The Use of Terror in French Revolution: The First Terror, Essay Example

The early French revolution, liberal revolution of 1789-1792, had its goals such as existence of freedom and the extinction of special rights achieved thus allowing the French citizens have equal access to both the tax register and government positions. The French revolution remained relatively calm until 1992 the end of 1792 when a new radical phase arose. This phase which culminated violence and repression as a result of unresolved issues of the revolutionary ended in 1794 as a result of the reaction called Thermider in year II of the revolution which settled the mercurial violence. During this radical phase, terror was as a result of a calculated policy adopted by the revolutionary government in order to control the French citizens and also to reduce their influence of opposing the government policies.

The first terror marked a transition period with violence and the wake “of the collapse of the liberal constitution of 1791 and the declaration of France as a Republican nation” (The French Revolution). The terror was as a result of social, political and economic problems that arose as a result of the liberal revolution. The liberation resulted in social tensions that ignited the growth of a more radical and violent revolution. The side of the nation’s economy was also getting worse due to the outbursts of war.  The political system was affected since those who had gained political power during the early revolution were squabbling on how to use the power. There were also wars between France and other nations such as Austria.

In interpreting the history of terror, we realize that during the reign of terror, both repression and violence were used by the revolutionary government as a political policy. There are different schools of thought that try to explain the goals of terror, their results. They include; enlightment rationalism, sociologist perspective and the revisionist perspective.  The first school of thought, the Enlightment Rationalism, had a traditional idea that the radical terror was part of the revolution itself. It looks at terror as the fruits that were brought about by the planting of the revolutionary seeds. It links terror and the autocratic regime of the modern Europe. Terror was therefore as a result of criticism of the political inexperience of the revolutionaries.

Another school of thought is the Republican which is also refereed to as a socialist perspective in the modern Europe. According to this perspective, terror is seen as a result of circumstances. This is marked by a period in which the revolutionary leaders were forced by the ends, war and counter revolution to take appropriate actions in attempts of preserving the revolution goals. It therefore sees terror’s events as being forced upon the revolutionaries through external events.

The last school of thought is the revisionist interpretation, which holds that terror is as a result of unplanned and multifaceted consequence of a series of ideas, cases and responses that are caused by the goals of early revolution in order to slip off the track and degrade into violent outbursts. This school of thought is a bit ambiguous in nature since it looks at terror neither as a product of ideology nor of circumstance.

These perspectives vary in their ideologies and the way in which they perceive terror. The enlightment rationalism view terror as part and parcel of the revolution, the republican perspective view terror as a consequence of the goals that were set up by the attempts of preserving the goals of the revolution and lastly the revisionist sees terror to be as a result of failure of proper planning of goals of the revolution. The similarities that these perspectives have include their efforts in trying to explain the interpretation and explanation on the revolutionary terror in relation to understanding the terror in the modern society. All the schools of thought show the use of violence and oppression in creation of terror in the citizens.

In conclusion, we can learn from this phase of revolution for those who confront terrorism today that: they must first understand the history of terror and its effect so as they may be able to address these issues more effectively and be in the position of developing a modern history. This can be achieved through a proper introduction to political, social, cultural and economic impetus that lead to the terror and these eventually helps in shaping the character of the proceeding centuries. Lastly, terror results in the strengthening of a centralized country which looks upon on the terrorist activities by implementing appropriate machineries.

Works Cited

The Order of the Day: Terror in the French Revolution. 1792-94. Retrieved from <http://worldrc.wadsworth.com/student/unbound/product/wawc2m01c/content/wciv2/modules/rev_wcii_terror/modindex.html>