This article identifies three waves of terror: Directorial, Jacobin Hundred Days, and Consular. All three waves used forceful actions, government purges, and repression to end rebelling factions. Each wave of terror had its' own characteristics that influenced the tactics used. Directorial terror was concerned about the nobility and clergy, while the Jacobin terror was concerned about the internal and external conflicts, and Consular terror demanded submission from the weary people. According to the article, the Revolution ideology shifted from protecting civil liberties to ensuring collective security, and this change of ideology fed into the waves of terror.
The French Revolution and the subsequent Reign of Terror offer a perspective on when it is considered permissible for a government to kill its own people. In the French Revolution, the government came to only care about one thing: saving the republic. The government sought to protect the power they had acquired and to keep France as a nation whole. To them saving the republic meant more than protecting the citizens of the