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Robespierre and the Reign of Terror

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Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
Twenty thousand to forty thousand died; it is still unknown exactly how many people were lost through the blood drenching event of the Reign of Terror.[Footnote] Throughout the French revolution, specifically the eleven month, 1793-1794 Reign of Terror, revolutionary leaders, such as Maximilien Robespierre believed in enforcing fear to resolve the instability of France. “Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue”-Maximilien Robespierre.[Footnote] This period in history signified great atrocities of massacres, and a time where fear was evoked within every French civilian. The National Convention of France was a great factor in encouraging the start of the Reign of Terror; they continued on to have dictatorial power for three years (during and after the Reign).[Footnote] The Convention was composed of revolutionaries including: Maximilien Robespierre (leader), George Danton, Jean-Paul Marat, and about 745 others. They began by abolishing the French monarchy, later ordering the execution of King Louis XVI.[Footnote] The king’s execution was a major incident that signified what was ahead in France’s rebellion, the reign itself. Robespierre had made it his duty to ensure France’s new upcoming. He went about executing various key figures in France, as well as the citizens themselves. The purpose of the reign was to establish a new peaceful government, though eliminating all those against the revolution and new government, the most effective way is thought to be that of violence.[Footnote]
In order to abolish the monarchy, at the time the Bourbon Royal family, during the French Revolution, the family of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were imprisoned.[Footnote] After quite some time they were stripped of all their power, leaders of the revolution declared they were no longer fit to rule.[Footnote] It wasn’t soon after this that King Louis XVI was executed by Guillotine (the main device used to carry out the


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