Reign Of Terror Essay Sample

The odds of getting killed today are 1 in 18,989, but during the Reign of Terror, they were about 1 in 15. The Reign of Terror lasted about 2 years. It started from September 1793 to July 1794. It was a time when there was a lot of fighting and killing during the French Revolution. Most of the conflict caused during the French Revolution was because of taxation, money, the estate systems, and because the French had an absolute monarchy and this meant that if there was a bad king, then there was a bad estate. During the time that the Reign of Terror was happening, around 18,000 people were killed or died, and 300,000 were arrested. The Reign of Terror was put in place to get rid of threats that were getting put towards France. Many people ask if the Reign of Terror was justified or unjustified. Reign of Terror was unjustified for the facts that, many people died and it was not fair, but the threats that the government reviewed helped to justify it. The Reign of Terror cost many people their lives and it was unfair to the people as it went against the Declaration of the Rights of men and citizens, but many can argue that the threats justify the Reign of Terror.

The first reason the Reign of Terror was unjustified was the death of the people. Many of the people who died during the Reign of Terror were killed by the guillotine. The guillotine was a machine used as a way to kill people who did wrong to people. Document F says how Louis XVI, his wife Antoinette, and even the key figure behind the Reign of Terror all died by the guillotine (document F). In this, it tries to justify how it was not wrong to execute people by guillotine, but it does not because most of the people were innocent. If the accused were put to be killed, they would get killed by a guillotine (Document E). The guillotine was the most famous way to execute someone. This makes it not just because, though it was mainly created for the guilty to die in a fast and humane way, it was used on many people during the Reign of Terror. Even people thought that the way this machine was being used was not right, because later on, Maximilian de Robespierre was killed by it for killing and imprisoning those who disagreed or disliked the French Revolution.

The second reason the Reign of Terror was not justified is how unfair it was. The Reign of Terror was not fair because the people were not allowed to have certain rights. If someone was to say something bad about the government, they would be killed. If you were accused of something you were to be denied by a lawyer. They were also denied a fair trial( document E). These rules go against articles 7 and 10 according to document A(document A). It was unfair to the people because the Reign of Terror went against the Declaration of the rights of men and citizens. It says that the National Assembly signed it, which was the first stage of the Revolution. The National Assembly believed that ignorance, neglect, and contempt of the rights of men are the cause of government corruption(Doc B). In addition, they used spies for this, making no one safe from suspicion(document E). In the same document it says that the spies were replaced with ruthless commissions (document E). Why would they use these ruthless commissioners instead of the spies? This could be for many different reasons, but it kind of seems like they want to convict more and more people as the Reign of Terror goes on. This shows how the Reign of Terror was not justified because of the rules that were not followed.

A reason that could help justify the Reign of Terror is the threats the government got. In document C it is stated that many people were dying trying to help France and that threatened the success of the Revolution. Many people fought against laws that tried to abolish Christianity in France( document D). People will say that since the government was receiving these threats, it caused them to be cruel and mean toward the people. Could all this justify the deaths of people? All this went against their rights in document A, in which the National Assembly put in place. This would make their words useless if they don’t do anything about this. All in all, even the threats can’t justify the unfairness, and deaths against citizens.

In conclusion, though many will say the Reign of Terror could be justified, it cannot. An example of why it was not justified could be that many people were killed and were not given a free trial. Even if some say that it is justified since they had a reason to be killed, they did not. The Reign of Terror cost many people their lives and it was unfair to the people as it went against the Declaration of the Rights of men and citizens. This is why the Reign of Terror was not justified.