Global InformationReign of Terror information
| Part of the French Revolution | |
 Nine émigrés are executed by guillotine, 1793 | |
| Date | 5 September 1793 – 27 July 1794 |
|---|---|
| Location | First French Republic |
| Organised by | Committee of Public Safety |
| Casualties | |
| 35,000–45,000 at least[1][2] | |
The Reign of Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety.
There is disagreement among historians over when exactly "the Terror" began. Some consider it to have begun only in 1793, giving the date as either 5 September,[3] June[4] or March, when the Revolutionary Tribunal came into existence. Others, however, cite the earlier time of the September Massacres in 1792, or even July 1789, when the first killing of the revolution occurred.[a]
The term "Terror" used to describe the period was introduced by the Thermidorian Reaction, which took power after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794,[3][4] to discredit Robespierre and justify its own actions.[5] Today there is consensus amongst French historians that the exceptional revolutionary measures continued after the death of Robespierre, and this subsequent period is now called the "White Terror".[6] By then, 16,594 official death sentences had been dispensed throughout France since June 1793, of which 2,639 were in Paris alone.[4][7] An additional 10,000 to 12,000 people had been executed without trial and 10,000 had died in prison.[1][2][3]
- ^ a b Greer, Donald (1935). The Incidence of the Terror during the French Revolution : A Statistical Interpretation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, coll. « Harvard historical monographs » (no VIII). pp. 26–37.
- ^ a b Jean-Clément Martin (2017). La Terreur : vérités et légendes (Perrin ed.). Paris. pp. 191–192.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
EncBritwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c Linton, Marisa. "The Terror in the French Revolution" (PDF). Kingston University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- ^ Jean-Clément Martin, La Terreur, part maudite de la Révolution, Découvertes/Gallimard, 2010, pp. 14–15.
- ^ Michel Biard et Hervé Leuwers, "Visages de la Terreur", in Michel Biard et Hervé Leuwers (ed.), Visages de la Terreur. L'exception politique de l'an II, Paris, Armand Colin, 2014, pp. 5–14.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
History Todaywas invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).