Question

How far was the term'Reign of Terror' appropriate ?
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Answer 1

Reign of Terror, also called the Terror, French La Terreur, period of the French Revolution from September 5, 1793, to July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor, year II). With civil war spreading from the Vendée and hostile armies surrounding France on all sides, the Revolutionary government decided to make “Terror” the order of the day (September 5 decree) and to take harsh measures against those suspected of being enemies of the Revolution (nobles, priests, and hoarders). In Paris a wave of executions followed. In the provinces, representatives on mission and surveillance committees instituted local terrors. The Terror had an economic side embodied in the Maximum, a price-control measure demanded by the lower classes of Paris, and a religious side that was embodied in the program of de-Christianization pursued by the followers of Jacques Hébert.

Answer 2

The Reign of Terror, or commonly The Terror (French: la Terreur), was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First French Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and spurious accusations of treason by Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety.

The Reign of Terror
Part of the French Revolution
Octobre 1793, supplice de 9 émigrés.jpg
Nine émigrés are executed by guillotine, 1793
Date
1793 – 1794
Location
First French Republic
Organised by
Committee of Public Safety
There is disagreement among historians over when exactly "the Terror" began. Some consider it to have begun only in 1793, giving the date as either 5 September,[1] June[2] or March, when the Revolutionary Tribunal came into existence. Others, however, cite the earlier time of the September Massacres in 1792, or even July 1789, when the first killing of the revolution occurred.[a] There is a consensus that it ended with the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794[1][2] and resulting Thermidorian Reaction.[3] By then, 16,594 official death sentences had been dispensed throughout France since June 1793, of which 2,639 were in Paris alone;[2][4] and an additional 10,000 died in prison without trial.[5]

Barère and Robespierre glorify "terror" Edit

See also: History of France § Counter-revolution subdued (July 1793–April 1794)

Bertrand Barère by Jean-Louis Laneuville
There was a sense of emergency among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793 between the widespread civil war and counter-revolution. Bertrand Barère exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the Convention: "Let's make terror the order of the day!"[6][7] They were determined to avoid street violence such as the September Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government.[4]

Robespierre in February 1794 in a speech explained the necessity of terror:

If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie [homeland, fatherland].[8][4]

Some historians argue that such terror was a necessary reaction to the circumstances.[9] Others suggest there were additional causes, including ideological[10] and emotional.[11]