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The Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794),〔''Terror, Reign of''; Encyclopædia Britannica〕 also known as The Terror (), was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution". The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine (2,639 in Paris), and another 25,000 in summary executions across France.〔Greer, Donald. ''Incidence of the Terror During the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation''. 1935. Peter Smith Pub Inc. ISBN 978-0-8446-1211-9〕 The guillotine (called the "National Razor") became the symbol of the revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of executions: King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité (Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans), and Madame Roland, and others such as pioneering chemist Antoine Lavoisier, lost their lives under its blade. During 1794, revolutionary France was beset with conspiracies by internal and foreign enemies. Within France, the revolution was opposed by the French nobility, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Roman Catholic Church opposed the revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state and required they take an oath of loyalty to the nation (through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy). In addition, the French First Republic was engaged in a series of wars with neighboring powers, and parts of France were engaging in civil war against the republican regime. The extension of civil war and the advance of foreign armies on national territory produced a political crisis and increased the already present rivalry between the Girondins and the more radical Jacobins. The latter were eventually grouped in the parliamentary faction called the Mountain, and they had the support of the Parisian population. The French government established the Committee of Public Safety, which took its final form on 6 September 1793, in order to suppress internal counter-revolutionary activities and raise additional French military forces. Through the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Terror's leaders exercised broad powers and used them to eliminate the internal and external enemies of the republic. The repression accelerated in June and July 1794, a period called ''la Grande Terreur'' (the Great Terror), and ended in the coup of 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794), leading to the Thermidorian Reaction, in which several instigators of the Reign of Terror were executed, including Saint-Just and Robespierre. == Origins and causes == After the resolution of the foreign wars during 1791–93, the violence associated with the Reign of Terror increased significantly: only roughly 4% of executions had occurred before November 1793 (Brumaire, Year I), thus signalling to many that the Reign of Terror might have had additional causes.〔Greer, Donald. ''Incidence of the Terror During the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation''. 1935. Peter Smith Pub Inc. ISBN 978-0-8446-1211-9〕 These could have included inherent issues with revolutionary ideology,〔Edelstein, Dan. ''The Terror of Natural Right''. 2009. New York: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-18438-8.〕 and/or the need of a weapon for political repression in a time of significant foreign and civil upheaval,〔 leading to many different interpretations by historians. Many historians have debated the reasons the French Revolution took such a radical turn during the Reign of Terror of 1793–94. The public was frustrated that the social equality and anti-poverty measures that the revolution originally promised were not materializing. Jacques Roux's ''Manifesto of the Enraged'' in 25 June 1793, describes the extent to which, four years into the revolution, these goals were largely unattained by the common people. The foundation of the Terror is centered on the April 1793 creation of the Committee of Public Safety and its militant Jacobin delegates. The National Convention believed that the committee needed to rule with "near dictatorial power" and the committee was delegated new and expansive political powers〔Such as the Law of Frimaire, passed in December 1973 to consolidate power onto the committee.〕 to respond quickly to popular demands. Those in power believed the Committee of Public Safety was an unfortunate, but necessary and temporary, reaction to the pressures of foreign and civil war.〔Mathiez, Albert. ''A Realistic Necessity'', in The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations. Selected and Edited by Frank Kafker, James M. Lauz, and Darline Gay Levy. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company, 2002. p. 189.〕 Historian Albert Mathiez argues that the authority of the Committee of Public Safety was based on the necessities of war, as those in power realized that deviating from the will of the people was a temporary emergency response measure in order to secure the ideals of the republic. According to Mathiez, they "touched only with trepidation and reluctance the regime established by the Constituent Assembly" so as not to interfere with the early accomplishments of the revolution.〔Mathiez, Albert. ''A Realistic Necessity'', p. 192.〕 Similar to Mathiez, Richard Cobb introduced competing circumstances of revolt and re-education within France as an explanation for the Terror. Counter-revolutionary rebellions taking place in Lyon, Brittany, Vendée, Nantes, and Marseille were threatening the revolution with royalist ideas.〔Palmer, R.R. ''Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.〕 Cobb writes, "the revolutionaries themselves, living as if in combat… were easily persuaded that only terror and repressive force saved them from the blows of their enemies."〔Cobb, Richard. ''A Mentality Shaped by Circumstance'', in The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations. Selected and Edited by Frank Kafker, James M. Lauz, and Darline Gay Levy. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company, 2002. p. 200.〕 Terror was used in these rebellions both to execute inciters and to provide a very visible example to those who might be considering rebellion. Cobb agrees with Mathiez that the Terror was simply a response to circumstances, a necessary evil and natural defence, rather than a manifestation of violent temperaments or excessive fervour. At the same time, Cobb rejects Mathiez's Marxist interpretation that elites controlled the Reign of Terror to the significant benefit to the bourgeoisie. Instead, Cobb argues that social struggles between the classes were seldom the reason for revolutionary actions and sentiments.〔Cobb, Richard. ''A Mentality Shaped by Circumstance'', p. 204.〕 Francois Furet, however, argues that circumstances could not have been the sole cause of the Reign of Terror because "the risks for the revolution were greatest" in the middle of 1793 but at that time "the activity of the Revolutionary Tribunal was relatively minimal."〔Furet, Francois. ''A Deep-rooted Ideology as Well as Circumstance'', in The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations. Selected and Edited by Frank Kafker, James M. Lauz, and Darline Gay Levy. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company, 2002. p. 222.〕 Widespread terror and a consequent rise in executions came after external and internal threats were vastly reduced. Therefore, Furet suggests that ideology played the crucial role in the rise of the Reign of Terror because "man's regeneration" became a central theme for the Committee of Public Safety as they were trying to instill ideals of free will and enlightened government in the public.〔Furet, Francois. ''A Deep-rooted Ideology as Well as Circumstance'', p. 224.〕 As this ideology became more and more pervasive, violence became a significant method for dealing with counter-revolutionaries and the opposition because, for fear of being labelled a counter-revolutionary themselves, "the moderate men would have to accept, endorse and even glorify the acts of the more violent."〔Palmer, R.R. ''Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution'', p. 172.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「reign of terror」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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