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Essay On The Role Of Terror In The French Revolution

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The Liaison Between the Terror and the Revolution The role of the Terror in the French Revolution is a conundrum that has been disputed and debated for years. Marxists and Revisionists have gone back and forth, trying to pinpoint the causes, the inevitability, and the individuals behind the terror. Even outsider insights such as a sociological view concerning “mob mentality” has been thrown into the mix. Ultimately, the role of the Terror in the French Revolution is a massive one because the two events are built on the same mindset and are one and the same. Obviously the event of the actual declaration of Terror is a subunit of the larger French Revolution, but it is apparent that the Terror mentality was present from the beginning. Despite …show more content…

David Bell, the author of The First Total War puts the death toll of the Vendée at a whopping 220,000 to 250,000. What is often forgotten about the Terror is the fact that it can be divided into three separate terrors. Spontaneous terror, terror against the Vendée, and the Grand terror. The terror against the Vendée is not the most famous of the three, but it probably should be. The staggering death toll proves that it was one of the most catastrophic results of the Revolution. The slaughtering’s were so systematic and brutal that many have wondered if a genocide occurred in this region. This terror was the direct result of the dechristianization movement. The counter revolutionists were mainly inspired by refractory priests and their strong Catholic beliefs as the revolutionaries declared the Catholic church as an enemy of the revolution. A telling quote about the religious dedication in this area is that the counter revolutionaries could be seen, “Telling rosary beads, stopping for prayers, and crossing themselves before charging into combat.” The civilians of the Vendée consisted mostly of peasants and the revolution had brought them nothing except for higher taxes and the expulsion of long serving priests from their communities. By targeting religion, the French Revolution isolated religious devotees and made many choose between country and

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