Reign of Terror
Guillotine's busiest period
The Reign of Terror was the period of the French Revolution (1793–94) when the revolutionary government executed thousands of perceived enemies by guillotine.
Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety directed the campaign until Robespierre himself was executed.
The phrase now serves as the template for describing any systematic campaign of political violence. (Lowercase reign of terror describes any period of fear and oppression.)
- guillotineVertical beheading apparatus
- RobespierreRevolutionary who devoured himself
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
- FranceWestern European republic
- executionCompleting a planned task
blood · blood in the streets · Paris · aristocrats · Jacobins · public safety · revolutionary tribunal · tribunal · enemy of the people · prison · heads · mob · sans-culottes · tyranny · fear · purge · radical · beheading
- Revolutionrevolt, uprising, insurrection, overthrow, revolutionaries
- French HistoryNapoleon Bonaparte, French Revolution, Napoleon, Bastille, Charles de Gaulle
- French RevolutionBastille, guillotine, Robespierre, French Revolution, Marie Antoinette
- 1790sFrench Revolution, Robespierre, guillotine, Jacobins, sans-culottes
- European UpheavalsFrench Revolution, Russian Revolution, Bolshevik Revolution, October Revolution, Prague Spring
- RevolutionsFrench Revolution, Russian Revolution, American Revolution, Cuban Revolution, Mexican Revolution
Reign of Terrorliberal democracy
Rights-based elected governance
rule of law · Glorious Revolution · democratic transition · civil liberties · political amnesty
Reign of Terrorgolden age
Period of peak prosperity
social harmony · Pax Romana · peacetime · amnesty · normalcy
Reign of Terrorpeaceful revolution
Nonviolent political transformation
Thermidorian Reaction · reformism · gradualism · compromise · non-violent resistance
reign, reigns, reigned, reigning, terror, terrors, terrorize, terrorized, terrorizing