Reign Of Terror: Justified Or Not?

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The Reign of Terror: Justified or Not? The Reign of Terror, a year-long bloodbath of the French Revolution, was it justified or not? Was there actually a reason why the Reign of Terror was necessary? Well, in fact, there was a reason it was necessary for the revolution. Although the Reign of Terror did not protect the rights of man like the starters of the French Revolution wanted, it helped secure military victories for the French against external enemies, quelled the counterrevolution that was stirring in France due to nobility and clergy, and the speaking prowess of political leaders, such as Robespierre, helped convince the common peoples to join the Reign of Terror in extinguishing external and internal enemies of France. The Reign…show more content…
One of the main goals of the Reign was to keep the revolutionary government in place. Since the counterrevolution posed a threat to this new revolutionary government, the Reign had to take action. Therefore, as we can see in Document F, the Reign of Terror began to execute émigrés, or enemies of the revolution. This mass execution that lasted for a year showed the counterrevolutionaries that the revolutionary government was not messing around and helped put to rest any counterrevolutionary plans. Document D also shows how effective the Reign of Terror was as local government officials often called upon the help of the government to quell the counterrevolutionaries. Although, the point of view of Document D could suggest that the author, a government official, could be asking for help so that he would not lose his power. The Reign of Terror also achieved major success due to the speaking prowess of important political leaders, such as Robespierre. As shown in Document G, we can he how he used his education as a lawyer to connect to his audience, which happened to be the people of France, and convince them to join him in taking down any counterrevolutionaries. Also we can take from Document E we can see how he used his prowess to help the Committee of Public Safety effectively carry out their
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