The Reign Of Terror Essay Research Paper — страница 6

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to ask for forgiveness. The war of a political nature raged silently, as the different factions of the Convention dared not fight openly. Upon returning to Paris, Danton immediately took the side of Robespierre, condemning the Enrages’ and the Hebertists. However, Robespierre would not be easily won over by Danton. He believed that Danton wished to separate the Committee and the sans culottes to protect himself and his friends. Ropespierre’s course of action was to crush both factions by use of the Tribunal. The Hebertists fell easily, many of their members being accused of a foreign plot. When they planned a journee’ to revolt, this gave the Committee it’s final nail, and drove it into the coffin of the Hebertists. Hebert and his followers were put to the guillotine

March 14th, 1794. As for Danton, he had made many powerful enemies, all of which ardently spoke out against him. In spite of this Danton had little fear from these men, taunting and threatening them, believing that Robespierre would stick by him no matter what. Soon, their friendship grew weak, and on March 30th, the Committees of Public Safety and General Security met together. Saint-Just, a cold and calculating follower of Robespierre, produced the document to arrest Danton. At the trial was Camille Desmoulins, and many other accused. On April 3rd, they were sent to the guillotine, and eighteen men were put under the blade. Following in their path was Chaumette and even the widow of Camille, Lucille Desmoulins. The bloodshed only increased as the law of Prairial was passed, and

the Tribunal no longer needed to bother with a trial. Of the fifteen hundred that died in the final eight weeks of the terror, only a small portion of the beheaded were noblemen are clergy, the remaining eighty five percent coming from the people, the peasants, and those who had begun the revolution. Ropespierre was far to virtuous to watch the executions, but he stated that, “At the point where we are now, if we stop too soon we will die. We have not been too severe?Without the revolutionary Government the Republic cannot be made stronger. If it is destroyed now, freedom will be extinguished tomorrow.” As Danton had shouted at the Tribunal, “You will follow us, Robespierre.”, the Revolution would soon be over. By Autumn of the same year, the Revolution turned decidedly

to the right as the Robespierrists were sent from the Convention. He had gradually lost control of both Committee and Convention, and by July 27th, in the month of Thermidor, we was arrested. After being badly beaten, he was brought to the guillotine, and a newspaper reported, “The tyrant is no more.” The government changed hands throughout the next year as the Jacobins were disbanded, and the Girondin returned to the Convention. It too was altogether disbanded as the Directory was set up in a rather feeble attempt to retain control of the republic. Even though Napoleon did not gain control until one year before the next century, the people of France no longer wanted their revolution. For my conclusion, I would like to step back and deliver my own opinion. In my brief time on

this planet, I have never come across a more brutal depiction of man at his worst. The sad truth is that events of this nature have occurred with amazing regularity. Perhaps if the Reign of Terror was just one appalling moment of human cruelty, the world would be a different place. With such things as the Gulag, the Holocaust, the African Slave Trade, and even returning back to ancient times of the Assyrians and the Crusades, man has been known to slaughter his brethren wholesale. We are a race, bred with violence coursing through our veins, and we can do little about it. Perhaps my speculations are wrong, but if such tragedies have occurred over and over, can we truly ever change. The Reign of Terror is just the culmination to the bloodiness and the atrocities of the French

Revolution. It is quite ironic that a Revolution based on the ideals of Reason and the fight for the people, would kill over thirty thousand of their countrymen. In conclusion, the Reign of Terror was the climax of this terrible Revolution. The violence and paranoia of the sans culottes, the lust for political power in the convention, and the petty differences of one person to another finally reached a head, exploding into a mass execution. 32d