The French Revolution took place during 1789 and 1799 in France. King Louis XIV needed money and passed an unfair tax. There were three Estates; the first; the clergy, the second; the nobles and the third; everyone else. The king did not seek any advice when putting the tax in place which caused a lot of unrest in the third estate. This was one incident that lead up to the French Revolution. The French Revolution was unsuccessful because it did not achieve freedom for the French people and it was bloody. One goal of the French Revolution was to do away with the monarchy. The French needed to decide the best solution for giving power to an authority that would represent the people, their rights and equality among all. However, the Declaration …show more content…
In his speech to the National Convention on the Moral and Political Principles of Domestic Policy, Robespierre uses some strong language to justify his use of violence “We must smother the internal enemies of the Republic or we will fail” and “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt and severe; it is therefore part of virtue.” He also states, “Terror is the only way to preserve democracy and therefore our most urgent need.” This led to conflict among the French because Robespierre continued to persecute anyone who threatened the republic and exercised violence, censorship, terror, and treated people unequally. So, although Robespierre claimed his rule was based on the ideals of freedom, liberty, reason, and sovereignty; he did this in a selective manner where the nobility and royalty were unequal to the rest of the French and the peasants and laborers were inferior to the middle class. Robespierre used terror to “rescue” the republic and the revolution from complete destruction but felt it was necessary to save France by exterminating anyone who threatened the
The French Revolution is arguably the bloodiest period in French history, with men such as Maximilien Robespierre leading the country into a situation of state sponsored terror. Originally being quite a liberal thinker inspired by the works of Rousseau, Robespierre quickly gained a reputation for being a radical throughout the course of the Revolution, especially during the Terror. Early on terror was justified as a means to root out foreign and domestic enemies of the Revolution, however; once the foreign threat had been taken care of it became increasingly difficult for Robespierre to rationalize his use of terror to bring about a supposed Republic of Virtue. In his speech, the “Justification of the use of Terror” which he presented to
The revolution emphasized the ideals of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and was characterized by the strong will of the French people who stood up for what they believed in. It was also an extremely
In 1793 and 1794, were conditions in France serious enough to require such a violent response by the revolutionary government.The Reign of Terror lasted less than two years, from the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793 to late July 1794.During those eighteen months, more than 20,000 French people were put to death by guillotine.The behavior by the revolutionary French government was not justified because Any society that invents the machine to publicly cut off people’s heads is off base. The action is unjustified because it is barbaric.The reign of terror was not justified because Robespierre’s s Desperate times required desperate measures not justified In a government that says it values liberty, passing a law like the levee en mass is unjust because it requires people to do things they do not want to do wrong in a government that says it values freedom and liberty. The revolutionary government made too many demands on individuals who were right to rebel against the oppressive revolutionary government. speech sounds rational, but he is out of touch. When a government has to “smother” its own citizens in order to eliminate individuals who challenge it, the government is not promoting freedom.To lay the foundations of democracy and the rule of law, rulers need to follow democracy and the rule of law, not the blade of terror. Any society that invents the machine to publicly cut off people’s heads is off base. The action is unjustified because it is barbaric.Nine people
Chop! Chop! You hear as they behead large amounts of people using a guillotine also nicknamed the “national razor”. This machine was invented by, Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, which consisted of a heavy weighted angled blade that would slide down and behead the person who was sentenced to death. People liked the invention because it was fast, efficient, and painless. This was the beginning of the eighteen month period known as the Reign of Terror. It started when the horrible leader, King Louis the sixteenth was guillotined at the public square on January 21st of 1793. This era was led by Maximilien Robespierre and he believed that the government was there to protect the peaceful citizens. If anyone said anything negative about the way they
The internal threats against France were minimal because when someone did disagree with the revolution they were punished and more than likely, executed. When these executions took place, people would see what would happen to them if they acted the same way. This shows that there was not many people that rebelled against the government; however, people still did, which is one of the reasons the number executions and murders was so high. People had a right to be angry with the government, nevertheless. Many citizens of France were drafted to the levee en masse, the military draft during the revolution. (Document C) They were very mad about this because they were forced to fight even if they didn’t agree with the method France was using to protect itself from internal and external threats. In Document D, a local government official from Western Europe sends a letter to the National Convention asking for more soldiers because the 3,000 men army wasn’t enough. In the letter, the official says that the men sent by the government have failed to stop the “rabble”. Adding to the many reasons the Reign of Terror was unjustifiable, this leads to the official asking if he can kill the men for not doing their job. Killing nearly 3,000 men because they cannot stop the multitude of soldiers is greatly insensitive. Robespierre overreacted when he believed that the internal threats were serious, because on the contrary, they made little
The extent of killing has not gone too far in order to achieve purposes in the government during the Reign of Terror. Whereas, absolute monarchies have ruled for years with little considerations for the people that they reign over since a change was necessary to switch the point of views of the higher estates, which were the noblemen, clergy, and royal men. The radical attempts began with Robespierre with calls for blood throughout the state to rid the enemies. Since the people were being ignored the Reign of Terror included accepted methods of terror by the Pro Revolutionary thinkers, the external and internal threats that pushed forth a needed defense for the government, and the ideals of the revolution that were the reasons why the revolution even began, thus the Reign of Terror is justified.
Long ago, people used to be persecuted and executed for having their own personal beliefs, this period of time was known as the Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror began after the execution of Louis XVI on January 21, 1793, lasting almost 2 years. It was a period during the French Revolution where waves of executions arose to those who were enemies of the state. This occurred due to revolutionaries attempting to form a new government based on the freedom for citizens. In order to achieve this, they went through extreme measures to reach their goal and were responsible for the death of thousands.
The Reign of Terror seemed to be the only thing that could help achieve some sort of equality between the Three Estates. Before the Reign of Terror, the Third Estate was the most financially unstable out of all three estates. Despite this, they were the only one burdened with the mandatory payment of taxes. Due to Louis XVI’s constant spending and a horrible drought, food prices rose and the entire country was deep in debt, with the Third Estate struggling more and more at every occasion he carelessly gave out currency. With no other options, people decided to take up arms against the Revolution. Every riot or problem that revolutionaries caused was most likely justified in some way because their needs were never accounted for. The Reign of Terror was justified.
Have you ever heard of the Reign Of Terror? The Reign Of Terror was during the French Revolution.Maximilien De Robespierre used extreme methods to punish those who didn't agree with him. The Reign Of Terror wasn't Justified. The methods Robispierre used were barbaric and unjust.
The Reign of Terror was a very horrific event that took place; although, people made it out to be somewhat helpful and resolve multiple issues it resulted in making society very miserable and quite sad, This act that took place was most definitely not justified because the leader was self elected and not giving society the right to vote for its new leader. Another example of this was people's hopes were manipulates and misguided leading up to this horrific historical event.The Reign of Terror was the third estate also know as the bourgeoisie had started a war with the first class because they did not treat them well. The Bourgeoisie had killed many people from the first and second estate. The leader of this act was none other than Robespierre
First, Robespierre declared, "Terror the order of the day" (Document B). This declaration was a start to Robespierre's idea of killing all traitors and enlightenment idealists. When one does not commit to listening to the ideas of every person, problems and conflict emerge, thus his ideas did not end in rejoice. Robespierre also didn't recognize people that had other ideals as citizensa citizens in the Republic but the republicans" (Document G). His quote means that conservatives will be the only ones receiving the perks of being a citizen. Robespierre tried to make the country united in thinking, but when civilians didn't agree with his ideas, he simply killed them, which is inhumane and unjustified in almost any case. Killing people doesn't solve any problems as more people will take their place. Robespierre didn't understand the gruesome immorality of killing as "16,000 people were guillotined during the Reign of Terror" (Document F). Executing in large amounts to prove a point isn’t a fantastic deal breaker to anyone. These examples prove the Reign of Terror was unreasonable as he did not listen to the overwhelming majority of the people and ended up massacring them to solve
figure, Marat (doctor and journalist) was murdered in his bath. The Jacobins knew that the revolution could only be saved if they had popular support; therefore they created plenty of social laws.
The goal of the French Revolution was to change the governmental structure from a monarchy to a democracy and that government was to spread their democratic ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity (Doc B). However, people in the Vendée region were thrown off of boats and drowned for opposing the revolution (French Revolution - History Channel documentary). An important part of democracy is freedom of speech, the idea that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. With displays of violence, the government sent the message that only those in support of the revolution could speak their mind. Additionally, one major complaint of the people in France was that the King had too much power; yet, a court of justice called the revolutionary Tribunal was established to try all crimes against the state, and the members would not be elected. Instead they were “appointed by the National Convention (the revolutionary government) and their power would be absolute” (Doc E). So while the leaders ‘established’ a system in which the people could decide what they want and who they want in authority, only a small group of people decided the fate of thousands. Furthermore the very leader of the revolution claimed that in order to create a democracy, they had to act as a dictatorship. In a speech to the National Convention, Robespierre said, “We must finish the war of
As more peoples blood is split to gain the rights not extended to them, the Terror grows becoming more and more gruesome. The French revolution began in late 1789 to obtain the rights that every citizen in born with. The motto of the French was liberty, equality, or death and the price to be paid for the civil liberties was blood. The revolutionary leader Robespierre and journalist Marat explained the more blood the better so that was what raged the people and started the Reign of Terror. Were the values expressed by the French Revolution necessary though? Even though, the French Revolution saw the Terror as a sign to create peace and restore a new France it was not justified because the extremities of the internal and external threats
During the year of 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was appointed by the Committee of Public Safety (Document B) to bring all the chaos that the French Revolution caused to a close, but Robespierre had his own agenda. As of September 5, 1793 Robespierre did just that and declared “Terror the order of the day;” beginning of Reign of Terror. As stated in document G, Robespierre