Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND REIGN OF TERROR, 1789–94
Against a background of grain shortages and national bankruptcy,
Louis XVI called together the Estates General in May 1789, a rare
meeting of France’s three social orders or Estates, the elite clergy,
the nobility and the commoners. Frustrated by Louis’ deafness
to their democratic requests, the Third Estate (the commoners)
split to form their own voting bloc, the National Assembly, and
declared revolt against the crown. Louis XVI’s repeated failure
to fully embrace a constitution or democratic social reforms
eventually eroded his popularity. In September 1792 the monarchy
was abolished altogether and a Republic declared, headed by a
new organisation, the National Convention. Church and crown
properties were nationalised, noble titles abolished, and the clergy
forced to swear allegiance to the Revolution.
Defying an outraged Europe, the new Republic repelled invaders
and counter-revolution by draconian legal and military means.
The radical Mountain party, lead by Maximilien Robespierre, purged
moderate and royalist dissenters and formed the Committee of
General Security and the Revolutionary Tribunal to apply extreme
emergency powers. The Law of 22 Prairial, Year II under the new
Revolutionary Calendar (10 June 1794) eliminated trials and
escalated the use of the guillotine. Once hailed as an innovative
and humane instrument for painless death, the guillotine became
a faceless and unsleeping executioner, liquidating thousands of
French citizens, many of whom once supported the Revolution.
This troubled period, known as the ‘Reign of Terror’, endured until
former allies of Robespierre finally overthrew him in July 1794.
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