The French Revolution's Reign of Terror: Two Phases Compared
This paper examines the French Revolution in two distinct phases: the moderate constitutional period from 1789 to 1792 and the radical Jacobin-dominated Reign of Terror from 1792 to 1794. It traces the causes of radicalization, including Louis XVI's flight to Varennes, foreign military threats from Austria and Prussia, and mounting economic discontent. The paper identifies the main revolutionary factions — Girondins, Jacobins, and enragées — and key figures such as Robespierre, Danton, and Marat. It evaluates whether the Terror was a necessary instrument of state survival or an exercise in political violence, ultimately situating both phases within the broader legacy of the Revolution for European political thought.
- Introduction: Two Phases of the French Revolution: Thesis framing the Revolution's shift to radicalism
- The First Phase: Toward a Constitutional Monarchy: Economic origins, Estates General, and constitutional monarchy
- Causes of Radicalization: Varennes flight, foreign war, and Jacobin mobilization
- The Second Phase: The Reign of Terror: Committee of Public Safety and levée en masse
- Factions and Power Struggles During the Terror: Girondins, Jacobins, enragées, and Robespierre's dominance
- Evaluating the Reign of Terror: Assessing the Terror's costs, justifications, and legacy
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What makes this paper effective
- Provides a clear chronological framework that divides the Revolution into two analytically distinct phases, making the argument easy to follow.
- Identifies specific turning points — the flight to Varennes, the declaration of war by Austria and Prussia, and the Law of Suspects — as causal drivers of radicalization rather than treating the Terror as inevitable.
- Balances political narrative with evaluative judgment, weighing the Terror's defensive justifications against its human costs in the final section.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses comparative periodization: by defining the two phases of the Revolution with clear start and end markers, the author can systematically contrast political goals, dominant factions, and outcomes. This technique is well suited to history papers where ideological or institutional change must be explained causally.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis framing the shift from constitutional to radical revolution, then builds the historical context of the first phase before analyzing the causes of radicalization. It moves into a narrative of the Terror, maps the competing factions and their fates, and closes with a balanced evaluative conclusion assessing the Terror's legacy within the broader arc of the Revolution.
Introduction: Two Phases of the French Revolution
The transition from the first phase of the French Revolution, roughly from 1789 to 1792, to its second phase, from 1792 to the fall of Robespierre in 1794, marks the transformation of the Revolution from an attempt to build a constitutional monarchy to a radical attempt to construct a leftist state. This radicalization marked not only the demise of the king, but also a build-up campaign of hatred against the clergy and the aristocracy, as the forces of the people were unleashed and tightly controlled by the Jacobins and the Commune.
The aim of this paper is to compare the two phases of the Revolution, identify the main revolutionaries who played a role in both, and determine what encouraged this radicalization process. It also attempts to analyze the causes of the ideological shift and whether it was ultimately justified, depending on the objectives that each political faction held.
The First Phase: Toward a Constitutional Monarchy
The French Revolution's official start date is marked by historians as 14 July — the date when Parisians stormed the Bastille, released the prisoners inside, and subsequently destroyed the prison. The act carried obvious political and symbolic significance as an expression of the people's resistance to monarchic absolutism (fewer than ten prisoners were actually found inside).
It was also an expression of accumulated popular anger, as the economic situation of ordinary people had steadily worsened throughout the eighteenth century. The causes range from France's disastrous military and political ambitions in Europe — which aimed to consolidate its power on the continent but instead led to costly military defeats — to the rising tax burden on the lower classes. The deepening financial crisis of the preceding years compelled the King to convene the Estates General as a mechanism for addressing the growing economic problems. The Estates General quickly transformed themselves into the National Assembly, a body composed mainly of representatives of the Third Estate and claiming to speak for the people.
Under pressure from citizens, the king was forced to move from Versailles to Paris and to legitimize the National Assembly. By this point, France was evolving along the lines of a parliamentary monarchy, with the National Assembly functioning much like a national parliament and dividing along the political spectrum: from the right (generally the monarchist conservatives) through the center (the national party, represented by Mirabeau) and toward the left, where Robespierre was gathering supporters along more radical lines.
By this time, the King was coming under pressure from the growing representative regime and appeared increasingly reluctant to relinquish his monarchic powers. Correspondence later discovered between the King and several European monarchs revealed that he was tacitly encouraging the overthrow of the new form of government in France and the military intervention of foreign powers.
His attempted escape to Varennes with his family marked the end of the phase in which the trajectory of events still favored the emergence of a constitutional monarchy. With this act, the King forfeited the trust of both the people and many of the politicians with whom he was supposed to be cooperating to solve France's problems.
With the passage of the Constitution in 1791, the King remained head of state but with substantially reduced powers. However, his constitutional prerogative of the veto caused ongoing friction with the Legislative Assembly. He refused to accept the prospect that émigrés could be tried and executed, and he opposed the requirement that the clergy adopt secular positions.
Causes of Radicalization
Several interconnected causes split the evolution of the French Revolution into two distinct phases. The flight to Varennes had cost the king the support of the people; beyond that, he was now perceived as collaborating with foreign powers to overturn France's democratic development. Simultaneously, when Austria and Prussia declared war on France in early 1792, the king found himself in an untenable position — privately supporting these countries as allies of his monarchy while being unable to do so openly.
The fear that spread throughout France with the onset of war, and the anxiety surrounding the unfolding situation, was probably one of the primary causes driving people toward a more openly radical leftist position. Many conservatives and monarchist sympathizers came to be seen as enemies of France — politicians who would compromise with monarchic forces at any moment. The Revolution appeared to have changed very little from 1789 and had not delivered the transformations people expected.
This environment made it easy for the Jacobins — radical leftists coalesced around Robespierre and Marat — to mobilize the population into overthrowing the monarchy and, thereafter, to consolidate a reign of terror lasting until 1794. The first step in the radicalization process was the assault on the Tuileries in August 1792, followed by the abolition of the monarchy on 21 September 1792. The trial and execution of the king on 21 January 1793 provoked the rest of Europe, ensuring that many continental powers would form coalitions against France.
Bibliography
Popkin, Jeremy. A History of Modern France. 3rd ed.
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