The Reign of Terror: French Revolution's Era of Radical Control

Escalation and Revolutionary Measures

When Parisian militants expelled the Girondins, they “regenerated” their own sectional assemblies by purging local moderates. Radicals, including Jacques-René Hébert and Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette, subsequently took control of the Paris Commune. On September 5, 1793, they organized a mass demonstration, urging the National Convention to ensure affordable food prices and to implement terror as a reality.

In response, the Convention, in conjunction with the Committee of Public Safety, took decisive actions to control the popular movement. They proclaimed the necessity of terror against the Revolution's enemies, addressed economic crimes, and decreed a system known as the Maximum (price and wage control). The Law of Suspects further empowered local revolutionary committees to arrest “partisans of tyranny or federalism” and “enemies of liberty.” Between 1793 and 1794, over 200,000 citizens were detained under this law, and military commissions and revolutionary tribunals of the Terror issued approximately 17,000 death sentences.

Instruments of Control and Mobilization

A paramilitary force was also created. Some armées révolutionnaires served as direct instruments of the Terror, helping to raise revolutionary enthusiasm and enforce decrees across the nation.

The Jacobin Constitution and Provisional Rule

Earlier, in June, the Convention had drafted a new democratic (Jacobin) constitution, incorporating popular demands, which was approved in a referendum in 1793. However, due to the ongoing emergency, the constitution's implementation was postponed until October. Instead, a revolutionary provisional government was established to rule until peace was achieved. Under this provisional government, the Convention held absolute sovereignty, and popular protest would not be tolerated. The delicate balance in the alliance between the Montagnards and the sans-culottes extended its influence throughout the Convention.

Ideology and Justification of Terror

A “terrorist mentality” profoundly shaped the Revolution. As early as 1789, fear of “aristocratic plots” affected the populace. Lynchings of “enemies of the people” culminated in the September Massacres. The Revolution's leaders conceived of terror as rational and organized, seeking to legitimize it through law.

For some Montagnards, these measures were justified by the dire situation; they believed security had to be established before true liberty could be enjoyed. Prominent Jacobins, including Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, argued that the Terror would promote equality and public interest, famously linking terror with virtue.