French Revolution Guillotine Project

Isabella Haberstock

The French Revolution started in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille and ended
in 1799 with the rise of Napoleon. Involvement in the American Revolution and
extravagant spending by royalty left France largely in debt. The French people absolutely
despised the monarchy because while they were starving, the king and queen had feasts
every day. As people got more restless, King Louis XVI called the Estates General,
which is a meeting of all three social classes: the nobility, the clergy, and everyone
else. Even though the Third Estate were ninety eight percent of the population, they
had no say in any government matter, so this meeting accomplished almost nothing.
The Third Estate decided to take matters into their own hands and formed the
National Assembly. They had many meetings at Versailles about how to improve
the lives of French citizens. The Assembly was not expecting, however, that the
French people would rise up to attack the monarchy. After the storming of the Bastille
in 1789, a contract was signed that ended feudalism in France. King Louis was forced
to sign away all of his rights and give full power to the Assembly. The Assembly
then made a constitution stating that everyone had equal rights, freedom of speech,
and

the

new

government

would

be

democracy.

Influential

radicals

such

as Maximilien Robespierre wanted to use fear to weed out anyone who was still
loyal to the monarchy and started what became known as the Reign of Terror. Hundreds
of people were sentenced to death every day, even if there was no concrete evidence
that they did anything wrong. The King, Queen, and royalists were all killed during

the

Terror.

creator:

Eventually

Maximilien

the

Reign

Robespierre.

of

The

Terror
killings

engulfed
stopped

everyone,
after

that,

including
and

its

Napoleon

Bonaparte began to gain power. He then became Emperor of France and started
the Age of Napoleon in 1799 (1).
During the Reign of Terror, the main weapon used to kill masses of people
was

the guillotine. The

guillotine

was

created

by Joseph-Ignace

Guillotin, who

thought that beheading enemies of the revolution was the best way to kill them. He was
part of an organization that was opposed to painful forms of the death penalty.
He thought that quickly beheading someone would cause them the least pain. His
prototype was a large, round blade that dropped from the top of wooden planks and
sliced off the heads of people condemned to death. Leon Berger improved the guillotine,
adding a diagonal blade and a spring at the base to catch the blade when it came down.
All future guillotines were modeled after his improved design (2).
The guillotine was the most popular way to kill enemies of the Revolution
because of Frances strive for equality. No matter who was sentenced to death, the
guillotine was the weapon to kill them, so everyone died the same way. Nobles,
clergy, and even royalty did not die differently than the commoners. However, if
the government really hated the person sentenced to death, he or she would face
the blade as it came down instead of facing away from the blade (2).
The guillotine was introduced during the Reign of Terror and became its only
weapon. The Reign of Terror started because surrounding countries were attacking
France and political leaders wanted to weed out any traitors. Even one word that
could be taken the wrong way would lead to execution. Maximilien Robespierre

organized

group

called

the

Committee

of

Public

Safety,

and

it

controlled

the French government. After thousands of executions, the Committee finally decided
to give an official trial for everyone sentenced to death. These trials were usually
not in the defendants favor, and almost everyone ended up guillotined in the end.
Robespierre was sending hundreds of people to the guillotine every day and called
for more and more blood to be spilled. French citizens and the government were
ready for the killings to stop, and they did not agree with him. When French soldiers
attempted to take him to be executed, he tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide
and only shattered his jaw. After he was beheaded on July 28, 1794, the killings virtually stopped
(3).
The guillotine has become a symbol of the corruption of the French Revolution.
It was supposed to be about achieving equality between the people and monarchy, but
it ended up being an unnecessary bloodbath that ended in another monarchy. When
Napoleon took over, he became Emperor of France and had total control, just like
the monarchy. The guillotine has unfortunately become a part of French history and
is a reminder of all the bloodshed that divided the French people when they should
have been brought together. During the Revolution and Terror, thousands of innocent
people died for no purpose, and the guillotine was the weapon that killed all of them (1).

Works Cited
1- http://www.history.com/topics/french-revolution
2- http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventions/a/Guillotine.htm
3- http://www.britannica.com/event/Reign-of-Terror