1. The Reign of Terror
What? The use of mass violence between to eliminate “enemies” of the revolutionary government

2. “It is dreadful but necessary”
Why?
“It is dreadful but necessary”
Maxilien Robespierre
To keep country safe and keep the revolution alive!

3. Spring 1793: Committee of Public Safety Created
How does it happen?
Spring 1793: Committee of Public Safety Created
Why? France at war with anti-revolution powers (Austria and Prussia)
Need to keep country “safe”

4. Spring-summer 1793: Jean Paul Marat stokes radical fire
How does it happen?
Spring-summer 1793: Jean Paul Marat stokes radical fire
Radical in National Convention
Publishes radical propaganda in his newspaper, L'Ami du Peuple (Friend of the People)
Calls for punishment of “enemies”

5. July 1793: Marat Assassinated
How does it happen?
July 1793: Marat Assassinated
By moderate revolutionary Charlotte Corday
Marat becomes radical martyr
Death used to justify greater crackdown by CPS
“Death of Marat” by Jacques Louis David

6. Sept. 1793: CPS Passes Law of Suspects
How does it happen?
Sept. 1793: CPS Passes Law of Suspects
Identifies who is an “enemy”
Identified anyone as an “enemy” who:
“by their conduct, associations, comments, or writings have shown themselves partisans of tyranny or federalism and enemies of liberty”
“are former nobles, together with husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons or daughters, brothers or sisters, and agents of the émigrés, who have not constantly demonstrated their devotion to the Revolution”
Problems??

7. June 1794: CPS Passes Law of Prairial
How does it happen?
June 1794: CPS Passes Law of Prairial
Expands who is considered an “enemy”
Enemies = those who are:
“slandering patriotism”
“seeking to inspire discouragement”
“spreading false news”
“depraving morals, corrupting the public conscience and impairing the purity and energy of the revolutionary government”
Trials: limited to max. of 3 days
allowed only 2 possible verdicts: acquittal or death
no defense witnesses or defense counsel allowed

8. Some “enemies” include
Prominent Revolutionaries:Georges Danton
"Don't forget to show my head to the people. It's well worth seeing." 

9. Charlotte Corday

10. Olympe de Gouges

11. Enlightenment Thinkers: Condorcet

12. Royalists: Guillaume Malesherbes
Louis XVI’s defense attorney

13. Results @300,000 arrested @15,000-50,000 executed
working classes (peasants, urban poor, etc) = majority killed
former 1st and 2nd estate = small % of those killed

14. Is this “liberty, equality, and fraternity?