Reign of Terror Facts & Worksheets

• Power struggles between the Jacobins and Girondins escalated after the king’s execution. Led by Robespierre, the Jacobins were able to exclude the Girondins and dominate the Convention and later the Committee of Public Safety (CPS).
• The CPS was formed when France was under the threat of foreign and civil war in April 1793. It implemented the following:
  • Counter-revolutionaries were hunted down.
  • France turned into a war economy.
  • Mass conscription was imposed.
• As an influential member of the CPS, Robespierre orchestrated the Reign of Terror, which eliminated counter-revolutionaries. Also initiated by him, the cult of the Supreme Being, a new official religion, was introduced to France. For eleven months, about 300,000 alleged enemies were arrested, whilst an estimated 17,000 were executed, predominantly by guillotine. 

SPREAD OF TERROR

• When the Jacobins led by Robespierre took dominant control of the National Convention and the CPS in June 1793, administrative and political purges were called. The Jacobins supported by the sans-culottes saw violence as a way of insisting on their political goals and ideologies. The Reign of Terror was a series of massacres and public executions in the name of revolution initiated by the CPS.

Reasons for the Reign of Terror

• As the Jacobins dominated the Convention, they feared counter-revolutionaries, especially the Girondins, whom they labelled as royalist sympathisers, would overturn the cause of the Revolution.
• The passage of the Law of Suspects legalised political terror and targeted royalists for treason.
• In addition to the Girondins, the Jacobins were alarmed by the threat posed by foreign armies, especially on the French frontiers. 

Major events during the Reign of Terror

• 2 June The Sans-culottes with the support of the national guard called for administrative and political purges thus 29 Girondist leaders were arrested. The Federalist revolts broke out but were subdued.
• 13 July Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated whilst Danton was removed from the CPS. Robespierre joined the CPS.
• 9 September The revolutionary armies were established to force farmers to surrender grain for the government.
• 29 September The Convention extended price-fixing from grain and bread to essential goods and fixed wages.
• 10 November The Festival of Reason was organised by the Hebertists. The Cult of Reason was a state-sponsored atheistic religion aimed at replacing Catholicism.
• 24 June The Convention adopted the Constitution of 1793, which was ratified but not fully implemented.
• 23 August The Convention decreed the levée en masse, a policy of national mass conscription in case of invasion.
• 17 September The Law of Suspects was passed, authorising the imprisonment of enemies and suspected enemies of the revolution. This caused a mass overflow in the prison systems.
• October 
  • Marie Antoinette was executed.
  • The French Republican Calendar was enacted.
  • The Girondins were tried and executed.
• 5 December The National Convention passed the Law of Frimaire, which granted the central government more control over the actions of the representatives on mission.
• 26 February and 3 March Decrees to confiscate the property of exiles and opponents of the revolution were proposed by Saint-Jus. This came to be known as the Ventôse Decrees.
• 8 June The Festival of Supreme Being was celebrated across the country. It was part of the Cult of the Supreme Being led by Robespierre.

1794

• 4 February The Festival of Supreme Being was celebrated across the country. It was part of the Cult of the Supreme Being led by Robespierre.
• March-April Two major factions that posed a threat to the Revolutionary Government, Hebertists and Dantonists, were arrested, tried and executed.
• 10 June The Law of 22 Prairial was passed and simplified the judicial process. This resulted in an increase in the number of executions and marked the beginning of the Great Terror.
• 26 June The Battle of Fleurus was won by the French army. This signified a turning point in France’s military campaign and weakened the legitimacy of the Revolutionary Government.

• The tenure of the standing Committee of Public Safety was terminated in July 1794, shortly after Robespierre was overthrown following a decisive military victory over Austria at the Battle of Fleurus. The Jacobin club was closed following Robespierre’s arrest and execution, and the surviving Girondins were reinstated (Thermidorian Reaction).
• The Constitution of 1795 was enacted by the National Convention one year later. They restored the right to worship, began the process of releasing a significant number of detainees, and, most importantly, commenced the process of conducting elections for a new legislative body. The National Convention was abolished on 3 November 1795, and the Directory, a bicameral parliament, was constituted.

AFTERMATH OF THE REIGN OF TERROR

• Following the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat and the executions of Jacques Hébert, Georges Danton, and Camille Desmoulins, Robespierre’s apparent complete control over the revolution became increasingly illusory, particularly in light of the support he received from factions to his right. The Jacobin Club, which had expanded beyond the confines of Paris and into the countryside, was the sole source of genuine political influence for Robespierre at the time.
• Robespierre was the subject of numerous conspiracies due to his strict personal control of the military, distrust of military might and of banks, and opposition to allegedly corrupt individuals in government, in addition to the widespread reaction to the Reign of Terror. 
• Robespierre and the leaders of the Paris municipal government were apprehended by members of the national bodies of the Revolutionary Government on Thermidor 9 (27 July), which marked the convergence of the conspiracies. Not all conspiratorial organisations were motivated by ideology. 
• Many individuals who conspired against Robespierre did so for compelling personal and practical reasons, with self-preservation being the most significant. Robespierre was opposed by the left due to his rejection of atheism and his insufficient radicalism.
• However, the Montagnard conspiracy, under the leadership of Jean-Lambert Tallien and Bourdon de l’Oise, was the primary catalyst for the events of Thermidor 9. This conspiracy was gradually forming and ultimately culminated in the Montagnards convincing the right-leaning deputies to join their cause (Robespierre and Saint-Just were Montagnards themselves). 
• Joseph Fouché was also a significant catalyst for the events. Ultimately, Robespierre himself united his adversaries. He delivered a speech to the Convention on Thermidor 8 (26 July) in which he denounced adversaries and conspiracies, including those within the influential committees.
• All members of the Convention were apprehensive that they were the targets, as he did not disclose the identities of the “traitors.”
• Robespierre was condemned without judicial process and declared an outlaw. On the following day, Thermidor 10 (28 July 1794), he was executed alongside 21 of his closest associates.
• The term Thermidor has become synonymous with the period in certain revolutions during which the original revolutionary leadership loses control and a more conservative regime replaces the radical one. This transition may occur to the extent that the political pendulum swings back towards a state that is reminiscent of the pre-revolutionary era.