Reign of Terror June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris. There was a sense of emergency among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793 between the widespread civil war and counter-revolution. Bertrand Barère exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the Convention: "Let's make terror the order of the day!" They were determined to avoid street violence such as the September Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government. Robespierre in February 1794 in a speech explained the necessity of
Terror (politics) Terror (politics) Terror, is from the French "terreur", from Latin "terror" meaning "great fear", a noun derived from the Latin verb "terrere" meaning "to frighten", is a policy of political repression and violence intended to subdue political opposition. The term was first used for the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Modern instances of terror include red terror or white terror. Before the late twentieth century, the term ""terrorism"" in the English language was often used interchangeably with ""terror"." Some contemporary writers use terrorism to refer to acts by groups with a limited political base or parties on the