It went so far as to include people who were simply in the way of progress, as well as innocent women and children. No one in the entire nation of France could escape the far-reaching hand to the Terror, not even Robespierre himself, who in July 1794 fell victim to his own creation; in front of a mob in Paris, Robespierre was decapitated.
Who was this man, and how did his policies affect those in France at that time, both native and non-native people? This is the question that must be answered in order to truly understand the nature of the Terror. If we are to study history, it must be to some purpose, and from this we can learn how the use of fear, aggression, terror, and mass public executions affected a government, a nation, as well as individual people involved in the ordeal that it became simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is these stories that will be told here, in order that we may more fully understand the extent to which this form of rule affects its subjects. .
It is inherent in the actions of a tyrannical government that its subjects will grow unhappy, but be too afraid to say anything. It is this type of government that Robespierre created with his Reign of Terror. The question of why Robespierre felt it necessary to take such a drastic step inn governing the people of France? Also what did he seek to gain from this form of government? And why was he so adverse to its affects upon the workingman? These questions must be evaluated during our discussion of the experiences of people personally involved with the Terror as well as the larger picture during the twelve month Reign of Terror. It is the evaluation of these events, which I will transcribe here, which will lead us to the final answer to all of the questions which have been laid before us. So let us go forth with our minds focused on the questions at hand.
It is September 6, 1793 and you are standing in the foyer of your estate watching the day slowly turn into night as the sun turns from a brilliant yellow to a bright orange to a dull red to a fading purple and blue and soon the sky is dark.
