Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a leader in the 1789 French Revolution. Robespierre was the Jacobin member in charge of running policy. Many people afterward condemned Robespierre as a dictator, ruthless, and demagogue, but others regard him as an idealist, foresight, and a patriot with democratic objectives. However, at the age of 36, he was hanged on July 28, 1794, in Paris.
Maximilien Robespierre Early Life
Maximilien Robespierre was born into an English family in Arras, France. In the early 17th century, his family moved to Carvin from Picardy. There were suspicions, however, that he was of Irish ancestry. He was the oldest of four siblings. Maximilien Barthélémy François de Robespierre's father was an attorney at the Conseil d'Artois office in Arras. In 1758, his father married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer. His mother died when he was six years old, and his father died when he was nineteen years old in 1777.
Maximilien began attending a collège (high school) in Arras at the age of eight, and he already knew how to read and write. On the advice of a bishop, he earned a scholarship to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris in October 1769. Robespierre studied law and attended school there until the age of 23. He learned about the Roman Republic and practiced rhetoric there, which affected his eventual political career. He won a special 600-livre award at graduation for twelve years of exceptional studies and good personal behavior.
Maximilien Robespierre Political Views
Delegate at the Conference of Three Estates
Robespierre was a fan of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and when the French Revolution came, he saw it as an opportunity to construct a perfect society based on the philosopher's ideas. Robespierre was elected as a delegate to the Conference of Three Estates in 1789, and he became the leader of the Jacobin movement. Robespierre also helped form the Paris Commune and demanded the trial of King Louis 16 and his queen with eloquence.
At the time, Robespierre's reform program was to eliminate anarchy, quell social conflicts, fight counter-revolutionaries at home, and win wars with foreign countries by mobilizing the entire population and all resources, and later to establish a democratic institution, beginning with the constitution for the lower classes.
At the time, the National Convention authorized the establishment of a Committee of Public Safety (Comité de Salut Public) to manage the administration. This committee is made up of 12 members that were elected each month, including Robespierre, Georges Danton, Jean Marat, St. Just, and Couthon.
The Committee of Public Safety served as a war cabinet, a sort of collective dictatorship. The committee issued a "Notice of the Law" requiring everyone to abide by the regulations. The committee also concentrated its influence on the central government, issuing a formal appeal for "levée en masse" to all residents. At the time, talented French scientists such as Lagrange, Lavoisier, and Lamark were invited to participate in useful research. The government also limited the quantity of gold exported at the time, preventing speculation and hoarding, and food was provided through the Committee of Life, preventing the "assignat" currency from depreciating.
The Public Safety Committee believed in a free market economy, promoting private farmers, but the French government lacked many economic management strategies and tactics at the time. The aforementioned Committee offered a Republic Constitution in June 1793, which included universal male suffrage, however, this Constitution was suspended indefinitely.
The Commission distributes agricultural booklets to instruct farmers on how to grow rice efficiently. The Commission's action plans include the establishment of a military school and the implementation of a compulsory education program. Toward the close of 1793, the Convention devised a plan to de-Christianize France, replacing it with the culte de l'être suprême, a natural religion of deity worship that accepts deity's existence and the eternity of the soul.
Reign of Terror
After sending his Jacobins to power, he and his companions were interested in researching and implementing issues of constitutionalism and democracy. In the end, he and his companions produced and ratified the constitution, which is regarded as the most progressive. The people supported and adopted the constitution, but other individuals were quite opposed to it.
The General Security Commission was established by the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety with the aim of safeguarding the Republic in order to quell the Revolution's opponents against internal foes. A law empowering the Security Committee, or Jacobin organization, to detain anyone believed to be opposed to the Revolution was passed on September 17, 1793.
The "enragés" group's leaders were detained, and women's revolutionary organizations started to face restrictions in the fall of 1793. Some of these radical individuals, including journalists and members of the Paris Commune Jacques Hébert, have been labeled "revolutionaries pole" by Robespierre, some of whom took to the guillotine. When the Paris Commune was disbanded in March 1794, Robespierre chose numerous members of his faction to fill the top government positions.
In addition, Robespierre dismissed a number of leftists, including Georges Danton and his adherents, on charges of financial fraud and association with counterrevolutionaries. Danton oversaw the Committee of Public Safety alongside Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat, and the Terror. Danton believed that it was essential to bring back moderation in revolutionary measures once the revolutionary government had settled, foreign invasions had been resisted, and royalist forces had been put down. However, Danton was detained and executed by the guillotine on April 5, 1794, when Robespierre accused him of seeking to reclaim his throne and of being corrupt. Nevertheless, Georges Danton is regarded by many as one of the most capable commanders.
Between 1793 and 1794, around 40,000 people died, and a significant number were imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. Between September 1793 and June 1794, nearly 2,500 individuals were executed just in Paris. This guillotine blade kept falling day after day.
The aristocracy made up 8% of the purge victims, followed by the bourgeoisie (14%), particularly the rebels in southern France, and the clergy (6%). More than 70% of the dead were farmers and laborers. The French Republic was founded in accordance with the principles of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen," but the atrocities committed during this time of terror were particularly inhumane and, in some cases, heinous. For example, in Nantes, 2,000 people who had been found guilty of opposing the revolution were put on ferries and sunk in the Atlantic.
Maximilien Robespierre Executed
The National Convention's members started to fear for their safety before Robespierre as a result of France's military success, popular disenchantment with food distribution during the Terror, and the massacre of the radical group commanded by Robespierre, notably after the death of Georges Danton. They wondered: "Even if a leader of the Jacobin party is to be put on the guillotine, which one of us will be safe?". There was a widespread belief that Robespierre desired to be a dictator. In addition, he also made mistakes, such as the mass execution of many people who were convicted of crimes against the people, many of whom were wrongly convicted and including the famous scientist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, so he gradually lost the support of the people.
On July 27, Robespierre declared that he had criticized all unfinished business from the past and listed traitors who desired to topple the Republic before the National Convention. Robespierre also hinted that some of these men were present during the Convention. In the back of the meeting chamber, a delegate suddenly exclaimed, "I demand the arrest of Robespierre." The phrase "Down with the tyrant" echoed throughout the entire conference room.
Robespierre's complexion darkened. The shouts in the room drowned out his attempts to speak out loud. A delegate yelled, "Danton's blood has choked your voice." The members of the National Convention hated him and wanted to prevent him from continuing to commit acts of terror, so they executed him by beheading him.
Robespierre was captured at 2:00 a.m. on July 28, 1794, and he and 21 other companions were executed the next morning without being given a chance to defend themselves. He is regarded as "a friend of the poor" and "a leader who cannot be bought" by the French people.
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