World History
Ms. Avar
Point Value:
/5
Video Notes 3:
Terror to the
End
KEY
Instructions: Answer the following questions as you watch the video. (If absent, make an appointment to get
answers from the sample binder and/or find them on the class website).
Start around 1:09:30
1. A member of the National Convention notes the
pointless waste of life as one after another of his
colleagues are lost to the guillotine. (1:10:12)
2. Four years into the Revolution, what is the rest of
Europe doing to the borders of France? (1:10:30)
3. D’Antone and Robespierre want to save the
Revolution. They convince their colleagues to
institute a menacing new form of Marshall law against
traitors and conspirators.
4. They said to “make terror the order of the day.”
(1:11:10)
5. In remarkable reversal, the revolutionaries suspend
the new Constitution and all the rights it was
to guarantee. (1:11:56)
6. If you were seen or suspected to be a traitor to the
new ways of France, including even saying “madam”
or “monsieur” (the old way of addressing people)
instead of “citizen” (the new way of addressing
people), what happened to you?
Guillotined
7. A twelve-man council was created and called the
Committee of Public Safety. In reality, this was
8. How does Robespierre respond when people throw
it in his face that he becomes a proponent of terror and
the guillotine? What does he say? (1:14:50)
really just a collective dictatorship.
(1:14:00)
9. People start to say that because it’s about
“superstition and fanaticism” the root of all the
problems is priests and religion.
Eating it away
“Times have changed”
10. As a “revolutionary weapon” against the Church,
the radicals started a new revolutionary calendar. The
years started with the date being when they
overthrew the monarchy (Sept 1792),
They say that they only way they’re ever going to be
safe against enemies of the revolution is to destroy the
power of the Catholic Church
11. What day of the week did the revolutionary
calendar get rid of with their 10 day calendar? (1:15)
Sunday
12. Who was in charge of the French army that sent
British army into retreat? (1:18)
Napoleon
13. Robespierre wanted to use even more terror to
make a “Republic of Virtue”, meaning that
14. By the spring of 1794, conditions were better in
France (food and war situation improved). What did
D’Antone said that France needed to get a new footing
in government and move towards what? (1:20:50)
everybody must be ACTIVE citizens of the state,
which also included killing enemies of the state.
(1:19:35)
Normalization
15. How did Robespierre feel about D’Antone’s
suggestion?
He saw it as a threat / that he was a traitor
committing treason
16. During the time of Robespierre’s “GREAT
Terror”, how many executions were they having per
month in Paris? (1:22:12)
800 +
17. June 6, 1794 – Robespierre declared a new
18. What did people start to wonder about Robespierre
religious holiday (1:22:46). Festival of the Supreme
during all of this? (1:24:06)
being. He wants to replace the old Catholic god with a
That he had departed from reality / gone nuts
new one: “The goddess of Reason”
(ie. “The cult of the Supreme Being”)
19. Deputies declare Robespierre an “outlaw”. When
they went to arrest him, what did they find?
20. What does Robespierre’s cellmate point to when
he said, “At least we did that” (1:26:25)
Two of his friends dead, and he was shot in the face
(apparent suicide attempt)
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
21. After Robespierre was executed – something
necessary for the people to “end the terror” - France
entered a period of uncertainty. (1:29:20)
They feared:
- Another terror
22. Five years passed before power finally
consolidated (came together with some strength).
Who did it belong to?
Napoleon
- (Worse) a return to the oppressive monarchy
23. Historians disagree on the end of the Revolution.
Some believe it died with the rise of Napoleon. Others
maintain that it lived on into the 19th Century and
beyond. But most all agree that the Revolution is the
first and enduring model of people taking destiny
24. The French Revolution forever changed the course
of Western Civilization. The questions raised by the
French Revolution is:
into their own hands.
better society?
(1:28:08)
How much violence is justified in achieving a
(1:29:30)
Do people have the right to overthrow what they
see as an unjust system to replace it with what they are
convinced in their hearts is a more just system ?
25. More than 200 years since the Revolution, the
ghost of Robespierre hangs over revolutions from
Russia to Vietnam, from China to Latin
26. The French experiments with democracy have
inspired models all over the
world.
America.
“Wherever tyranny takes root, the cry of justice is eternal for liberty, equality,
fraternity…. for revolution.”
End 1:29:52
27. A famous quote about what was happening in France is, “The Revolution is like Saturn, devouring its own
children.” Explain what you think that means: