Reign of Terror
Between September 1793 and July 1794, the Committee of Public Safety — a twelve-man emergency executive created in April 1793 — directed France's defence against foreign invasion and internal rebellion, and simultaneously prosecuted an escalating campaign of political violence against perceived enemies. The Law of Suspects (17 September 1793) empowered arrest of anyone deemed to have shown insufficient revolutionary zeal; the Revolutionary Tribunal processed cases with increasing speed and decreasing concern for evidence. Approximately 16,000–17,000 people were officially executed by guillotine; a further 25,000–40,000 died in prisons, during the drownings at Nantes, or in the massacres that accompanied the crushing of the Vendée rebellion. The victims included Marie Antoinette, the Girondin leaders, the scientist Lavoisier, and the poet André Chénier — but also Danton and Hébert, factional rivals within the revolutionary movement itself. The Law of 22 Prairial (June 1794) stripped defendants of defence counsel and accelerated the pace of executions dramatically. When Robespierre began extending the purge toward other Committee members, they combined against him on 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794), arresting and guillotining him the following day. The Terror ended as it had spread — through the self-interest of the governing coalition.
- Year: 1793 CE
- Category: Political
