Although the print is sinister, its caption states that the Terror is dreadful, but necessary. Reign of Terror lasted from September 1793 until the fall of Robespierre in 1794. Its purpose was to purge France of enemies of the Revolution and protect the country from foreign invaders.
The position that the character of Louis XVI caused the French Revolution of 1789 does not hold much water. On one hand, Louis XVI was incompetent, weak-willed and arrogant thereby incapacitating him from addressing the plights of the Frenchmen. On the other hand, there was a plethora of other factors that contributed to the outbreak of the French Revolution
The immediate aftermaths of the fall of the Jacobins was that, the National Convention moved in to restore order. The Jacobins themselves had arisen out of the National Convection as members of the Montagnards. But they had extreme views and violent tactics to save the revolution. These tactics included terror, dictatorship and the use of the law of the maximum.
Unavoidable because: • of a severe financial crisis which demanded a radical re-organisation of the general economic system and specific aspects such as taxation and land distribution • the financial crisis required the kind of political decisions that neither Louis XVI or his noble and clerical allies were prepared to allow or undertake • the […]
It is a great truism that the demise of the Directory was self-inflicted. The Directory refers to the fourth revolutionary government that came into power with the mandate of directing the course of the French revolution back to the founding principles of liberty, equality and fraternity.
The French Revolution has wider consequences for both France and Europe, and indeed, the world at large. Therefore there is need for thorough coverage of the major issues in this topic. In this chapter, a focused discussion of the causes of the revolution will be undertaken, while in the next chapter, the main focus will be the course of the revolution. On the causes, students are expected not only to identify the causes, but to analyze them by showing how each cause led to the French Revolution. A mere description of events should be avoided. In this chapter, therefore, the causes will be identified, and then each will be discussed in turn.
The best way to study the course of the French Revolution is to consider each revolutionary government as an entity. A wholesale coverage of the ten-year period, apart from confusing, might leave out some very important aspects of the period. Candidates are expected to undertake an in-depth study of each revolutionary government, analyzing the achievements and indeed the failures of each revolutionary government. The four revolutionary governments include the National Assembly (1789 – 1791), the Legislative Assembly (1791 – 1792), the National Convention (1792 – 1794) and finally the Directory (1795 – 1799).
Question and answer: how serious a threat to the french revolution was presented by its enemies both internal and external during the period 1789- 1793?