Name: _________________________________
Period: _________
Date: __________
26
Aim: How did the Reign of Terror cause chaos in France?
Name of the Source:
Source 1:
Source 2:
Source 3:
Source 4:
Source 5:
Source 6:
Explain what this source tells us about “The Reign of Terror”:
Source 2: Political Cartoon, Committee of Public Safety
The committee’s purpose was to “protect”
the people of Paris. It consisted of 12
members that would convict anyone if
they went against the revolution.
About 40,000 people will die at the hands
of the committee by way of the Guillotine.
Danton was it’s first President, and
Robespierre was another main leader.
Source 3: Marat’s Assassination, July 13, 1793
Charlotte Corday was a women during the French
Revolution who opposed the Jacobins. She
especially hated the newspaper writer Marat.
Corday blamed him for publishing stories and
names in his paper that sent many to the guillotine.
So Corday snuck into Marat’s house while he was in
his bathtub and stabbed him. She was convicted for
murder and sentenced to death by the guillotine.
Before she was hanged she stated the following: “I
killed one man to save 100,000.”
Source 4: Maximilian Robespierre,
“The Terror Justified,” Feb 5, 1794
It is time to mark the aim of the Revolution. What is the
goal for which we strive? A peaceful enjoyment of
liberty and equality.
We wish to 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 this
democracy, it is necessary to conclude the war of
liberty against tyranny.
The goal of the French Revolution is the source of our
strength and of our weakness: our strength, because it
gives us an truth over falsehood, and our weakness,
because it rallies against us all vicious men.
It is necessary to get rid of the domestic and foreign
enemies of the Republic. The first part of our politics
ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and
the enemies of the people by terror.
The basis of government in time of revolution is both
virtue and terror: virtue without terror is murderous,
terror without virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing else
than swift and severe justice.
Source 5: “Slogan of the French Revolution”
Source 6: “Reign of Terror
March 1793: "Reign of Terror" by Committee of
Public Safety begins. Many of the Girondins were
put on trial and executed.
Aug. 23, 1793: Military draft instituted for new war.
Fall 1793: Price controls, church is forced to lose
power.
Apr. 4, 1794: Danton executed because he was
believed to be using the revolution for personal
gain.
June-July 1794: “Great Terror” - Chaos spread
around Paris and executions increase.
June 26, 1794: French victory over Austrians in
Belgium.
July 28, 1794: Robespierre executed as people
grew tired of all the deaths…end of the Reign of
Terror.
Name: ____________________ Period: ________
Directions: Explain why todays part of the French
Revolution became nicknamed, “The Reign of Terror?”