How Did Robespierre Influence The Cult Of France

Robespierre was a leader to fear. 300,000 arrested and awaiting execution for having an opinion differing from him. 17,000 people beheaded in one year for disagreeing with him. He even founded a cult revolving around him as a god for all of France to worship. He did all this in only one year. How did this happen? Before 1789, France was at its lowest point in history and desperately searched for relief. There were famines everywhere, and the financial situation was abysmal. In 1792, a seemingly charismatic speaker known as Maximilien de Robespierre appeared the to be the answer for the French. Unfortunately, Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety led France into even more bloodshed in trying to purge out any potential resistance to
While technically speaking, the Committee of Public Safety was the governing force of France. Robespierre used the Committee as a way to make himself seem like he wasn’t the only controlling force. Dictatorships historically have resulted in abuse of power. Germany’s Adolf Hitler used his power in trying to create the Aryan race and thus carried out mass anti-Semitic genocide. The Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin lost millions due to famines and purging. Kim Jong Un’s North Korea is faced with corruption and public disarray due to the cult of personality that Un carries. When too much power is placed in the hands of an individual, there is a strong potential for that individual to misuse it. Some of the darkest moments in history are evidence of that idea; the Terror, the Holocaust, Salem Witch Trials, etc. While Robespierre was a deplorable person, he was intelligent. His famous quote: “the secret to freedom is educating the people whereas the secret to tyranny is in keeping them ignorant” demonstrates what he did. Robespierre was a highly educated person and used that to his advantage in keeping his people ignorant. He kept his people ignorant of his dictatorship and fooled them by proclaiming that he was fighting in favor of freedom. In reality, he had total power and condemned freedom. He made himself into a god to be worshipped and adored by his people, turning them into obedient slaves and destroying those who opposed
While he initially rose to power via his ideals of liberalism and humanism, once in power he focused on nothing but progressing his radicalism and creating a cult. Ironically, before his rise to power, his ideas, as well as his opposition to the death penalty led to his nickname, “The Incorruptible.”Robespierre wanted to create a world of his own. He strongly despised the papacy as well as the Catholic church. To combat the church, he created his own cult revolving around himself as a way to change his people’s religious beliefs. Essentially, he utilized religion as a way to further manipulate his people by tapping into their beliefs and creating blind faith with him as their