Enlightenment ideals such as liberty, equality, and fraternity had a considerable impact on the participants of the French Revolution leading to the introduction of measures such as the Law of Suspects. During different phases of the reign of terror, various measures such as the decree of Levee en Masse and decree of worshipping the Supreme Being were introduced.
The political ideas of Enlightenment such as liberty, equality, and freedom influenced individuals who participated in the French Revolution and subsequent events that took place in France in the 18th century. The Constitution of 1793 comprised a declaration of the rights of man and citizen. The document clearly shows the influence of ideas of Rousseau who believed in the natural rights of human beings. The document believed in inequality between individuals as they were granted freedom. The document also insisted that citizens needed to respect the law as it represented “general will”. This implied that the rights of citizens were guaranteed, but a few restrictions were imposed on them (Lewis 388).
The leaders expressed various views concerning the method of exercising general will and compelling citizens to submit to the same. The Jacobin club, a revolutionary group that believed in the use of brute force took advantage of the situation. As there was considerable confusion in France, there was a need for an agency, which could achieve unity of the country with or without the use of force. Members of the Jacobin Club unleashed a reign of terror.
The initial period of the reign of terror is the radical phase when there was the domination of the Jacobins over the legislative assembly. In the second phase, the members of this club subjected large numbers of anti-revolutionaries to the guillotine, a new machine, which was discovered to kill enemies of the revolution. During this period, there was the rise of the leader Maximilian Robespierre. In the third phase, there was opposition to the views of Robespierre. In the last phase, there was a decline of the authority of Robespierre when he was subjected to the guillotine (Lewis 388-390).
In the first phase of the reign of terror, revolutionaries had to deal with the problem of invasion by countries that sympathized with conservatism. To deal with this problem, a decree called Levee en Masse was introduced. The decree gave extraordinary powers to the administration controlled by the Jacobins. The decree implied that the Jacobin Club considered itself as representing the general will, and citizens were compelled to respect the orders of the administration. The decree allowed the government to compel citizens to become part of the army. The decree gave power to the government to recruit unmarried and widower soldiers in the age group of 18 to 25 years.
Married men had to work in the factories that produced weapons. Women had to work in military hospitals providing services to soldiers injured in the war. The decree allowed compulsory recruitment of more than 700,000 soldiers. The measure allowed France to respond to the challenges of its enemy countries (Hanson 196). The decree was a tool in the hands of revolutionaries to protect enlightenment ideals such as liberty, freedom, and equality.
The sans-culotte represents the second phase of the reign of terror. The group comprised lower sections in the society including petty artisans and traders, and they aimed to defend their rights against the rights of the middle class and elites. During the initial years of the Revolution, sans-culotte lacked appropriate representation in the National Convention and other administrative bodies. The rise of Robespierre provided an opportunity for this group to demand their inclusion in the Committee of the Public Safety. The ideology of the group implied the need for the distribution of property among the citizens. There were a few differences between sans-culotte and Robespierre.
The latter believed in the sanctity of private property. Sans-culotte believed in the principle of equality. To achieve the objectives of this group, there was a need to abolish private property. The group was influential because it added a radical element to the revolution. In the last phase of the reign of terror, this group could not play an important role as enemies of Robespierre had become prominent. Sans-culotte, consequently, could not protect Robespierre in the last phase of the reign of terror (Hanson 290-291).
To preserve enlightenment ideals such as liberty and equality, the administration in France initiated various measures. There was a need to defend various cities and provinces from anti-revolutionaries (Lewis 389). To achieve this objective, in each city there was the establishment of the Committee of Surveillance. The principal function of this committee was to monitor the activities of persons suspected of anti-revolutionary activities. The committee was strengthened with the passage of the Law of Suspects in 1793. The law gave extraordinary powers to the Committee to arrest individuals who opposed the “general will”.
The Committee was active in regions that had witnessed anti-revolutionary movements. The Law of Suspects played an important role in the second phase of the reign of terror when Jacobins were able to dominate the political arena of the country. The legislation allowed the Committee of Surveillance to assist radicals in unleashing a reign of terror (Hanson 79). The Law of Suspects allowed the Committee of Surveillance to deny the document called Certificat de civism to foreigners, ex-priests, and nobles who were suspected of supporting anti-revolutionaries (Hanson 60).
Robespierre believed in the cult of the Supreme Being, and he did not accept the demand to establish a cult of reason by abolishing the Church (Lewis 390). The cult of the Supreme Being represented enlightenment ideas as discussed by Voltaire and Rousseau. Enlightenment scholars argued that there was a need for a “Supreme Being” to achieve unity among different sections of the population. The cult could be instrumental in subjecting the population to the general will. A festival of the cult of the Supreme Being was celebrated in the year 1794 (Hanson 100). The decree of the cult of the Supreme Being represents the religious views of Robespierre particularly in the last phase of the terror.
During various phases of the reign of terror in France, revolutionaries introduced measures such as the Law of Suspects and the decree of worshipping the cult of the Supreme Being. Similarly, Levee en Masse was an attempt to enlist large numbers of people in the army. The measure was needed to fight against external enemies. The social group called sans-culotte played an important role in the implementation of enlightenment ideas during diverse phases of the Revolution. In the last phase of the reign of terror, sans-culotte could not defend Robespierre.
Works Cited
Hanson, Paul R. The A to Z of the French Revolution.Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print.
Lewis, Gavin. WCIV. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.