RADICALS AND THE REIGN OF TERROR

Radicals• Don’t think there should be any king at all

and France should become a republic where all people have a say in the government.

• Want to see major changes happen to France.

• Usually bourgeoisie and/or members of the Third Estate.

Moderates• Would like to see some changes to France. • Think Louis XVI can still be king, but it needs to

be a limited monarchy, where the king follows the rules of the constitution and gives people rights and freedoms.

• Are a members of the bourgeoisie meaning you are an educated member of the third estate.

Conservatives• Think Louis XVI should be allowed to

remain king and rule France as an absolute monarch. • Don’t want the government to

change. • Are members of the first or second

estate.

1791

• The king and his family are caught trying to leave France and taken prisoner.

• Radical groups win power in the Legislative Assembly and decide the best way to gain more power is through violence.

1792

• The Legislative Assembly is now controlled by radicals and rename themselves the National Convention. They declare France to be a republic and abolish the monarchy.

1793• The National

Convention puts Louis XVI and his family on trial and find them guilty to treason.

• Louis and Marie Antoinette are executed by guillotine.

1793• The National Convention is

worried about threats to their power. They create the Committee of Public Safety to deal with the threats to them and handle some of the public’s problems (such as food shortages).

• An extreme radical named Maximilien Robespierre becomes the leader of the committee.

1793 - 1794• This time period when

Robespierre ruled over the Committee of Public Safety is known as the Reign of Terror.

• During this time anyone who was suspected of being loyal to the king or trying to stop the revolution from happening was put on trial and killed.

What were people executed for?• Robespierre said in order to

keep France safe for democracy he had to get rid of anyone who was loyal to the king in any way.

• People were executed for simple offenses such as owning a deck of cards with a king in it.

• You were put on trial in the morning and executed in the afternoon.

1794• Even the radicals

think Robespierre has gone too far. Robespierre is put on trial and executed.

• Moderates now take over the government.

Results• Approximately 3000 people were

executed.• Some historians think that as many

as 40,000 were killed as a result of the revolution. The majority of them were peasants, people whom the revolution was supposed to be helping the most.

• After Robespierre’s death people were tired of the revolution and terror and just wanted things to settle down.

• They were also still dealing with high prices of food. One of the things the revolution promised to fix.

• In 1795 moderate leaders of the National Convention met and wrote the third constitution since 1789.

• The new constitution placed power firmly in the hands of the upper middle class and called for a two house legislature and an executive body made up of five men known as the Directory.

• They were corrupt, but they did provide some stability to France.