Akin to Daniel Mornet’s underlying thesis that ‘it was, in part, ideas that determined the French Revolution’, this study will highlight the importance of Enlightenment in Revolution.[1] There are undoubtedly greater political and economic causes, including resentment of an increasingly objectionable monarchy and the financial strains of substantial expenditure on wars including the American War … Continue reading What role did Enlightenment ideas play in the cultural origins of the French Revolution?
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Print of the Festival of the Supreme Being, June 1794
Despite being an opponent of the severe dechristianisation mission being carried out across France, Robespierre was at the head of the Cult of the Supreme Bring. This print illustrates the huge, colourful spectacle that was the Festival of the Supreme Being. The cult and festival is said to have been, in part, responsible for the downfall … Continue reading Print of the Festival of the Supreme Being, June 1794
Official Execution Figures
This source is a table demonstrating the number of deaths per region during the French Revolution. Although we can never really know how many people exactly were killed during the Terror including unofficial homicides, these official figures allow us to see an almost accurate estimate of how many people were massacred in Robespierre’s attempt to achieve … Continue reading Official Execution Figures
Robespierre’s Speech to the Convention, 18 Pluviose Year II / 5th February 1794
‘If the mainstream of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the mainspring of popular government in revolution is virtue and terror both: virtue, without which terror is disastrous: terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a … Continue reading Robespierre’s Speech to the Convention, 18 Pluviose Year II / 5th February 1794
The Historian's Apprentice 