French Revolution DBQ

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

the French Revolution.

The Terror took place in the infancy stages of the French Republic during the French Revolution. The Jacobin's used their best efforts to try and destroy any opposition to the Revolution. The Terror began in the summer of 1793, the year the Jacobin's took over the French government with Robespierre as a head and spokesperson for them. He began to turn on his former allies, and noticing he had become to power hungry, was executed by the convention in the summer of 1794, ending the Terror. According to a chart indicating the amount of people executed in different parts of France during the Terror, 13,347 people were killed through out France during this period (Doc. 3). The Terror of the French Revolution was a powerful tool but it lead the the disbanding of the committee of public safety, an uneasiness through out the French population, and ironically due to the Terror, a emperor came out of the Revolution instead of a Republic.

The French Revolution allowed for the dethroning of the King when the revolution began but later lead to an emperor in Napoleon. The Terror was the killing of anyone who was against the revolution and Robespierre can be contributed with the majority of blame for the Terror. He was one of the five people on the committee and became the face of it, making decisions instead of all people working together. According to reports to the government on January 24, 1974 the public felt "that they acquit the innocent and punish the guilty (Doc. 9)". This is an advantage of the Terror because in the beginning, the people were unanimous in the decision that the right thing was going on. A little less than a month later, another report sent to the government stated a radical change in public opinion: “Bitter complaints already expressed numberless times, were repeated today of the arrest and imprisonment of citizens who are good patriots (Doc. 10)". The Terror had begun to claim too many lives of innocent people who were murdered for even the slightest hint of discontent in a government decision, sometimes unfairly killed. This was a major disadvantage of the Terror as a tool of the Revolution because the public was becoming unhappy as it was before the Revolution even took place.

The government was based in Paris and according to a chart documenting the death of certain classes, a quarter of the people executed in France were nobles (Doc. 2). The common people in Paris were killed in much lower numbers than in other parts of France, where a majority of the deaths were common working class people. This caused an uproar in the majority of France because the common people felt that they again were being taken advantage of. Charles James Fox, reformist member of Parliament and sympathizer with the French Revolution said in a letter to Parliament during the Terror, “What a pity that a people [the French] capable of such Incredible energy, should he guilty or rather be governed by those who are guilty of such unheard of crimes and cruelties (Doc. 4)". This man stated that the leaders of the government, the committee put in place, were the ones guilty of treason against the well being of France, not the commoners being executed. The committee had its leader, Robespierre executed and the committee destroyed, showing the end result of the Terror was negative; the committee they worked hard to make happen being destroyed.

Another disadvantage of the Terror was ironically, in the later years of France, a emperor rose. This would not have happened if the Terror did not take place and the people were kept happy by the new imposed government. A former ally of Robespierre disagreed with his method of killing people to get what he wanted, “You want to remove all your enemies by means of the guillotine? Has there ever been such great folly? (Doc. 6)." If the man's own ally was against his radical killing spree, he should have realized the Terror would in the end hurt France not help it. Robespierre himself said , "To good citizens revolutionary government owes the full protection of the state; to the enemies of the people it owes only death. (Doc. 7)." He made this statement but killed people who were good citizens and valued as patriots in the community, as stated in a report to the government shown early in the essay. If the Terror would not have taken place, yes the reformation would have progressed more slowly, but its overall success would have been greater.

The Terror helped a speedy progression of the Revolution but it was unstable and that was proven through the committee and Republic being destroyed only a few years after the Terror.