Read all of the following Primary Document excerpts and the timeline below. Next, Answer the guiding questions and address the writing prompt at the end of the activity

 

Timeline - Key Events of the French Revolution

(1789-1794)

 

Over four years after the start of the French Revolution, France descended into a

period commonly known as the “Reign of Terror,” when over 16,000 people were

executed for allegedly opposing the Revolution. The Reign of Terror began when

the Committee of Public Safety took over the National Convention, the third

government that had been established since the start of the French Revolution.

The timeline below lists the governments and major reforms that were

established under each.

 

 

 Name of Government Year Reforms

 National Assembly 1789 Storming of the Bastille

End of feudalism

 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

 Legislative Assembly 1791

 

July 1792

Constitutional monarchy with king as symbolic ruler

Property requirements for voting

Prussia and Austria begin invading France

 National Convention

 

January 1793

Jacobins take control

Constitutional monarchy abolished

France becomes a republic with universal suffrage

King Louis XVI executed

Committee of Public Safety takes over the  National Convention

July 1793 Decree Against Profiteers (Document A)

 September 1793 Law of Suspects (Document B)

 

Reign of Terror

 July 1794

 

Robespierre, leader of the Reign of Terror, executed

Reign of Terror ends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reign of Terror Textbook Excerpt

 

The Terror Grips France

Foreign armies were not the only enemies of the French Republic.

The Jacobins had thousands of enemies within France itself. These

included peasants who were horrified by the king’s execution, priests

who would not accept government control, and rival leaders who

were stirring up rebellion in the provinces. How to contain and control

these enemies became a central issue.

 

Robespierre Assumes Control In the early months of 1793, one

Jacobin leader, Maximilian Robespierre, slowly gained power.

Robespierre and his supporters set out to build a “republic of virtue”

by wiping out every trace of France’s past. Firm believers in reason,

they changed the calendar, dividing the year into 12 months of 30

days and renaming each month. This calendar had no Sundays

because the radicals considered religion old-fashioned and

dangerous. They even closed all churches in Paris, and cities and

towns all over France soon did the same.

 

In July 1793, Robespierre became leader of the Committee of Public

Safety. For the next year, Robespierre governed France virtually as

a dictator, and the period of his rule became known as the Reign of

Terror. The Committee of Public Safety’s chief task was to protect

the Revolution from its enemies. Under Robespierre’s leadership, the

committee often had these “enemies” tried in the morning and

guillotined in the afternoon. Robespierre justified his use of terror by

suggesting that it helped French citizens to remain true to the ideals

of the Revolution. . .

 

Thousands of unknown people were also sent to their death, often on

the flimsiest of charges. For example, an 18-year-old youth was

sentenced to die for cutting down a tree that had been planted as a

symbol of liberty. Perhaps as many as 40,000 were executed during

the Terror. About 85 percent were peasants or members of the urban

poor or middle class—for whose benefit the Revolution had been

launched.

 

Source: Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Document A: Decree Against Profiteers (Modified)

In July 1793, faced with an angry and hungry population, the leaders of the

Committee of Public Safety passed the “Decree Against Profiteers.” The law

accused “profiteers” in the countryside of hoarding or monopolizing grain in order

to raise the price of bread.

26 July 1793

1. Monopoly is a capital crime.

2. Those who keep out of circulation essential merchandise or

commodities without offering them for sale daily and publicly

are declared guilty of monopoly . . .

3. The essential commodities and merchandise are: bread, meat,

wine, grain, flour, vegetables, fruit, butter, vinegar, cider,

brandy, charcoal, tallow, wood, oil, soda, soap, salt, [etc.]

4. Those who have any of these commodities shall be required to

declare them and sell them . . .

5. One week from today, those who have not declared their goods

shall be considered monopolists, and, as such, punished with

death; their property shall be confiscated, and their

commodities or merchandise shall be placed on sale.

6. Those convicted of making false declarations likewise shall be

punished with death. Public officials who protect monopolists

shall also be punished with death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By September 1793, the leaders of the Committee of Public Safety faced growing

counter-revolutionary uprisings and mounting fear of foreign invasion. They

responded by passing the Law of Suspects, which established revolutionary

courts to try anyone suspected of treason against the revolution.

 

1 Immediately after the publication of the present decree, all

suspected persons within the territory of the Republic and still at

liberty shall be placed in custody.

2. The following are deemed suspected persons:

1st, those who, by their conduct, associations, talk, or writings

have shown themselves to be enemies of liberty

2nd, those who are unable to justify their means of existence

and the performance of their civic duties

3rd, those to whom certificates of patriotism have been refused

4th, public officials suspended or dismissed from their positions

by the National Convention or by its commissioners and not

reinstated

5th, those former nobles, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers,

sons or daughters, brothers or sisters of émigrés, who have

not steadily demonstrated their devotion to the Revolution

 

 

Guiding Questions:

 

Textbook Excerpt

1. According to the textbook, why did the Jacobins have so many enemies?

 

 

2. Robespierre and his supporters created a new calendar. Why would they

want to wipe out “every trace of France’s past?”

 

 

3. According to the textbook, Robespierre believed terror helped French citizens

remain “true to the ideals of the Revolution.” What were the ideals of the

French Revolution? (Use what you already know about the French Revolution

to answer this question).

 

Document A: Decree Against Profiteers

1. (Contextualization) Why did the Committee of Public Safety pass the Decree

Against Profiteers? 

 

2. (Contextualization) Why did the Committee of Public Safety consider

monopoly to be such a serious crime? (Hint: Think back to the ideals of the

French Revolution). 

 

3. (Close reading) What was the punishment for those who did not comply with

this law?

 

 

 

 

Document B: Law of Suspects

 

1. What was the goal of the Law of suspects? 

 

 

2. (Close reading) List two examples of people who would have been

considered suspects. Explain why the Committee of Public Safety would

have considered them suspects. 

 

 

3. What might the leaders of the Committee of Public Safety have said to justify

this law?

 

 

 

Written Response:

 

The Committee of Public Safety was established to protect the Revolution from

its enemies. Based on the Decree Against Profiteers and the Law of Suspects,

do you think the Committee of Public Safety actually protected the Revolution

from its enemies?

 

Write a paragraph in the space below, using evidence from the documents to

support your claims.