Title: Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
Headings: Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror
Content: Destinations: Cockades
Conventional Wisdom
William Pitt the Younger. Robespierre used his position on the committee to further his rigorous idealism and impose it remorselessly on the French Nation. He did this by instituting the Reign of Terror. Through his committee, his control of the Jacobin Club, and relations with the sans coulottes he executed or had murdered anyone who remotely opposed his policies. In the course of several purges, he destroyed even close compatriots such as Danton. It is estimated that more than 25,000 people were killed because of their political views. Many of them were put to death with no legal defense. Though many were scientifically executed using the guillotine, others were destroyed by firing squads, cannon fire, and even drowning en masse. At the beginning of yet another round of purges in 1794, members of the Convention who thought they might be among his next targets, shouted him down as he got up to speak.