DBQ - The Terror During the French Revolution

Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of the Terror as an instrument of

the French Revolution.

During the time from 1793 to 1794, mayhem was occurring in Frnace. Prussian and Austrian troops were pushing back French armies, and the British navy was threatening the coasts of France. A war of secession was occurring in western France by social groups which included the peasantry. The Terror was a an event that altered France drastically. Anyone who was against the Jacobins was considered to be against the revolution, and they were therefore killed. Methods of killings were usually the guillotine or being shot or drowned. The street where the guillotine was became red from blood. The economy was left in a disastrous condition. The Terror from 1793 to 1794 had the advantages of making the people of France brave in any moment of action, but the number of deaths, the economic decline, and the fact that innocent people were killed did not make the Terror a justified course of action.

According to William Pitt, a British Prime Minister, the “the spirit of a people called forth by the impulse which acts so strongly in such a situation, may have the effect to make them brave in the moment of action” (doc. 8). Pitt is saying that because the Jacobin people who were for the Revolution acted quickly, that made them braver and stronger in order to face anything that would come their way.

People that were for the revolution and supporting the Jacobins believed that “the tribunals act well, that they acquit the innocent and punish the guilty,” which is made known to the government in a report on public opinion (doc 9). However, there were still people who were negatively affected by the Terror that were raising their complaints to the government as well. Complaints were repeated numerous times about the “arrest and imprisonment of citizens who are good patriots and are victims of ambition, cupidity, jealousy, and, in short, every human passion (doc. 10). To those for the Revolution, the Terror was seen as a way of being strong and standing for what one believes in. For those against the Terror; however, they believed that imprisonment of good patriotic citizens was not justified.

Areas with over 496 executions (doc 1). Over 14,000 people dead (doc 2). The terror resulted in a bloodshed, even leaving the roads red because of blood. In all of France, there were over 13,000 geographical incidences of principal indictments that lead to executions during the terror (doc 3). Camille Desmoulins, journalist and former ally of Robespierre, believed that the Terror was an pitiful way to create an area with one mindset. Desmoulins says, ““You want to remove all your enemies by means of the guillotine? Has there ever been such great folly?” (doc 6.) He wants to know if the people facing the guillotine, the women, old men, weaklings, are really dangerous? Charles James Fox finds it to be a “pity” that the French people are governed by those “who are guilty of such unheard of crimes and cruelties” (doc. 4). Who know what extreme measures the rulers of France will take in order to have everyone agree with them? The Terror proved that the French rulers will do whatever they can, by any means, to have the people agree with them. The lives of those they rule do not matter to them.

In a speech to the Nation Convention, Maximillien Robespierre says, “The revolutionary

government has to summon extraordinary activity to its aid precisely because it is at war” (doc 7). Robespierre believes that a revolutionary government’s goal is to defend the state “against the factions that assail it from every quarter” (doc. 7). Robespierre believes that because France is at war, anything can be done to the people. In reports to the government from the public, they completely disagree. If the Revolution is to make state better for the people, and the people are disagreeing with the Terror, then the Terror should not be seen as a good thing. The public said when seeing peasants on the scaffold, “What, have these wretches allowed themselves to be corrupted? If they were nobles or rich people it would not be strange, their being counter-revolutionists, but in that class we should expect all to be patriots” (doc 12). These people, who were for the Revolution, thought that it was normal to see nobles or rich people tied up, which allows one to think that cruelty is common in France. What person would want to live in a state where anyone can be on the scaffold?

The Terror during the French Revolution was ultimately a failure. It left thousands dead and many in fear. True, some Frenchmen could be braver because of the Terror, but the devastations it left France made the government out to be weak. The economic situation in France was terrible after the Terror. The complete disarray that France was in after the Terror proved that it did not better the conditions of France; rather, it made them much worse. The Terror proved that some people could take a stand in France, but their course of action was not justified in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.