Frida Olea Essays - Montagnards, Jacobins, French People

Frida Olea Period. 5 11/17/2016 Mini-Q Essay The Reign of Terror: Was It Justified? Severed heads, countless corpses and terror in the streets, does the French Revolution sound justified to you? The French Revolution lasted 18 months, starting in January 1793 to late July 1794. During that time 20,000 people were killed by using the guillotine, including king Louis XVI. Does the French Revolution still sound justified to you? The Reign of Terror was not justified. This claim can be supported by looking at the external threats, internal threats, and methods used. The external threat was not serious enough to justify the Reign of Terror. They denied legal representation to people, they would just kill them on the spot. Some of the soldiers didn't even agree with some of the things their own government was doing so they left and fought against France for other countries. This evidence shows that the Reign of Terror was not justified because they were killing everything, even innocent citizens. Soldiers didn't even agree with it. The internal threat was also not serious enough to justify the reign of Terror. Many french people rebelled against revolution. These rebels opposed attacks against the church which ended Christmas and Easter,it was not serious enough to abolish two Holidays. Also, opposed draft laws that forced even women and childs to play a role (Doc C). Later sign a military draft, and then if they refused to join the army they would kill them. To set an example to counter revolutionaries they destroyed 1600 homes and chopped off 12 heads in just 5 minutes. These government changes were tyrannical, people in places ;like the vendee had a right to rebel. Basic freedoms were denied; terror was used against them. This evidence shows that the Reign of Terror was not justified because they were way too cruel. The response of The Reign of Terror to the external and internal threats was inappropriate, too extreme. Revolutionary government hired spies and set up tribunals Guillotined which convicted people in public. If the committee of public safety had only suspicion that you were a counter revolutionary, they might kill you, they executed 35,000-40,000 people in just the countryside, in front of a huge crowd (Doc F). They might suspect you a counter revolutionaries if you make criticism against the government. Robespierre, the leader of the Terror until its last days, argued that you had to "smother" the enemies of the Revolution to protect liberty. This is like killing the goose to get the golden egg. These responses by the Reign of Terror were not justified because it's not okay to kill anyone on suspicion or for your own good. One might say that they were justified in their responses to conflicts, because people had to die in order for the revolution to be a success. It was understandable that the revolutionaries wanted stability, it was not justifiable to execute thousands to reach this goal. Also, it didn't work, Rosbespierre himslef ended up being executed by the guillotine. The Reign of Terror had a lot of conflict both internally and externally. The government had to respond to it. But it was not justified to execute innocent people just because they suspected them to be counter revolutionary citizens. Then to make matters worse they were forcing citizens to be soldiers. They had to pick to be a soldier or dead, so either way they picked death or death. However, the revolution was successful in making a republic government.