Core Practice: Robespierre and the Terror

World History Name: ______

E. Napp Date: ______

Pre-Primary Source Activity:

The French Revolution was a “marker event,” an event that changed the course of history. Inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment (liberty, natural rights, and popular sovereignty or the idea that government is created by the will of the people) and the American Revolution, the people of France revolted against the tyranny of their king to create a new society. Before the revolution, French society was divided into Three Estates. The First Estate or the clergy and the Second Estate or the nobility were a small percentage of the population but very privileged. They often paid few if any taxes. The members of the Third Estate, basically everyone else, paid heavy taxes and were denied equal rights with the other estates. To make matters worse, the French government was terribly in debt from fighting too many wars and French aid to the American revolutionaries only increased France’s debt. Finally, the monarch, King Louis XVI, was an absolute monarch and the people had no voice in government. Fortunately for the Third Estate, a group of people known as the bourgeoisie (middle class business and professional people) had read many of the ideas of the Enlightenment philosophers. These Eighteenth century philosophers wrote of consent of the governed, the social contract, and separation of powers. Fueled with new ideas and the success of the American revolutionaries, when the king called a meeting of the Estates General, the representatives of the Third Estate left the meeting to form their own National Assembly. In the summer of 1789 with the storming of the Bastille prison, a hated symbol of the regime’s oppression, the revolution began. Yet as would prove the case in many subsequent revolutions, the French Revolution experienced many different phases. While the first phase of the revolution sought to establish a constitutional monarchy, the second phase of the revolution led to the execution of the monarchs. In this more violent phase of the revolution known as the Reign of Terror, many French citizens were sent to the guillotines and executed as counterrevolutionaries or traitors to the revolution. As France’s neighbors attacked France to restore the monarchy or to take advantage of the turmoil in France, revolutionaries became increasingly concerned that the revolution would be overturned. Ultimately, the mass executions of the Reign of Terror lasted from 1793 to 1794. After the loss of so many lives, the people of France wanted a return to order and stability, leading to the rise of Napoleon and another chapter of the revolution. Maximilien Robespierre was the leader of a political party known as the Jacobins and the leader of the Terror and in reading the words of Robespierre, the individual learner can begin to examine the complexities of revolution and the often tragic trajectory or direction revolutions can take. The French Revolution was a model for many future revolutions in its belief that human actions could change the course of history but it also has been a model for the use of terror against the people of the nation.

A Useful Flashcard for the Primary Source:

Reign of Terror:

  • On one side, the radical Jacobins stressed the Enlightenment value of equality, and on the other, the king’s supporters were more interested in controlling the king’s restrictions on personal liberties
  • When the radicals won the debate, a government was formed by Maximilien Robespierre that eventually decided that there was no place in the new republic for a king
  • After the king’s execution, many others who were suspected of disloyalty to the new regime went to the guillotine, a device meant to provide more humane executions
  • This time of mass executions in 1793 and 1794 was known as the Reign of Terror, and it ended only with the guillotining of Robespierre himself

Pre-Primary Source Questions:

  1. What ideas of the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason inspired or encouraged French revolutionaries? ______
  2. Why would these Enlightenment ideas inspire members of the Third Estate to challenge the absolute monarchy of the French king? ______
  3. What were the three estates of pre-revolutionary France? ______
  4. Why did members of the Third Estate consider the treatment of the three estates in France unjust? ______
  5. Define bourgeoisie. ______
  6. Why was the French government in debt? ______
  7. Why did the American Revolution encourage French revolutionaries? ______
  8. Why did King Louis XVI call a meeting of the Estates General? ______
  9. Why did representatives of the Third Estate form the National Assembly? ______
  10. What was the Bastille and what was its significance during the French Revolution? ______
  11. What did revolutionaries want during the first phase of the revolution? ______
  12. How did the first phase of the revolution differ from the second phase of the revolution? ______
  13. What happened during the Reign of Terror? ______
  14. How did the leaders of the Reign of Terror justify the use of violence during the Terror? ______
  15. Who was Maximilien Robespierre? ______
  16. Why was the guillotine a symbol of the Reign of Terror? ______
  17. Why did neighboring countries invade France? ______
  18. Why did Napoleon come to power in France after the Reign of Terror? ______

Think Point of View:

A person’s point of view is the perspective from which the person understands a historical event. For example, during the Industrial Revolution, the owner of a factory might have a different point of view than a worker in the factory. For the factory owner, the Industrial Revolution was a beneficial change. It allowed more goods to be produced and more profits to be made. However, a worker in the owner’s factory might view the Industrial Revolution negatively. The long hours, low wages, and unsafe working conditions might lead the worker to view the Industrial Revolution as harmful. Ultimately, it is important to determine the person’s point of view in order to understand the person’s reaction to a particular event. The following questions may help the student determine the individual’s point of view:

  • Who wrote the primary source?
  • What was the social class background of the author?
  • How did the author’s experiences influence his/her perspective of the event?
  • When was the source written?
  • What historical events were occurring when the source was written?

Remember: No two individuals experience the same event exactly the same.

The Primary Source: Excerpts from Robespierre Speech to the National Convention, 1794

“It is time to mark clearly the aim of the Revolution and the end toward which we wish to move; it is time to take stock of ourselves, of the obstacles which we still face, and of the means which we ought to adopt to attain our objectives....What is the goal for which we strive? A peaceful enjoyment of liberty and equality, the rule of that eternal justice whose laws are engraved, not upon marble or stone, but in the hearts of all men.

We wish an order of things where all 1ow and cruel passions are enchained by the laws, all beneficent and generous feelings aroused; where ambition is the desire to merit glory and to serve one’s fatherland; where distinctions are born only of equality itself; where the citizen is subject to the magistrate, the magistrate to the people, the people to justice; where the nation safeguards the welfare of each individual, and each individual proudly enjoys the prosperity and glory of his fatherland; where all spirits are enlarged by the constant exchange of republican sentiments and by the need of earning the respect of a great people; where the arts are the adornment of liberty, which ennobles them; and where commerce is the source of public wealth, not simply of monstrous opulence for a few families…”

Questions:

1-According to Robespierre, what is the goal of the revolution? ______

2-According to Robespierre, what are distinctions among people born of? ______

3-According to Robespierre, what does the nation safeguard? ______

4-How does the society Robespierre envision differ from pre-revolutionary France? ______

“In our country we wish to substitute morality for egotism, probity for honor, principles for conventions, duties for etiquette, the empire of reason for the tyranny of customs, contempt for vice for contempt for misfortune, pride for insolence, the love of honor for the love of money . . . that is to say, all the virtues and miracles of the Republic for all the vices and snobbishness of the monarchy.

We wish in a word to fulfill the requirements of nature, to accomplish the destiny of mankind, to make good the promises of philosophy . . . that France, hitherto illustrious among slave states, may eclipse the glory of all free peoples that have existed, become the model of all nations.... That is our ambition; that is our aim.

What kind of government can realize these marvels? Only a democratic government.... But to found and to consolidate among us this democracy, to realize the peaceable rule of constitutional laws, it is necessary to conclude the war of liberty against tyranny and to pass successfully through the storms of revolution. Such is the aim of the revolutionary system which you have set up....

Now what is the fundamental principle of democratic, or popular government – that is to say, the essential mainspring upon which it depends and which makes it function? It is virtue: I mean public virtue… that virtue is nothing else but love of fatherland and its laws....

The splendor of the goal of the French Revolution is simultaneously the source of our strength and of our weakness: our strength, because it gives us an ascendancy of truth over falsehood, and of public rights over private interests; our weakness, because it rallies against us all vicious men, all those who in their hearts seek to despoil the people.... It is necessary to stifle the domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic or perish with them.

Now in these circumstances, the firstmaxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror.

If the basis of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue without which terror is murderous, terror without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue.”

Questions:

5-According to Robespierre, what will the “tyranny of customs” be substituted for in the new society? ______

6-What does Robespierre hope France will accomplish and by accomplishing it will eclipse other slave states? ______

7-According to Robespierre, what kind of government can realize “this marvel”? ______

8-According to Robespierre, why is it “necessary to conclude the war of liberty against tyranny”?

______

9-According to Robespierre, what is the “fundamental principle of democratic, or popular government”? ______

10-According to Robespierre, what is the strength and what is the weakness of the Revolution? ______

11-According to Robespierre, what is the “first maxim” of politics? ______

12-According to Robespierre, what is “the basis of popular government in time of revolution”?

______

13-According to Robespierre, why is this “the basis of popular government in time of revolution”? ______

Content Vocabulary Checklist:

The Enlightenment: ______

The American Revolution: ______

Absolute Monarchy: ______

The Estates System: ______

Bourgeoisie: ______

The Estates General: ______

National Assembly: ______

Bastille: ______

Maximilien Robespierre: ______

Reign of Terror: ______

General Vocabulary Checklist:

Reason: ______

Popular Sovereignty: ______

Consent of the Governed: ______

Guillotine: ______

Counterrevolutionary: ______

Terror: ______

Enrichment Activities (To Be Completed on a Separate Piece of Paper):

  1. Provide a Point of View Analysis for Maximilien Robespierre (Use the Point of View questions earlier in the packet and find an online biography).
  1. List ten facts about the arrest and execution of Robespierre.
  1. List ten reasons for the end of the Reign of Terror.
  1. Write a thesis statement either agreeing or disagreeing with Robespierre’s vision of the necessity of violence to preserve the revolution.
  1. Create an obituary for Robespierre.
  1. List ten facts about the guillotine.
  1. Opinion: Why do many revolutions follow the model of the French Revolution in that the revolutions become increasingly violent over time?