The French Revolution changed everything. The kings of France were replaced almost overnight by the most radical government the world has ever seen. France was suddenly a beacon of freedom: “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” was the motto of the revolution: it is still used to defend liberalism today. But the revolution was not entirely positive. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives and the country was divided between different groups that used force to crush the rebellion. It led France to dictatorship and, finally, to the days of the kings. Here, we have gathered ten of the most terrible atrocities of the French revolution.
10.Beheading Louis XVI
The beheading of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette was one of the most important events of the French Revolution, but it did not have to happen. Before becoming king, Louis XVI was silent, dedicated to his studies, and painfully shy. It took him seven years to consummate his marriage to the beautiful and intimidating Habsburg heiress. When he became king, he was cautious and indecisive, eager to be loved. He would have once been a great king, but he was not fit for the political crisis of the time. The people around him took advantage of his weakness to take more power. Louis was little more than a figurehead. It was not a surprise when the new government voted to abolish the monarchy soon after.
Some revolutionaries argued against executing Louis, but the revolution was in full swing and the public hated him. Louis XVI was assassinated by the guillotine in January 1793. The move shocked many around the world as Louis had always been viewed as a moderate king. His death angered nearby European countries and led to a war that could have been avoided. He faced his death without fear: with his last breath, he forgave those who condemned him and hoped that no more blood would be spilled.
9.Toppling Of Statues
Executing Louis was not enough: later that year, the rebels decided to remove all traces of the country’s former kings. They started with the tombs of St Denis, the traditional resting place of French royalty. For starters, the masons were happy to destroy the ancient Carolingian statues and other symbols of royalty. But within a month they were entering the old vault that housed the kings of the House of Bourbon. When they entered, they began to destroy the old coffins. Some of the royal remains were publicly displayed, while others were thrown into a large burial pit, with cries of joy from the crowd. Many people came to watch, so many that the workers struggled to do their jobs. According to eyewitnesses, members of the crowd grabbed the bodies when they could, taking hair, teeth, and other things as personal mementos. These acts were later condemned both within France and throughout the world, but by that time it was too late. After the Bourbon Restoration, the kings were recovered from the well and transferred to the crypt in the basilica, but the damage was already done: many of the kings were unrecognizable
8.The Law of Suspects
The revolution started because the rebels wanted everyone to be free and equal. However, after they won, their anger did not come to an end: instead, they began to hunt down anyone who might be a threat. This period is now known as the Realm of Terror and resulted in thousands of innocent deaths. The Realm of Terror began with the Suspects Act, which gave the government the power to accuse almost anyone of being a rebel. They attacked the priests, who were led underground; For a time, being Catholic was actually illegal. In the end, anyone who could have been connected to the ancient nobles could be imprisoned and executed. Over two years, around 500,000 people were charged, a large number at the moment. In fact, so many were accused that the jails were too full and people had to be placed under house arrest. Although most were allowed to go free, around 16,000 people were killed, and many thousands more died in prison. Under the law, anyone whose “conduct, relationships, or language [proved to be] supporters of tyranny … and enemies of freedom” was arrested and tried.
7.Lyon Erased
Not everyone in France supported the revolution. The city of Lyon supported the moderate Girondins, a group that was part of the revolution but was not as thirsty for blood as the others. The rebel leaders considered Lyon a realistic support center, so they besieged it in 1793. In the course of the fighting, more than 2,000 people were killed in Lyon and the city was conquered. The revolutionaries had won, but they had more plans for the city. In October, the National Convention issued a decree calling for the destruction of Lyon. Everyone who lived in Lyon had to take their weapons from them. They would be handed over to the revolutionaries. Any building “inhabited by the rich” had to be demolished, leaving only the houses of the poor, the factories, and some monuments. They even planned to purge the city’s name from history. The name of the city would be erased: Lyon would be called the Liberated City (Ville Affranchie). They planned to build a column with an inscription that says: “Lyon made war on Freedom; Lyon no longer exists. Fortunately, this project was never completed.
6.Girondins Executed
The new French government had two main groups: the Girondins and the Highlanders. The Girondins were moderate: they wanted to build a free, capitalist, and democratic country where everyone could have a say in how they were governed, regardless of who they were. They were supported throughout France, but the people of Paris liked Montagnards better. They were extremists who “wanted everything to be level.” Anyone seen as an elite had to give up their status or be executed. For starters, the groups got along well, but they fought over Louis’s death. The highlanders wanted to kill him, but the Girondists wanted the country to vote on it. The highlanders said they were conspiring to save the king and called them traitors. Things spilled out onto the streets of Paris. A group of soldiers and citizens surrounded the government buildings and demanded that the Girondins be expelled from the government. The highlanders did it properly. Some Girondins were able to escape, but a few months later, those who remained were detained and guillotined.
5.Drownings at Nantes
The city of Nantes was a center of the revolution, but much of the surrounding countryside was realistic. The region rose in rebellion, leading to the Battle of Nantes. After this, the new French government decided to purge the city of anyone who still supported the monarchy. To do this, they sent Jean-Baptiste Carrier, one of their most committed supporters. Jean-Baptiste took his work very seriously. In about five months, between 12,000 and 15,000 people were killed on his order. Nantes is located in the Loire, which Jean-Baptiste called “the national bathtub”. He and his men built special boats called lighters that were specifically designed to drown prisoners. The captives would be chained together, often naked, and led to the boats, which had trap doors at the bottom. The ships were sunk with the prisoners on board. Elderly, pregnant women and children were drowned without distinction. In the end, Jean-Baptiste’s methods were too extreme even for the revolution: the Committee of Public Safety called him to Paris, tried him, and executed him with a guillotine.
4.Law of 22 Prairial
Throughout the Terror Reign, thousands of people were imprisoned, some for absurd reasons. By June 1794, the prisons in France, particularly Paris, were overcrowded, so action had to be taken. Robespierre and his allies drafted a new law that would allow trials to be concluded much faster: They pushed this law through the Convention and it was passed on June 10, 1794, which meant that people could be tried for simple things like ‘broadcast counterfeiting news “or” seeking to inspire discouragement. “Citizens were expected to confront or inform their neighbors if they expressed some form of opposition to the government.
When these people were brought to trial, they were not treated fairly: the judges and jury only had three days to reach a conclusion, and they had to choose whether to allow the accused to be free or to be executed. The law marked the beginning of the Great Terror. Executions per day increased dramatically across France, and most of those killed were undoubtedly innocent. The Great Terror came to an end after two months, but not because people were horrified by the murders. No, the new law also did it so that the members of the Convention can be judged. Seeking to preserve their own skins, the members of the Convention eliminated Robespierre and guillotined him, ending the murders.
3.The Massacre in the Vendee
The revolution was supposed to be a movement that liberated the French lower classes and gave them freedom and security. But anyone who opposed the new government was severely punished, even those who were lower class. In the early days, the church stood out for its wealth and excess. The revolutionary government strayed between atheism and a new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, but they were united in their desire to destroy the old Catholic system. However, in the Vendée, people rose to protect their priests and churches from The New Revolutionary Government. When the government ordered them to form a recruited military unit, they rebelled and joined the local militias that were collectively known as the Catholic and Royal Army. This alarmed the new government, which sent the army to address the problem. After a series of pitched battles, the Catholic and Royal Army was defeated.
But the government did not stop there. Determined to avoid another uprising, the government sent General Louis Marie Turreau with twelve columns of troops to destroy Vendee. Farms, villages, supplies, and forests were destroyed, and the soldiers killed without restrictions. When it was over, General Francois Joseph Westermann wrote a letter to the government saying: “There is no more Vendée … In accordance with the orders you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, by except for these, she will not give birth to more bandits. I do not have a prisoner who reproaches me. I have exterminated everything
2.Law of the Maximum
Unlike many other atrocities on this list, the Maximum Law was implemented with good intentions, although the government was forced to do so. First of all, one of the main reasons people joined the rebellion was because the food was too expensive, but in 1793 even the basics we’re going up in price. The Enraged, a collection of anti-elite protesters who today might be called Marxists, argued that the nobility had been replaced by greedy merchants. The action was needed to take away their wealth and help the poor. The government passed the Maximum Law in response. Set a maximum price for goods, from bread and wine to iron and shoes. Merchants had to display a price list outside their stores and if any of their prices were above the maximum they would be fined. Rather than go to the government, the fine was for someone who reported illegal prices to authorities, encouraging people to report merchants who ignored the law.
It had a disastrous impact in France. Although merchants lowered their prices, it left them almost penniless. Less honest merchants began to water their products, disguising the ash as ground pepper, the starch as sugar, and the pear juice as wine. Farmers in rural areas started hoarding their produce because they couldn’t get a good enough price in the cities, which meant that people in the cities were starving. The result was a black market where the wealthy could still buy the products they needed, while the poor had no access to food at all. These famines were temporarily resolved when the government sent soldiers to take food from the farmers and take it to the city by force, but this only caused further riots.
1.September Massacres
After Louis was assassinated, the government fell into chaos. No one knew who was in charge. Meanwhile, the Paris Commune, supported by the armed mafia, had all the power. Chaos reigned as the new government fought for who should be in power, along with issues like the economy, the military, and the justice system. However, what dominated was fear of the counter-revolutionary reaction. The new movement had been denounced in Britain, Austria, and Prussia, and the war was looming on the horizon. Meanwhile, French royalists were gathering support in other parts of the country. The revolutionaries feared that if a realistic army attacked Paris, the new revolutionary government would fall. In particular, they came to believe that the inmates of the city jails would join the counterrevolutionaries if given the opportunity. These fears were exacerbated when the time came for the new army to leave the city, and people believed it would leave the city vulnerable to a prison break.
Between September 2 and 6, 1792, the prisoners were attacked by revolutionary mobs, with more than 1,000 dead in the space of a single day. Half of the city’s prison population was massacred, with mutilated corpses in the streets. The revolutionary government sent letters to regional governments saying that the conspirators in the city jails had been executed. The act was repeated in other places: the murders of prisoners took place in 75 of the 83 departments of France.