Definition
The Reign of Terror was the period from roughly September 1793 to July 1794 during which the radical government of revolutionary France used arrests, show trials, and the guillotine to silence anyone suspected of opposing the Revolution. Tens of thousands of people were imprisoned and an estimated seventeen thousand were executed, including the former queen, Marie Antoinette.
The Terror was directed by the Committee of Public Safety, and its most prominent figure was Maximilien Robespierre. He and his allies argued that extreme measures were justified because the young republic faced invasion from abroad and rebellion at home.
Why it matters
How it works
A government turns to terror when it feels mortally threatened and concludes that normal legal limits are obstacles to survival. Emergency committees concentrate power, courts are stripped of safeguards, and the definition of an enemy widens until ordinary disagreement becomes treason. Because no one is safe, denunciation becomes a survival tactic, and the violence accelerates. The cycle usually ends only when the leaders fall victim to the same machinery they built — exactly what happened to Robespierre.