French Revolution: The Terror

The Committe of Public Safety tried to solve the crisis of high food prices. Some  did want to set the limits on the price of f ood. They argued that the governent should not interfere with the economy.On the 5th of Sept. the Sans Culottes invaded the convention and demanded the deputies to take action.

The Law of General Maximum:
Limits on the price of grain, salt,meat and wool. 
Forced farmers and traders to take their goods to the market. 
Death penalty for any farmer + trader who hide/hold back grain and other goods. 

The Committe took immediate action to protect the Revolution form foreign armies and rebellions within France. On 23rd August 1793, the Convention issued a decree - Levee en Masse. All French people had to take part in the War.

• Conscription - young, unmarried men.
• Married men - make weapons or transport food.
• Womed - make tents + clothes, or work in hospitals.
• Children - make bandages.
• Old men - brought to public places to ecourage men to join the army.
• Many men rushed to get married to avoid conscription. Those who did not obey this law, ended in the excution.

De-Christianisation - driven by the sans-culottes, the Revolutionary armies and some representatives were on mission. The hate towards the Catholic Churches led to closure of the removal of church bells and destruction of roadside shrines. Some priests were forced to give up their prietshood. The religious terror spread around France in the early 1794.

Representative-on-misson - arrested people in the provinces that was a threat. 1793 - thousands of people imprisoned. Committe wantd to set an example - Lyon.
Thousands were arrested, house set on fire. 300 people were blased to death.

In Vendee - it was worse. The Committe ordered destruction of the whole regionas punishment after the revolt. Massacre of Nantes were mass drownings in the River Loire. These drownings were terrible and thousands died a horrible and frightfull death. While this happend outside of Paris, in Paris thosuand were killed in the guillotine.

In response to sans-culottes pressure The National Convention passed another measure on 17th of Sept 1793, the Law of Suspects. Arrest all these suspects and send detalis of charges to the committee of General Securtity.The suspects were mostly :

• emigres
• anyone without a certificate of civisme from their local watch