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Was Robespierre Justified In His Actions During The Reign Of Terror Justified

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French Revolution Inquiry: Was Robespierre justified in his actions during the Reign of Terror? Rebecca Kaddis World Studies June 7, 2023, What caused a person who was once opposed to executions to become so accepting of them? How does Robespierre go from supporting these ideas to sending thousands to the guillotine? Were the rights of the people he labeled enemies of the French Revolution really enemies? Robespierre once loathed the thought of execution no matter the crime and regulated mass murder. The Reign of Terror was established to eliminate all people who disagreed with the new rights of the Constitution and to the degree that was needed. These people would be considered enemies of the country if accused of treason. Robespierre had thousands killed due to accusations of treason with an unfair trial. This caused hysteria and persecution throughout the country while the monarchy slowly lost power over the people. Robespierre dominated the National Assembly, a new government and constitution that caused people to follow his actions. Due to the mass murder and unfair trials, Robespierre was not justified during the Reign of Terror because the extent he went to was unnecessary. Robespierre believed that the monarchy was corrupt and unaccountable, which led him to the conclusion that it should be abolished. The monarch was unfair in …show more content…

“We must exterminate those miserable villains who are (plotting) against the right of man. We must exterminate all our enemies.” The Gironins believed that Robespierre held too much power in France, but later Robespierre would exterminate every Gironin until they were extinct. Robespierre’s main goal was abolishing the monarchy and creating a public press for Louis XVI’s execution. The target of his attacks in the convection of his enemies was the

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The Reign of Terror lasted a year over the span of 1793 to 1794. Throughout this year, many people died because the National Assembly deemed it necessary in order to control the people in which they governed. If one were not following the ideals of the revolution, they were killed. Was the Reign of Terror justified? The Reign of Terror was not justified through the external and internal threats the people faced, the unreasonable methods of terror, and the ideals that the revolution followed.

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Later in time, Maximilian Robspere came to power and started the reign of terror. Under his leadership and his Committee of Public Safety, tens of thousands deemed enemies of the revolution lost their lives on the guillotine. Shortly after, Robespierre himself was arrested and guillotined, accused of leading France into tyranny and dictatorship. The French Revolution was inspired by the right to change a non beneficial leader and resist

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Robespierre led the French Revolution known as “The Reign of Terror”. The new government would execute large numbers of individuals whom they believed to be enemies of the revolution. So, the Reign of Terror was unjustified, for it not only violated the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen in multiple cases, specifically articles two and ten, but also caused the death of thousands. Although the Committee of Public Safety had good intentions, it ended up doing more harm than good as they invaded people’s lives and disregarded their rights as human beings.

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The Reign of Terror was led by Maximilien Robespierre, he violently suppressed counter-revolutionary forces within and outside the country. Did the French government have good reason to conduct a violent campaign to uphold the ideals of the French Revolution? The Reign of Terror was justified because of three reasons: the revolutionary

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The Reign of Terror In September 1793 to July 1794, the Reign of Terror killed over 40,000 people in France using the guillotine a machine that made it a simple way to execute a mass amount of people. The Reign of Terror was led by no other than , Robespierre. He was trying to form a new government but instead caused thousands of people to be massacred. Ultimately, The Reign of Terror in France was not justified because the threats did not require it, the methods were too extreme and It did not support the ideals of the revolution.

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The main goal for the “Reign of Terror” was to get rid of Frances enemies of the war that was happening and protect the country from foreign invaders. There was another name for the “Reign of Terror” it was “The Terror.” This happened during the “French Revolution” between the ninth month of later seventeen hundred and the seventh month of the later seventeenth hundred. The Government decided to make the “Terror” the order of the day on September fifth. This was against those suspected of being enemies or against them.

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During the French Revolution, a period that is recognized as one of the most socially and politically transformative in the French Empire, changes in styles of governance from monarchy to a republican together with changes in social understanding and acceptance for all took place. One of the lead figures and revolutionists was Maximilien Robespierre who is especially credited with being the leader of the Reign of Terror which was a smaller event but part of the revolution. As the French Revolution went on, Robespierre, together with similarly minded individuals Danton and their followers engaged in the ruthless executions of people who were deemed to be enemies of the revolution and to keep away any foreign interference towards the revolution (Tackett, 2000). As an individual, Robespierre was both a lawyer and a politician who rose through the ranks of

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He then tries to justify his actions exclaiming that although rights were important, there needs to be boundaries to prevent people from doing whatever they want (Doc 1). Robespierre had the right intentions but it could have been better thought out. The Enlightenment emphasizes how the government’s job should be to protect the rights of the people in the country. Instead, the Reign of Terror resulted in the devastating loss of

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The Reign of Terror in France was not justified. This claim can be supported by looking at three areas: external threat, the internal threat, and the methods. The external threat was not enough to justify the Reign of Terror. One example of this is that “churches are soon closed by revolutionary government” which is wrong, because people should be able to choose what they believe in (Document A). Another example is that the “Government denies legal counsel to accused enemies of the revolution” (Document A).

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The peasants anger toward the nobility and monarchy was the base of the revolution, and yet after the monarchy had been abolished, instead of the enlightenment ideals taking place, Maximilien Robespierre, one of the leaders of the revolution, began using terror to force the citizens to do what he wanted. Anyone who showed a hint of sympathy for the monarchy would be executed by guillotine. Thousands of people were killed, and those years were dubbed the Reign of Terror. While this political unrest may have allowed Napoleon to take power and advance his Napoleonic Code, he too was considered by some to be a tyrant who used terror to force others to do his bidding and silenced the voices of those who opposed him, such as Madame de Stael. This shows that while he may have believed in some measure of liberty, he dispensed entirely with equality when he declared his one man rule.

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In July of 1793 he became the leader of the Committee of Public Safety. He ruled as a dictator for about the next year and this ruling became known as the Reign of Terror. The whole point of the Committee of Public Safety was to protect the revolution from its enemies but with Robespierre as leader the people often had these enemies. He said that this use of terror enabled french citizens to remain true to the ideas of the revolution. The people who challenged his leadership the most where radicals.

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A quote from a letter written by a government official from the local government of the town Niort in Western France to the National Convention (Doc D) states, “It is with greatest of sorrow that we inform you that six patriots have already fallen victim to this rabble…” This quote from the letter in Doc D shows how the rabble or crowd of counterrevolutionaries were aggressive and becoming unruly. A quote from the book Triumph and Terror: The French Revolution written by Stecen Otfinoski in 1993 (Doc E) states, “ The purpose was to protect the public safety from enemies both in and outside of France… In the countryside, the slow tribunals were replaced with ruthless commissions that killed an estimated 35,000-40,000 people. Many of these people were guillotined.”

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They think that Robespierre didn’t want anyone to support the monarchy, and if they did, he killed them. It is estimated that Robespierre killed more than 17,000 people during the revolution. In his Political Philosophy of Terror, he says, “the first rule of your political conduct ought to be to relate all your efforts to maintain equality and developing virtue” (Doc #7). To him, everyone must be equal and have high standards/morals. If someone didn’t live up to his standards, he would kill them.

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Maximilien Robespierre was a key figure in the Reign of Terror and the leader of the Committee of Public Safety. He justified the use of terror by arguing that it was necessary to "weed out" those who threatened the Revolution and the principles of equality and democracy. According to Robespierre, the use of terror was a necessary means of achieving the revolutionary goals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. However, the use of terror to achieve these goals directly contradicts the principle of Liberty, which was one of the central ideals of the French Revolution. Liberty was supposed to guarantee individual freedoms and rights, including the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

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Sunday worship, Christmas, and Easter were abolished…in Auxerre.” (Map created from various sources, Document C). The Reign of Terror was not justified because they enforced laws that made people do things that they didn’t want to do, which means that they don’t value liberty. Robespierre ultimately ruined the chances of peace, killing anyone who got in his way to stay in

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