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Event of the french revolution essay - grade-10
History assay French Revolution
3 key events during french revolution
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Twelve Who Ruled by R.R. Palmer is a book that was written with a very meticulous amount of detail. The story covers the reign of terror in France from 1793-1794. Palmer takes the Committee of Safety and individually explains each member along with their role in the Reign of Terror. The book was originally published in 1941 by the Princeton University Press, however, in 1989, a new preface was added, leading to a reprinting of the story. The purpose of Palmer’s book was to discover what led to the extreme outbreak of violence during the Reign of Terror. He sheds light on the killings, paranoia, and the well known guillotine. R. R. Palmer was an American Historian Professor at multiple high ranking universities. As a student, before he began …show more content…
his teaching and writing career, Palmer was a brilliant pupil. He earned a full scholarship to the University of Chicago where he earned his Bachelor's degree (Ph.B.) in 1931. He then attended Cornell University and three years later he received his Ph.D. in History. After this, He went on to teach at Princeton University for almost three decades, then proceeded to teach at University of Washington for three years, before transferring one final time to Yale University, where he retired after eleven years. Palmer Wrote many works, some of the more popular are A History of the Modern World, The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760–1800, The Improvement of Humanity: education and the French Revolution, alongside his book Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution.
Each of his books, as well as his dissertation that he completed for his Ph.D. are held in high regard. Professor Isser Woloch who is a teacher at Columbia University and specializes in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, even goes so far as to state that Twelve Who Ruled "may be the best book on the French Revolution written by an …show more content…
American." Twelve Who Ruled is written in a logical order that is easy to understand, even though Palmer still jumps from person to person in his writing.
He walks the reader through the mess of political strife and bloodshed and he is very detailed in the inner workings of the Committee of Public Safety. He also writes as if the reader knows nothing about the French Revolution. This is a very helpful aspect of the book. Another strong point in this particular story is that there is a map of The First French Republic in the front of the book. There is also a key for the titles of the months according to the French Republican Calendar. This calendar is useful in the reading because depending on the time of year as well as the situation he is writing about, he uses month names such as Ventôse which, in current translation is around the twentieth of
February. Everything in the book is well explained to avoid confusion. However, this is a very advanced story and for anyone in their first years of high school and into college, may find that following the story line still proves to be a daunting task. While Palmer did everything in his power to make the story clear and as accurate as he could, the French Revolution was a very tumultuous and confusing time. Palmer hones in on a few specific aspects on the Reign of terror. He focuses on struggles dealt with by the middle class and the power struggle that was a constant issue throughout this gory and horrific time after the French Revolution. He also does his best to keep it as accurate as possible by quoting as many direct sources as possible. All of Palmers sources were in print such as pamphlets, books, and printed speeches. With these sources, he finds details that help bring out the emotional pain and strife in the story. He is able to discuss emotional states, police records that weren’t necessarily initially public knowledge and each in depth source he uses helps develop a realistic 3-D version of the Reign of Terror. The pain that France felt can be felt seeping out of the pages and helping the readers see the truth of the bloody Reign of Terror. There was a substantial amount of bloodshed during the Reign of Terror since the Committee was concerned about traitors who were trying to sneak behind the rulers’ backs. This occurred because the government made rules that were vague and handled the economy poorly, leading to uprisings, which resulted in bloodshed. At one point it was estimated that around 40,000 people were killed. In the book, Robespierre and the rest of the committee are on a pedestal in their own eyes in comparison to the people they led. They felt entitled to make decisions that may not have been in the good graces of the common man. The Committee of Public Safety also felt that they were under immense pressure to govern the people quickly and effectively, however, in the rush to create a constitution and form a decent form of government, a sense of paranoia set into the twelve men, Robespierre being more paranoid than the rest. While they were paranoid, they still felt secure in their ideals and their ultimate goal, which was a democracy. A major issue that the committee ran into was that they were all upper class and had no even ground with the common man which caused a disconnect while they were ruling. After many mistakes made concerning wages, the common man, and the trading market, the common man turned against the Committee of Public Safety, this began a fast down would spiral for the twelve men. Over all, Palmer does a superb job of his descriptions of the committee as it develops and he captures the harsh and struggling reality with haunting perfection. He truly humanizes the twelve men in the Committee of Public Safety. The struggle they faced as they did their best as twelve clueless men trying to create something new from the ashes of France is portrayed in a light that almost favors the twelve men. He uses religion based terminology throughout his descriptions as he talks about the Reign of Terror to drive his point home. Palmer also talks about how, in terms of the idea of religion, the group was on slightly rocky footing. Robespierre wanted an all inclusive religion, while a few of the others simply wanted to thrown out all religions completely. They had quite a few situations similar to this where they were not on a united front about the topic. R. R. Palmer depicted the Reign of Terror in absolutely stunning details that helped open the readers mind into the true events that occurred over this fateful year for France. The Guillotine played a large part on society’s shortcomings, alongside the twelve men who ruled, and Palmer balances the struggle in an almost beautiful way. In hindsight, he could have placed more textual references into the story itself. He does quote his sources at the beginning of the text though. Regardless, that merely one small detail in comparison to the brilliant work in his story. For anyone looking to learn of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, This book would be highly recommended
This story, as a whole, possesses both strengths and weaknesses. This book has two strengths. One of those strengths is that the book contains pictures. The pictures add a visual context to the story, which is quite useful and helpful to those in the audience that are visual learners. For example, in the eight pages in between pages 138 and 139 contain pictures along with descriptive captions. Some of these pictures include the famous picture or painting of the Boston Massacre, John Burgoyne, Major-General Sir Henry Clinton, Charles Lee, a political cartoon named “Six-Pence a Day”, a self-portrait of Major John Andre, a British drummer and fifer, General Burgoyne’s camp and German mercenaries of the Prince Carl Regiment. Throughout the book, there are also pages that contain various maps. By including these pictures in the book, as well as many others, readers are able to visualize the American Revolutionary War and its events as they read through the text. By doing this, they are able to better understand the book’s content and storyline. The second of these strengths is its organization. By putting the events in chronological order, the audience is able to create a mental timeline of war’s happenings and helps them
The Return of Martin Guerre, written by Natalie Zemon Davis, is the tale of a court case that takes place in sixteenth century France. Martin Guerre is a peasant who deserted his wife and family for many years. While Martin Guerre is gone, a man named Arnaud du Tilh arrives at Martin’s village and claims to be Martin Guerre. Bertrande, who is Guerre’s wife, Guerre’s sisters, and many of the villagers, accepts the imposter. After almost three years of being happily married, Bertrande takes the fraud to court under pressure of Pierre Guerre, her stepfather and Guerre’s brother. Arnaud du Tilh is almost declared innocent, but the real Martin Guerre appears in the courthouse. Throughout this tale, many factors of the peasant life are highlighted. The author gives a very effective and detailed insight to a peasant’s life during the time of Martin Guerre. Davis does a successful job of portraying the peasant lifestyle in sixteenth century France by accentuating the social, cultural, and judicial factors of everyday peasant life.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press. Kennedy, Richard S. http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00394.html; American National Biography Online, Feb. 2000. Access Date: Sun Mar 18 12:31:47 2001 Copyright 2000 American Council of Learned Societies.
He was a man who made French stronger, provided his own legacy and impression that will most
Liberty, equality, and freedom are all essential parts to avoiding anarchy and maintaining tranquility even through the most treacherous of times. The Reign of Terror is well known as the eighteen month long French Revolution (1793-1794). In this period of time, a chief executive, Maximilien Robespierre, and a new French government executed gigantic numbers of people they thought to be enemies of the revolution, inside and outside of the country. The question is: were these acts of the new French government justified? Not only are the acts that occurred in the Reign of Terror not justified, they were barbaric and inhumane.
A rather ominous name for the unaware; “The Reign of Terror”. An oblivious person could completely bypass the horrifying events related to the French Revolution, had it been named differently. The title for these events is appropriate from my perspective. Those four words could easily interest a curious, ordinary person, and so the history can survive, along with the information transferring to yet another carrier. Of course, everyone can benefit from knowing a few terms that can increase your understanding of the topic. An absolute monarch is a person that has absolute power among his or her people. The Estates General is a representative body drawn from the three ‘estates’ into which society had been theoretically divided. A fraternity is a group of people sharing a common profession or interests. A radical person is a person who advocates thorough or complete political or social reform. The device used to execute most people was the guillotine: a machine with a heavy blade sliding vertically in grooves, used for beheading people. The Reign of Terror is generally defined as a period of remorseless repression or bloodshed, but in particular, it is the period of the Terror during the French Revolution. Conservatives are people that hold to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation. Now that we can speak of our topic with more knowledge of terms typically used for this subject, we can address the pending question. Was The Reign of Terror justified? An outstanding amount of people died for good and bad reasons. Every system was corrupt, there was practically no right and wrong; no order, just rebellion. Several conflicting arguments can be made, but there is a definite decision to make in this situatio...
Meursault is a fairly average individual who is distinctive more in his apathy and passive pessimism than in anything else. He rarely talks because he generally has nothing to say, and he does what is requested of him because he feels that resisting commands is more of a bother than it is worth. Meursault never did anything notable or distinctive in his life: a fact which makes the events of the book all the more intriguing.
Every character that revolves around Meursault seems to be in direct contrast to him. Meursault is an amoral person who does not seem to care passionately about anything. He acts in accordance with physical desires. In other words, Meursault is a sensualist person. At this particular time in his life, his path crosses with his neighbor, Raymond, who feels as though his girlfriend is cheating on him. He decides to take revenge with minor aid form Meursault. Meursault helps him only because he thinks he has nothing to lose if he does. As things lead into one another, the first major violent act of the book is committed.
...le contradicts the pleasant ambience of the town. When the foreshadowing job reaches its goal, it leads to the climatic point of the story. Through this climax, the reader sees the cruelty of the residents and how they undervalue life for this particular ritual.
Even though, the French Revolution saw the Terror as a sign to create peace and restore a new France, it was not justified because the extremities of the internal and external threats spun out of control and the methods of the period were over the top. As the Reign of Terror in France grew and invoked fear, the internal threats became more radical and deadly. The French Revolution began in 1789 as an attempt to create a new and fair government. (Doc A) As year four of freedom lurched, the thirst for power in Maximilien Robespierre stirred and the hunger for more blood provoked him, urging him to create the Reign of Terror.
The Reign of Terror was a time of death and war. In 1789, France was ruled by King Louis XVI. France was in debt from war, because of this, a lot of it’s people were starving and living in poor conditions. To make matters worse, there were riots and killings. There were over 40,000 people killed by guillotines because they were suspected to be enemies of the government(Doc F). All this is known as the Reign of Terror. Some people see it as unjustified, but I think it is. It is justified for three reasons, the wars had reasoning, the counter revolutionaries rebelled for good reasons, and the government had to defend the country.
France experienced a great change in 1793, When the radical Jacobins became in power. The country was in havoc, and a Reign of Terror developed by local revolutionary committees. Because of this, thousands of people were killed by guillotine or other methods. The Terror was successful in executing the counter-revolutionaries of the French Revolution to no longer conspire against the radicals and reformers, and The Reign of Terror also united France as a nation under a new government, making the era of terror justifiable for themselves. Unfavorably, The Terror led to persecution of the people of France, as many people who were in various ways undeserving of capital punishment were killed.
The Reign of Terror, a time of pure evilness and hecticness, is highly unjustifiable, because it went against what it stood for. During this time, thousands were killed without a fair trial, and it completely shifted the view of society for those in and out of France. The Reign of Terror was meant to kill the “enemies” of the revolution, but power hungry people ended up completely out of control.
The French peopled stormed Bastille, which is a prison that had the symbol of the absolute monarchy, and contained only seven prisoners. It all started with mob looting another prison called the Invalids prison to search for arms to fight the attack from the army that was loyal to the king. During the raid, over 32,000 rifles were taken but none of the ammunition was removed from the prison. The Bastille was a symbol of brutality and totalitarian power because of many stories of torture and brutality. The storming of the Bastille was a success and it brought freedom to seven prisoners along with the ending of a royal tyranny. It also became a symbol of despotic power to an end. This was a very big turning point in the French revolution, because this is when the people of France really took matters into their own hands and went against the government by raiding the prison and taking all of the weapons. Only one of the guards defending the base was killed and approximately 97 civilians were killed. The thing that really helped the people attacking the base was the fact that they brought in two huge cannons that really solidified their victory against the government. Robespierre was a very important character in all of this, he believed that the power of perfection was the democracy. He came up with an idea of the committee of public city is to get rid of their external and internal enemies (nobles, etc.). He
“Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.” The French Revolution was a painful era that molded the lives of every citizen living in France and changed their ways of life forever. Beginning in 1789 and lasting ten years until 1799, the people of France lived in a monarch society under King Louis XVI’s rule. He was a very harsh ruler and had many restrictions placed on his people. They eventually overthrow him and become a monarch society. Among his deceptive ways, the people also experienced “The Reign of Terror,” which was a period where many lives were taken by the guillotine. Other revolutionary events included rebellions, constitutions, and groups. One of the popular groups that contributed greatly to the French Revolution were the Jacobins who were led by Maximilien Robespierre.