Maximilien Robespierre: The Jacobins And The Reign Of Terror

Maximilien Robespierre was a States-General during the French Revolution, and was one of the leaders the Jacobins and the Reign of Terror. He was born on May 6, 1758 in Arras, France. He was the oldest out of four children, and when he was six years old, his mother died (5). Robespierre’s father left him and his siblings soon after his wife’s death and they were left to live with their aunts and grandfather. Eventually, he studied law at the University of Paris, and was chosen to give a speech to Louis XVI at his coronation (1). He was best known for defending the poor, and giving long and tedious speeches at the local academies (2).
In April of 1789, he was elected president of the Jacobins, and a year later he helped write the Declaration

of Rights of Man and Citizen, which was the foundation of the French constitution (5). In August 1792, the people of Paris rose up against King Louis XVI, and Robespierre was elected to head the Paris delegation to the new National Convention. By December of the same year, he argued for the execution of the king and encouraged the crowds to rise up against the aristocracy (2).
Spring of 1792, Robespierre lost popularity because he opposed war proposals of the Girondists. But this loss of popularity was only temporary, because he got elected for the insurrectionary Commune of Paris. He was a deputy in the National Convention, and played an important part in the fight for power between the Girondists and the Jacobins. Robespierre demanded the execution of the king, and enforced the purging of the Girondists (3).
He believed in the rights of men, and that they should go to all men, including the poor men, and the slave men in the colonies. This belief gave him a reputation among the sans-culottes. The earlier years of the French Revolution were ruled by men who believed nobody should have power if they didn’t own property. But Robespierre was tireless, undaunted, and consistent. For a long time, he was against the death penalty, but he later changed his mind and became an advocate of the Reign of Terror. (2)
Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, which was formed to oversee the government. The Revolutionary government began the Reign of terror while they were faced with pressures from both outside of the government, and within. Over the next eleven months, three hundred thousand suspected enemies of the Revolution were arrested, and about seventeen thousand were executed, and mostly by the guillotine. Robespierre used this power to his advantage, and eliminated many of his political opponents (5).
By June of 1794, France was getting tired of all of the executions that were happening, and most of Paris had plots and rumors against Robespierre. There were over 1,300 executions in June alone. On July 26, he gave a speech, and spoke about the appeals and threats. Deputies in the National Convention shouted him down and arrested him the next day.