Analyzing the Origins of the Terror (1793–1794)

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This worksheet is for 10th-grade history students. Answer each prompt using evidence from the lesson to compare wartime circumstances and political ideology.

Identify the executive body created by the National Convention in April 1793 to manage national defense.
Name the September 1793 decree that allowed local watch committees to arrest citizens for their associations, conduct, or writings.
Explain how the concept of the General Will influenced Robespierre's attitude toward political opponents.
Roughly 70 percent of the estimated 17,000 official executions occurred in regions of civil war. Calculate the approximate number of executions that took place outside these war zones.
In the 455 days before the Law of 22 Prairial, Paris saw about 1,250 executions (about 2.75 per day). During the 47 days of the Great Terror under that law, 1,376 people were executed. Calculate the new daily rate and describe the change.
Read the following statement: 'The military crisis caused the Terror, because the government only executed people to save France from foreign invasion.' Write a counter-argument using the Battle of Fleurus (June 26, 1794).
What specific archival evidence would lead a historian to conclude that the Paris executions in July 1794 were driven by circumstances rather than ideology?

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Analyzing the Origins of the Terror (1793–1794)

Answer key

Identify the executive body created by the National Convention in April 1793 to manage national defense.
The Committee of Public Safety.
Name the September 1793 decree that allowed local watch committees to arrest citizens for their associations, conduct, or writings.
The Law of Suspects.
Explain how the concept of the General Will influenced Robespierre's attitude toward political opponents.
Because the General Will assumed that the sovereign people had one united common interest, Robespierre viewed any political opposition as corrupt factionalism and treason against the nation, rather than legitimate disagreement.
Roughly 70 percent of the estimated 17,000 official executions occurred in regions of civil war. Calculate the approximate number of executions that took place outside these war zones.
30 percent of 17,000 = 5,100 executions (an estimate based on Donald Greer's historical statistical data).
In the 455 days before the Law of 22 Prairial, Paris saw about 1,250 executions (about 2.75 per day). During the 47 days of the Great Terror under that law, 1,376 people were executed. Calculate the new daily rate and describe the change.
1,376 divided by 47 equals roughly 29.28 executions per day, which is an increase of more than ten times the earlier rate.
Read the following statement: 'The military crisis caused the Terror, because the government only executed people to save France from foreign invasion.' Write a counter-argument using the Battle of Fleurus (June 26, 1794).
The counter-argument notes that after French forces won the Battle of Fleurus and removed the immediate threat of foreign invasion, executions in Paris did not stop; instead, they peaked during the Great Terror in July 1794, proving that ideological purges continued independently of military danger.
What specific archival evidence would lead a historian to conclude that the Paris executions in July 1794 were driven by circumstances rather than ideology?
Documented primary evidence, such as verified intelligence reports received by the Committee showing an active, coordinated military coup or armed sabotage plot within Paris during that specific month.