The Reign of Terror, or the Great Terror, was a massive turning point to the horror of the French Revolution. The gutters flowed with blood as the people of Paris watched with an entertained eye.

             The constitutional monarchy that had evolved by 1791 was as unsatisfactory to the king as it was to the increasingly powerful and vocal political club called Jacobins. In the Legislative Assembly, they and the Girondins, another political club, agitated for a republic at the same time as they engineered a declaration of war against Austria. When French forces suffered initial reversals, revolutionary temperatures rose even higher, and in September the newly formed National Convention promptly proclaimed France a republic. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was executed, and during the following year and a half, the country was ruled by dictators, whose dreams of moral perfection and hatred of hypocrisy inspired a reign of terror that made the guillotine the symbol of political messianism. .

             The moral fury of the Committee of Public Safety recognized no territorial boundary, and its members prosecuted the escalating war against a union of European powers. In part, their success can be attributed to the national draft that was instituted in August 1793; it demonstrated the awesome military potential of a nation in arms. Finally the enemies of the Revolution at home and abroad seemed to be suppressed. Only Great Britain and Austria continued the war. The people were tired of the Terror. When Robespierre showed no signs of stopping the bloodshed, the rest of the Convention took matters into their own hands. On July 28th 1794, Maximilien Robespierre, the committee"s own leading member, was arrested. After being badly beaten, he was brought to the guillotine and was executed. This was the basic end to the Reign of Terror. During the reaction that followed, the French quickly forgot the "republic of virtue" and welcomed vice almost as a symbol of liberty.