Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume ii
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I France
- 1 Overview of the French Revolution
- 2 Abolishing Feudalism
- 3 The Countryside
- 4 The Revolution and the Atlantic: The Society of the Friends of the Blacks
- 5 Tracking the French Revolution in the United States: Popular Sovereignty, Representation, Absolutism, and Democracy
- 6 The French Revolution and Spanish America
- 7 Violence and the French Revolution
- 8 Jacobins and Terror in the French Revolution
- 9 The Directory, Thermidor, and the Transformation of the Revolution
- 10 Rethinking Gender, Sexuality, and the French Revolution
- Part II Western, Central, and Eastern Europe
- Part III Haiti
- Index
8 - Jacobins and Terror in the French Revolution
from Part I - France
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2023
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume ii
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I France
- 1 Overview of the French Revolution
- 2 Abolishing Feudalism
- 3 The Countryside
- 4 The Revolution and the Atlantic: The Society of the Friends of the Blacks
- 5 Tracking the French Revolution in the United States: Popular Sovereignty, Representation, Absolutism, and Democracy
- 6 The French Revolution and Spanish America
- 7 Violence and the French Revolution
- 8 Jacobins and Terror in the French Revolution
- 9 The Directory, Thermidor, and the Transformation of the Revolution
- 10 Rethinking Gender, Sexuality, and the French Revolution
- Part II Western, Central, and Eastern Europe
- Part III Haiti
- Index
Summary
The adoption of the policy of “terror” by the Convention in 1793-1794 emerged in large part from a position of relative weakness in the context of external war and internal unrest. While Jacobin deputies were prominent in revolutionary leadership, the policy was endorsed by deputies in the Convention. The “terror” policy was seen by those who perpetrated it as a temporary form of justice, albeit harsh justice, necessitated by war and revolutionary crisis. The Revolutionary Tribunal and the guillotine were designed as examples of spectacular violence, to show the strength of the revolutionary government, and intimidate counter-revolutionary opponents. The actual application of these laws was very uneven, and fell most heavily in frontier departments, and in those regions where there were armed uprisings against revolutionary government. By far the greatest number of deaths occurred in the context of the civil war in the Vendée.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions , pp. 225 - 246Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023