Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror, also known as simply The Terror, comprised a period in the history of the French Revolution from 1793 - 1794 characterized by the brutal repression of suspected counter-revolutionaries by use of state terrorism. The Reign of Terror played out under the direction of the Committee of Public Safety, a committee of twelve, including leader Maximilien Robespierre, who later fell victim to his own campaign of terror.The French revolution was threatened both by internal enemies and conspirators, and by foreign European monarchies fearing that the Revolution would spread; almost all European governments in those days were highly undemocratic, and they actively limitated the spread of democratic and republican ideas. Their armies were pressing on the border of France. The former nobility, having lost its inherited privileges, had a stake in having the revolution fail. The Catholic Church was also generally hostile to the Revolution, which had established freedom of thought and had separated religion from politics. It, too, had lost privileges and special taxes. Understandably, parts of the Catholic Church and the former nobility entered in conspiracies, often invoving foreign military intervention. In the Vendée area west of France, an insurrection led by priests and former nobles and supported by the United Kingdom was started.
The Terror is very aptly named. Revolutionary tribunals summarily condemned thousands of innocent civilians to death by the guillotine. Mobs beat some victims to death. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but often for little reason whatsoever beyond mere suspicion. Most of the victims received an unceremonious trip to the guillotine in the "tumbrel". Loaded on these carts, the victims would proceed through throngs of jeering men and women.
The Terror started on September 5, 1793 when the National Convention voted to implement terror measures to repress counter-revolutionary activities. The ensuing Reign of Terror lasted until the spring of 1794, and killed (estimates vary wildly) anywhere between 18,000 to 40,000 people. In the single month before it ended, 1300 executions took place.
The events of 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) and the subsequent guillotining of Robespierre (28 July 1794) marked the end of the Reign of Terror and the start of the Thermidorian Reaction.
The Reign of Terror is the subject of Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities. It was also the setting for an early episode of Doctor Who, in which the Doctor and his companions travelled back in time to 1794 and encountered Robespierre.
The White Terror took place in 1815 following the return of King Louis XVIII to power; people suspected of having ties with the governments of the Revolution or of Napoleon sufferred arrest and execution.