Radical Days

 

The war with European nations was going badly. Some believed the king was helping the enemy.

 

Mobs attacked the kings guards and killed the nobles.

 

Radical revolutionaries controlled the Assembly with the assistance of Paris crowds in 1792.

 

The King and Queen Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed in 1793 for treason.

 

By 1793 France was at war with most of Europe. Within France peasants rioted for food, and revolutionary groups fought against each other.

 

To establish order the new governemnt set up the Committee of public safety, which had absolute power.

 

Using a new invention (the guillotine), the committee, led by Maximilien Robespierre, beheaded thousands of people for treason, even supporters of the revolution. Thousands of others were put in prison. This period is known as The Reign of Terror.

 

By 1799 life in France was different. The monarchy and old class system was abolished.

 

The government controlled the church.

 

French people began to feel proud of France. This feeling of pride is called nationalism.

 

The new governemtn continued to make reforms. ie. It set up schools for children, organized a system to take care of its poor, and slavery in French colonies ended. Religious tolerance was the law.

 

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