France was a disgrace of a country during the 1790’s. The economy was in shambles, the country was neck deep in wars with Austria and Prussia that were going poorly, and the overall moral was so low around the country that people began to turn their homeland into something of a lawless sate. The myriad of terrible situations occurring in France led its leaders to commit a very basic human error: overreaction. This overreaction led to the beginnings of The Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror was a sinister concoction thought up by the leaders of the French Revolution to rid the country of perceived enemies to their movement (Llewellyn and Thompson). However, they couldn’t simply ask the French citizens to go out and kill those who opposed the leaders’ beliefs. Therefore, the leaders pinpointed three key areas of the French society to assault, which were the economy, religion, and legislation (The Editors of The Encyclopedia Britannica). They believed this would ultimately yield the most favorable results to their cause. The Reign of Terror had many factors that fueled its existence, the most important of which being the laws that were …show more content…
These strict changes included many set prices and wages, the introduction of rationing, the collection of food and supplies for the army, and did not allow any selfish acts in the market such as withholding (Reign of Terror). These many new rules and regulations caused the economy and its precipitants to suffer. The economy made the standard of living during the Reign of Terror very poor. In the Story of Civilization: The Age of Napoleon, Will Durant and Ariel Durant say that, “Fear of famine ran through Paris and its towns”. People were ravaged by the new economic rules and had a hard time coping with its effects. The weakened economy certainly played a huge role in the Reign of Terror, but there are more factors to