by Megan Soyars

Created on: January 03, 2010

In 1789, a revolution ripped through the country of France. Rebels crying for “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for all,” abolished the monarchy of Louis XVI and set out to create a new, democratic republic. But internal strife prevented this democracy from succeeding. Desperate to establish order, Revolutionary leaders created the Committee of Public Safety. A politician named Maximilien Robespierre took control of the Committee and used it to establish a widespread policy of Terror, where all “enemies” of the revolution were swiftly executed. When Robespierre fell in 1794, a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte took control, but he made no more attempt to establish a democratic government than his predecessor had. Rather, Napoleon employed his military prowess to conquer and subdue the rest of Europe. Thus, the ideals of freedom and political equality that the French Revolution had been founded on ten years before did not succeed.

Maximilien Robespierre’s rule lasted from 1793 to 1794, and under it all dissention and freedom of expression was outlawed. After being named head of the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre claimed that his objective was to create a “Republic of Virtue” where all French people would honor and worship the ideals of the Revolution. Those who did not would be executed as “counterrevolutionaries.” In one year, nearly 40,000 French people were sent to the guillotine and 300,000 others were sent to prison. Everyone else was forced to live under the country’s rigid laws. Robespierre considered religion unreasonable and useless to the republic, so he outlawed Christianity and had all churches shut down. 20,000 priests were forced to abdicate and many other monks and nuns were made to relinquish their vows. Thus, people who wished to worship were forced to do so in secret, usually with a priest who was in hiding. Freedom of the press was also revoked. In 1974, only 66 newspapers were being printed, and very few novels were allowed to be published. Art and theater was also strictly regulated. Any paintings or plays deemed unpatriotic were banned. Meanwhile, the guillotine’s shadow was stretching farther and farther across France as the number of executions rose. In this spring of 1794, Robespierre began to turn on his deputies in the government. Many politicians were executed because he considered them “too” revolutionary, or not revolutionary enough. Fearing

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