Reign of Terror Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror, or The Terror (), is the label given by most historians to a period during the French Revolution after the First French Republic was established. Several historians consider the "reign of terror" to have begun in 1793, placing the starting date at either 5 September, June or March (birth of the Revolutionary Tribunal), while some consider it to have begun in September 1792 (September Massacres), or even July 1789 (when the first lynchings took place), but there is a consensus that it ended with the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794. Between
Reign of Terror in the French people. As a result, he decided to weed out those he believed could never possess this virtue. The result was a continual push towards Terror. The Convention used this as justification for the course of action to “crush the enemies of the revolution, ... let the laws be executed, … and let liberty be saved.” These members of the Enlightenment movement greatly influenced revolutionary leaders; however, cautions from other Enlightenment thinkers were blatantly ignored. Voltaire’s warnings were often overlooked, though some of his ideas were used for justification of the Revolution and the start of the Terror.