On this day in 1793 "The Regin of Terror"

[Pauls' Revere]

9/5/1793 The Reign of Terror began.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Reign-of-Terror

The Terror as such started on September 5, 1793 and, as the Reign of Terror, lasted until the summer of 1794, taking the lives of anywhere between 18,000 to 40,000 people (estimates vary widely). Thousands would die by means of the guillotine, including many of the greatest lights of the revolution, like Georges Danton. In the single month before it ended, 1,300 executions took place. The deaths can be explained in part by the sense of emergency that gripped the revolutionary leadership as the country teetered on the brink of civil war.

In the summer of 1793, the French Revolution was threatened both by internal enemies and conspirators, and by foreign European monarchies fearing that the revolution would spread. Almost all European governments in that era were based on royal sovereignty, whether absolute or constitutional, rather than the popular sovereignty asserted by the revolutionary French. Foreign powers wanted to stifle the democratic and republican ideas. Their armies were pressing on the border of France.

The centralization of repression also brought thousands of victims before the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal, whose work was expedited by the draconian Law of 22 Prairial (June 10, 1794), which had led to the Terror. As a result of Robespierre's insistence on associating terror with virtue, his efforts to make the republic a morally united patriotic community became equated with the endless bloodshed. Finally, after the decisive military victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Fleurus on June 26, 1794, Robespierre was overthrown by a conspiracy of certain members of the convention on July 27. After trying a failed attempt to raise Paris, the Robespierrists and most members of the commune were guillotined on July 28. This led to the Thermidorian reaction, which was a period of relaxation after the Terror.

[Danke]

[timosman]

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