Interested in the reign of terror during the French revolution? Looking for background information on the history of the reign of terror? Our guide gives you the timeline of facts that you want to know.
The French revolution is marked by many unusual and interesting events for the historians. Although these events would have been very disturbing for the ones present in the situation, from a historic point of view they are of great interest to mankind. There was a time period within the span of the revolution that is largely responsible for painting the revolution red and this is the time period rightly known as the reign of terror. To this day it is this time frame that enlightens the people as to how ugly the struggle for power can get. Through our study of the reign of terror we should not only seek to educate ourselves about the course of historic events but to take whatsoever admonition we can from the lessons that history has to teach us.
French Revolution & The Reign of Terror
The years of oppressive monarchy rule was finally brought to an end with the execution of the King and the establishment of France as a republic. In this new republic the Church was stripped of its authority and was to have nothing to do with the politics of the country. This new state based on ungodly principles was to be later considered as the Reign of terror. Along with the King, Marie Antionette was also to be beheaded on the Guillotine during this time period.
Jacobins & The Reign of Terror
The new leader of the Jacobins was Robespierre under whom the Committee for Public Safety was established. The public had great hopes in this new group as it had come into power after overthrowing the Girondin led regime which had failed to control the state of affairs in France. This absolute dictatorship was an outlaw to orthodox Christianity as it was based on atheistic principles which sought to enforce communist laws in the country. The new religion of France was a weird philosophy centering around a supreme being which was founded by Robespierre himself. This was done to give the public a taste of spirituality in what was otherwise a totally atheistic movement. The rational Republican religion was symbolized by the statue of wisdom which was displayed at an inaugural ceremony to celebrate the rebellion with the one true God.
Reign of Terror Executions
Further, the new dictatorship replaced the old Gregorian calendar which had Christianity as its basis with a newly developed calendar with names and days more in tune with the spirit of modern times. In an attempt to further oust Christianity from the scene many of their churches were converted into temples of reason, museums and other non religious buildings. The ten day week was introduced along with new public holidays. The most disturbing events were however the extreme actions that were taken by Robespierre to enforce his will upon the public. All those men of talent or power who were seen as a threat to the new revolution were sent to the Guillotine. In the course of this Reign of terror this ungodly regime managed to execute thousands of men who were considered as having the potential to stand up against the regime. Although known as the committee for public safety this regime had no integrity whatsoever as can be seen by their extreme actions. In a reign of only seven weeks they managed to send about 1376 people to the guillotine and eventually the initiator of the reign of terror himself was put to the axe by the hands of his own men.
