deliberation, an

curse was sworn between the delegates and some clergy, proclaiming themselves as

the National Assembly. They swore to stay indivisible until a fundamental law

had been formed. As they met at the church of St. Louis, the King was delayed

in his effort to stop this show of independency. Finally, he informed them,

that he would non let any reforms to be made, unless he approved of them.

Unfortunately, their will would non be easy undone, and in a ballot to four

hundred 90 three to ninety four, the National Assembly declared that serious

action would be taken against the King. With such an resonant resistance, on

June 27th, 1789, Louis XVI gave into their demands.

Educated in Paris, a immature adult male of 20 six old ages, would be one of the

foremost to put off the flicker of revolution. Jumping on top of a tabular array at the

Palais Royale, a societal assemblage topographic point in Paris, he spoke out against the

enemies of the people in a good scripted oration. The crowd rapidly fawned over

their new found hero, processing through the streets of Paris, even disrupting a

public presentation at the Paris opera. Military forces were required to rectify the

state of affairs, yet Paris merely had six thousand military personnels with which to support itself

against the rampaging rabble. At the Place Vendome, the horse attempted to

command the public violence, merely to happen their Equus caballuss surrounded and immovable through the

dense crowd.

The officers of the Swiss and Turkish ground forcess attacked the rioters

outright, but the garde-nationale was called in to halt this slaughter. This

pandemonium caused the Hotel de Ville to demand each alarm bell, or citing bell, cannon,

membranophone, and church bell be used to cite the people of Paris. Pulling from the

electoral public of each subdivision, four 1000 and eight hundred work forces were

given the undertaking of protecting Paris, now named the Paris commune. They wore the

colourss of ruddy and bluish, typifying the colourss of Paris. Armed with cannons and

muskets, they had small pulverization with which to support Paris.

The Bastille was a prison, built of rock, it had eight unit of ammunition towers,

with it & # 8217 ; s highest tower being 73 pess. It was built as a defensive

garrison against the British, and was non converted into a prison until under the

regulation of Charles VI. To the writers, sculpturers and painters who glorified the

pickings of the Bastille, it was a dark and secret palace, where captives ne’er

returned from. Each captive hung from bonds until their dried castanetss were

pushed into a corner, but the Bastille was nil like that in world. It was

a prison for aristocracy, clergy, the occasional disgraceful writer, and juvenile

delinquents whose parents had asked for them to be kept at that place. Most captives

had more money spent on them, so it took for an mean Parisian to exist.

The life quarters were octangular suites, 16 pess in diameter. Pets were

allowed to cover with the varmint, and captives were allowed trappingss, apparels,

and other personal properties. Even one of the most ill-famed felons, the

demented Marquis de Sade, made his place their, having his married woman and other

visitants on a regular footing.

With merely a few captives, the Bastille was an ideal topographic point to hive away

big sums of ammo. Bernard-Rene de Launay was in control of a force

of merely over a 100 work forces that were given the undertaking of supporting more so

thirty-thousand lbs of pulverization. In the event of a besieging, the Bastille would

non be able to keep out long, merely incorporating a two twenty-four hours nutrient supply, and no

internal H2O. The forenoon of July 14th, a big crowd of over eight 100s

people set before the Bastille, naming for it & # 8217 ; s resignation. Delegates were sent

in to talk with de Launay, yet he refused to capitulate until orders from the

Hotel de Ville were presented to him.

As the orders were being fetched, the crowd grew less patient, until

eventually a carriage-maker cut the lines of the lift bridge, leting them entree

to the interior courtyard. As shootings were fired on both side, the besieging became

imminent. For a twenty-four hours, despairing efforts on both sides eventually stoping in the

resignation of the guards. The guards were so rounded up, decapitated, and

their caputs were paraded on expresswaies like the wax flops of Gallic heroes. De

Launay was stabbed, rolled into a trough, so shooting before his caput was taken as

a trophy. By the terminal of November of 1789, Palloy, a labour leader who had jumped

the gun to get down destruction, the crews of Palloy had about finished devastation

of the Bastille.

The church had become split over those who did or did non back up the

revolution. The Papacy was on the side of the counter-revolutionaries, and

could non back up the King & # 8217 ; s sign language of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in

1791. The seasons since 1789 had been quiet, force sporadic and viewed as

behind the new manner of life in France. Unfortunately, the King did non

appreciate his stay in the Tuilleries, and in the summer of 1791, an flight

effort was expected. The castle was surrounded with guards at every gate,

river forepart, and over six 100 national guardsmen watching every possible

flight path. Among the retainers, a few were sources, and go forthing the royal

quarters required a base on balls.

An highly generous immature chevalier, Count von Fersen, was willing to

make anything to help the King and Queen, and so on the dark of June 20, 1791,

they made their flight. They made it out of the castle, disguised, and made it

every bit far as the town of Varennes in the north E. The drive back to Paris was an

ordeal, followed by a rabble and the National Guard.

Riots began happening in Paris, as the sans cullotes, or the hapless of

Paris, sued for their rights. Some sides wished for the male monarch & # 8217 ; s freedoms, while

the left sought to radicalize the revolution even further. The journalists

Jacque Hebert and Jean-Paul Marat, they wrote the diaries, Le pere Duchesne,

and L & # 8217 ; Ami du Peuple, severally. Their onslaughts on established Gallic

Institutions were seize with teething with much venom in their statements. Marat suffered

from a unusual tegument disease that gave him atrocious lesions that reeked and

sickened those that were around him. Of the two, he was the more violent

take a firm standing that, & # 8220 ; Let the blood of the treasonist & # 8217 ; s flux. That is the lone manner to

salvage the country. & # 8221 ;

In June of 1791, as the King attempted flight from the Tuilleries, the

sans culottes armed themselves. Keeping aloft a calf & # 8217 ; s bosom they claimed to be

the bosom of an blue blood, they found Louis, coercing him to have on a autonomy cap

and imbibe with them. As the hebdomads yesteryear, in the early yearss of August, the

National Assembly declared that Paris would go the Insurrectionary Commune.

They removed the monarchists from any places of power, along with replacement

attorneies with craftsmans, and on August the 9th, they began their normal

deliberations. A immense crowd of 20 thousand sans cullotes called for the

King and Queen who had taken safety with the National Assembly. A crowd broke

through the Gatess, demanding that autonomy and equality be maintained. In

response, the National Assembly declared that the King be imprisoned and

replaced by six curates.

The temper of Paris changed rather all of a sudden as shops closed and

very important persons left. Many attempted to get away from the metropolis, fearing what would

semen. Paranoia in Paris reached a feverish pitch, as the sans cullotes feared

that royalists, church undercover agents, and counter revolutionists would jeopardize the

revolution. This fright extended into the authorities as watchfulness commissions were

apparatus, passports were revoked, and 100s were imprisoned if they were a

suspected enemy of the revolution. When intelligence of a recent military licking

reached Parisian ears, it was believed that perfidy from inside the ranks had

been the cause. Danton was a adult male of action and power, a attorney, he was

described as a & # 8220 ; fierce tribune of the people & # 8221 ; , and & # 8220 ; voice of the revolution. & # 8221 ;

In Paris, with scarred facial characteristics due to accidents upon the farm as a male child,

Danton had become really powerful in the Insurrectionary Commune, going the

curate of Justice. His power added to that of the Girondists, a party of

attorneies and atheists, who were now the opinion party.

By the beginning of September, Danton was naming for all able work forces of

Paris to build up themselves and seek every house to happen any & # 8220 ; enemy of the people & # 8221 ; .

In his paper, Marat supported the executing of all counter revolutionists.

Rumors around Paris circulated that the prisons would be raided, and those

indoors would be killed. On the afternoon of September 2nd, the force began

as a rabble surrounded a figure of managers filled with priests to be brought to the

prison of L & # 8217 ; Abbaye. The leader leapt onto the manager, thrusting and sliting with

his tuck. He shouted to the shocked crowd that watched on, & # 8220 ; So, this

frightens you, does it, you cowards? You must acquire used to the sight of death. & # 8221 ;

The words were rather prophetic, the even get downing the September Massacres.

Within the following five yearss over 12 100 people would be viciously

slaughtered by the mass of armed Parisians. The following to be slaughtered was a

group of one hundred and 50 priests. As they were decapitated, one of the

priest & # 8217 ; s demanded a just test. A mock court was set up, and the priests

were decapitated one by one, their organic structure & # 8217 ; s thrown into a well. Every prison,

save for the 1s that contained the cocottes and debitors, was broken into as

the semptembriseurs, named for the month, slaughtered those in side. They

stopped merely to eat and imbibe, sometimes on the bare cadavers that littered the

land. Queerly plenty, a few lives were spared, by either compassion of

sheer fortune, but it was nil compared to the gross outing ferociousness with which

many of the slayings were committed. One adult female, charged with mangling her

lover, had her chests cut off as she was nailed to the land, a balefire set

under her spread legs. One septembriseur sliced unfastened the thorax of a baronial,

taking the bosom, squashing it into a glass, and after imbibing a sip, and

forced Mme de Sombreuil to imbibe to salvage her male parent. Undoubtedly, one of the

most ghastly Acts of the Apostless was that of the Princess de Lamballe. She was raped, her

organic structure mutilated and her chests sliced off. Her legs were shot of a cannon, and

her genitalias were cut off and paraded around Paris on a expressway. The adult male who had

cut off her genitalias had besides purportedly cooked and eaten her bosom. Her caput

was placed upon a saloon at a cafe & # 8217 ; where those there were asked to imbibe to her

decease, before her caput was placed on a expressway and paraded under the Queen & # 8217 ; s window.

At Bicetre, it was claimed that the captives were revolting, and that

they had to be put down. However, the prison held a big figure of striplings

who were detained at that place by their parent & # 8217 ; s want. Forty three people were killed,

all under the age of 18, of the one hundred and sixty two captives. By

the terminal, the septembriseurs were non pursued, in fact, some in the commune

commended their workss as a necessary culling. To the outlying States, the

violent death of about half of the captives of Paris, was a clear message. In the

two hebdomads continuing the deceases, members of the

church and protagonists of the

king were executed.

However, these problems were shortly followed by the conflict of Valmy, which

the ground forces of France had defeated the Prussians. If the leader of the Prussian

ground forces, the Duke of Brunswick, would hold moved fleetly plenty, Paris might hold

been taken, stoping the revolution. However, studies have it that Danton paid

Brunswick to withdraw back into Germany. The citizens in Paris left their

ideas of slaying and celebrated the great triumph. Goethe, a German novelist,

concluded that, & # 8220 ; Here and today begins a new epoch in the history of the world. & # 8221 ;

as he watched the conflict from a hill side. The statement found it & # 8217 ; s truth in

France & # 8217 ; s usage of the citizen as a soldier, and the mobilisation of such a monolithic

force.

A new force met at Paris, the following twenty-four hours. On September 21st, 1792, the

National Convention met. It looked like it & # 8217 ; s predecessors, composed of largely

the in-between category with a few clergy and aristocracy, backing the Girondin.

However, the more conservative Girondin were prevented from voting in Paris,

leting the extremist Jacobin to derive power. However, one of the first Acts of the Apostless of

the Convention was to get rid of the monarchy, and began the New Republic, with

it & # 8217 ; s ain strange calendar. However, the Convention was profoundly divided, as the

Girondin repeatedly tried to assail the Mountain, the highest seats in the

convention that belonged to the Jacobin leading. Yet the Girondin blatantly

opposed the Parisians, their septembriseurs, and their Commune. They were in

support of the seeking the male monarch, but the Montagard, the Mountain, along with

Danton, would take merely to reprobate him. Their deliberations on his destiny lasted

until the winter months of the twelvemonth.

By January, the King was in test. On the 20th of the new twelvemonth, the

King was tried, found guilty, and was sentenced to be executed the undermentioned twenty-four hours.

The Girondins hoped to salvage the male monarch from decease by suggesting a measure to the

people of France. However, their efforts were ineffectual, and merely served to anger

the sans culottes. Those that gathered to watch the guillotining were chiefly

the angry hapless, and when the blade came down, they threw their chapeaus in the air

cheering, & # 8220 ; Vive la Nation! Vive La Republique! & # 8221 ;

Yet, non all was every bit good as it seemed for the Revolution. The enemies

of the people had extended into foreign boundary lines as European states condemned

the executing of Louis XVI. The value of their money had lessened, nutrient was

going more and more scarce, and the cost of life rose. The Convention took

a united base against the force of the sans culottes but still persecuted

the counter revolutionists. The jobs they faced were no little affair,

particularly the peasant rebellion happening in the Vendee. The provincial & # 8217 ; s were

loyal to the King, and anti-republican, non wishing to take part in the

outlining for the National Guard. Attacking authorities offices and coercing the

National Guard to withdraw. The force of some 10s thousand peasant & # 8217 ; s were

rapidly move to Rochefort to open the port for a British Invasion fleet. The

Vendee was non the lone topographic point of counter revolution, as military personnels were sent to Lyons,

Nantes, Bordeaux and Marseille to oppress anti-revolutionary support.

They dealt with the enemies of the people by puting up a Revolutionary

Tribunal, with which to seek those who would otherwise hold been killed by the

sans culottes. Despite the expostulations of Vergniaud, a member of the Convention

who shouted & # 8220 ; Septembre & # 8221 ; as they deliberated, the Tribunal began it & # 8217 ; s operations.

The Convention decided to organize the Committee of Public Safety, as foreign

invasion became a more existent menace. This cabinet would shortly go the most

powerful regulating organic structure, and Danton held one of the nine places.

Yet the Girondins had no support from the people of Paris, doing the

error of conveying Marat, a outstanding Jacobin, before the Revolutionary

Tribunal. Marat was easy acquitted, but they summoned him once more. The

statement was over maize monetary values, and the Jacobin base of take downing them merely won

them more favour with the sans culottes. On Sunday June 2nd, a few yearss after a

protest by the sans culottes, the Convention arrested the taking Girondists in

the Convention, as the Tuilleries was surrounded by an angry rabble of 10s of

1000s of sans culottes.

The Committee seemed unfit to cover with the new jobs that rapidly

became apparent. The Austrians were rapidly progressing into Gallic district, and

counter revolutionists in Lyons had seized control, put to deathing Republican

leaders. Toulon, the monarchists were passing over 20 six of France & # 8217 ; s sixty

one frigates over the Lord Hood, commanding officer of the British naval forces. However,

Maximilien Robespierre joined the Committee and would shortly go the dominant

radical force. A adult male known for his virtuousness and unsloped moral standing, his

rise to through the Jacobin nine and the Assembly was that his thoughts were

supported by the Assembly and the people.

In Paris, the Enrage, a group of those who wanted decease to all who

opposed the revolution and had guided the now abolished Insurectionary Commune,

still troubled the authorities. Varlet still cried out for the demands of the hapless

and spurred them to riot against the monetary value of nutrient. The Committee was forced to

trade with these jobs when a protagonist of the Girondin, Charlotte Corday,

assasinated Marat as he lay in his curative bath on July 13th. His decease

caused him to go a sufferer to the groups, much to Ropespierre & # 8217 ; s enviousness, and

the Committee was forced by the goad of the Enrages to establish warehouses

to hive away the grain in Paris and give the decease punishment to those that hoarded.

The Committee besides had to worry about it & # 8217 ; s critics that followed Danton,

who was now President of the Convention after losing his place to Robespierre.

The Hebertists followed the freed journalist, who accused the Jacobins of

disregarding him after he helped them subvert the Girondin. With so much force per unit area,

the Committee authorized the devastation of all Federalists, monarchists, and

other counter revolutionists. Those arising in the states were rapidly

dealt with. Still, the adversaries wanted more, and a revolution on the Hotel de

Ville, forced the Convention to let the Hebertists, Varenne and Herbois into

the Committee, and they declared that & # 8220 ; Terror be the order of the day. & # 8221 ;

Along with the Queen, the 20 two Girondin leaders that had been

arrested were besides brought to the closure by compartment in the same month. The former

president of the Convention, and converted baronial, the Duc d & # 8217 ; Orleans, more

normally known as Philippe Egalite & # 8217 ; was sentenced to decease by the Tribunal besides.

The one time city manager of Paris, Jean Bailly was besides executed.

The intent of these violent deaths that lasted in and out through the autumn

and winter of 1793 was the Committee & # 8217 ; s ruthless thrust to destruct any and all

enemies of the people, monarchists and Federalists likewise. All in a attempt to derive

support from the sans culottes to go on their one handed control of France.

The closure by compartment had struck over 17 thousand cervixs in the Terror, and three

1000 of those belonged to Parisians. Those who survived lived through the

Panic fearing a knock on the door that would be their apprehension. Robespierre

himself said, & # 8220 ; We must govern by Fe those who can non be ruled by justness? You

must penalize non simply treasonists but the indifferent as well. & # 8221 ; Yet, those who

were brought before the Tribunal were non merely the enemies of the people, they

were adult females, kids, households, the aged, and every societal category was

represented. Those who shed cryings for the loss of their household were executed

besides, those who dared make the smallest trip were dealt with harshly, the

punishment decease. The inexperienced person lost their lives through clerical mistake, and some

were killed being falsely accused by neighbours or enemies who wanted retribution.

In the States, the closure by compartment could non work fast plenty for some,

and Joseph Fouche & # 8217 ; , a Jacobin representative, killed over three 100s with

cannon fire. At Toulon, they were shot, at Nantes, 1000s died in the

disease ridden prisons, and 1000s more were sunk in flatboats, doing ships

that anchored to draw out cadavers. To the sans culottes of Paris, it was a

lively amusement. They drank and Ate, some located stakes, while others

knitted. They thirstily anticipated the sounds of the executing, and decease was a

fiddling thing.

A immature and facile opposition of the Girondins, Chaumette, led the

motion of de-Christianization. He pushed for the republican calendar,

comparing it & # 8217 ; s divisions to the divisions of the highest Reason. Religious

vacations and services were suspended, hoarded wealths of the church were seized,

images of Mary replaced with Marat, and any spiritual gear was purely

prohibited. Festivals of Reason were celebrated, with cocottes or others

such adult females playing the caput of all Reason, the Goddess of Reason. Towns, streets,

squares all changed their names. Revolutionary names were much more popular

so saintly names in some territories. Yet, faith could non be easy undone,

and still it & # 8217 ; s clasp was seen on France as endangering & # 8220 ; Acts of the Apostless of God & # 8221 ; would coerce

provincials back into the churches to inquire for forgiveness.

The war of a political nature raged mutely, as the different cabals

of the Convention dared non fight openly. Upon returning to Paris, Danton

instantly took the side of Robespierre, reprobating the Enrages & # 8217 ; and the

Hebertists. However, Robespierre would non be easy won over by Danton. He

believed that Danton wished to divide the Committee and the sans culottes to

protect himself and his friends. Ropespierre & # 8217 ; s class of action was to oppress

both cabals by usage of the Tribunal.

The Hebertists fell easy, many of their members being accused of a

foreign secret plan. When they planned a journee & # 8217 ; to revolt, this gave the Committee

it & # 8217 ; s concluding nail, and drove it into the casket of the Hebertists. Hebert and his

followings were put to the closure by compartment March 14th, 1794.

As for Danton, he had made many powerful enemies, all of which ardently

spoke out against him. In malice of this Danton had small fright from these work forces,

twit and endangering them, believing that Robespierre would lodge by him no

affair what. Soon, their friendly relationship grew weak, and on March 30th, the

Committees of Public Safety and General Security met together. Saint-Just, a

cold and ciphering follower of Robespierre, produced the papers to collar

Danton. At the test was Camille Desmoulins, and many other accused. On April

3rd, they were sent to the closure by compartment, and 18 work forces were put under the blade.

Following in their way was Chaumette and even the widow of Camille,

Lucille Desmoulins. The bloodshed merely increased as the jurisprudence of Prairial was

passed, and the Tribunal no longer needed to trouble oneself with a test. Of the

15 hundred that died in the concluding eight hebdomads of the panic, merely a little

part of the beheaded were Lords are clergy, the staying 80 five

per centum coming from the people, the provincials, and those who had begun the

revolution. Ropespierre was far to virtuous to watch the executings, but he

stated that, & # 8220 ; At the point where we are now, if we stop excessively shortly we will decease.

We have non been excessively terrible? Without the radical Government the Republic

can non be made stronger. If it is destroyed now, freedom will be extinguished

tomorrow. & # 8221 ; As Danton had shouted at the Tribunal, & # 8220 ; You will follow us,

Robespierre. & # 8221 ; , the Revolution would shortly be over.

By Autumn of the same twelvemonth, the Revolution turned unquestionably to the right

as the Robespierrists were sent from the Convention. He had bit by bit lost

control of both Committee and Convention, and by July 27th, in the month of

Thermidor, we was arrested. After being severely beaten, he was brought to the

closure by compartment, and a newspaper reported, & # 8220 ; The autocrat is no more. & # 8221 ; The authorities

changed custodies throughout the following twelvemonth as the Jacobins were disbanded, and the

Girondin returned to the Convention. It excessively was wholly disbanded as the

Directory was set up in a instead lame effort to retain control of the

democracy. Even though Napoleon did non derive control until one twelvemonth before the

following century, the people of France no longer wanted their revolution.

For my decision, I would wish to step back and present my ain sentiment.

In my brief clip on this planet, I have ne’er come across a more barbarous

word picture of adult male at his worst. The sad truth is that events of this nature have

occurred with astonishing regularity. Possibly if the Reign of Terror was merely one

shocking minute of human inhuman treatment, the universe would be a different topographic point. With

such things as the Gulag, the Holocaust, the African Slave Trade, and even

returning back to ancient times of the Assyrians and the Crusades, adult male has been

known to butcher his brethren sweeping. We are a race, bred with force

coursing through our venas, and we can make little about it. Possibly my

guesss are incorrect, but if such calamities have occurred over and over, can

we truly of all time alteration. The Reign of Terror is merely the apogee to the

bloodiness and the atrociousnesss of the Gallic Revolution. It is rather dry that

a Revolution based on the ideals of Reason and the battle for the people, would

putting to death over 30 thousand of their countrymen. In decision, the Reign of

Panic was the flood tide of this awful Revolution. The force and paranoia of

the sans culottes, the lecherousness for political power in the convention, and the petit larceny

differences of one individual to another eventually reached a caput, detonating into a

mass executing.

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