Reign of Terror
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The Reign of Terror, sometimes referred to simply as the Terror, was a period of intense social and political violence in France - and particularly in Paris - that erupted shortly after the beginning of the French Revolution, in which thousands of people across the country were executed, imprisoned or exiled for real or perceived crimes of treason against France.
Instigated by several revolutionary politicians, most notably Maximilien de Robespierre, the Terror began after the execution of the deposed King Louis XVI of France in 1793, when the Revolution had gained momentum and the support of the oppressed lower and middle classes. The King was followed in death by his wife, Marie Antoinette, and most members of the Girondin political party. The newly formed Revolutionary government run by the Committee of Public Safety (of which Robespierre was the most notable member) was tasked to defend France from the threat of invasion, organize its war effort, stifle civil war and local dissent and to centralize administration to meet these challenges. To this end, the National Convention provided them the powers of dictatorship over the political process.
The executions soon sparked off a long series of arrests, trials which would find the accused guilty based on very little evidence, and executions across the nation, with the most popular method of execution being decapitation by a guillotine. Almost 17,000 people were recorded to have been beheaded during the Terror. Another 25,000 summary executions took place throughout the country. Notable victims included chemist Antoine Lavoisier, lawyer Georges Danton, and the count Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector.
In July 1794, the Terror intensified into "The Great Terror" before finally ending on 27 July, when several revolutionaries revolted against the Terror's leaders and their excessive violence. Soon after, most of the Terror's instigators were executed, including Robespierre, becoming the last victims of their own violent reign, though the day after their fall witnessed the worst mass executions when 77 people were executed in a single day.
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