Reign of Terror was a bloody period of the French Revolution (1789-1799). From September 1793 to July 1794, the revolutionary government killed thousands of people in a wave of executions intended to defend the revolution. The Terror began primarily in response to a series of military setbacks and civil uprisings. It ended with the execution of Robespierre, one of the leaders of the revolution.
In early 1793, peasants rebelled against the new French ruling convention in the Vendée, an area on France’s west coast. To help put down this and other rebellions, the convention created the Committee of Public Safety and the revolutionary tribunal. Together, they had thousands of suspected opponents of the revolution executed. Hundreds of thousands of people were imprisoned without trial. The many victims of the Reign of Terror included Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, and the great French chemist Antoine Lavoisier.
Many people in France questioned the necessity and methods of the Terror. Revolutionary leader Georges-Jacques Danton was executed for trying to stop it. Robespierre became one of its last victims on July 28, 1794. The guillotine, a beheading machine, gained infamy for its public use during the Reign of Terror.
See also Danton, Georges-Jacques; French Revolution; Robespierre; Terrorism.
