YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → HIST 213 L4 THE TERROR! PT 1

HIST 213 L4 THE TERROR! PT 1 — Transcript

by Dr. Pearson's History Channel · 4,713 words · 808 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:04Hello and good afternoon. Welcome back
0:06to History 213, the French Revolution.
0:09Today we're going to be talking about
0:12the um terror. So it's sort of one of
0:14those encapsulizations of something
0:16that's quite famous. Um people really
0:18interested in how big was it? How broad
0:20was it? How much? Why did it happen?
0:24We'll try to lay out some of those
0:25questions today. I encourage you to
0:27again take notes as you need to remember
0:30to send those to me. Uh you'll see I'm
0:33dressed as I am because it's July 1st,
0:352026 as I'm recording this and we just
0:38um
0:41planted here on campus and we unveiled
0:42Barberville's home uh silver home guard
0:44flag which I encourage any of you that
0:46are close to campus to drop by Sharp
0:49and see it's quite beautiful. Let me
0:50share um our presentation.
0:56We are I hope everyone's well wherever
1:00you are. It's quite warm here. Very very
1:03warm.
1:09My screen.
1:12All right. So we were talking last time
1:14the collapse of the old regime, the
1:15calling of the estates general which
1:17will the third estate eventually will
1:20assume power and control over uh French
1:22politics and French national life.
1:24Remember it starts with the fiscal
1:25crisis but there were several other
1:28related themes that we talked about
1:30right we talked about the social
1:33um changes happening in late Oion regime
1:36or old regime France.
1:38We talked about the ideological changes
1:40specifically. Think about the um
1:43enlightenment,
1:44the problems of subsistence and febing
1:47prices were through the roof. Um all
1:49that contributes to the legitimacy
1:50crisis, right? The old regime cannot
1:52persuade the people that it can
1:53effectively govern competently.
1:59Now, our biggest takeaways from last
2:01time, right? You can see them here on
2:03the slide. The crisis exposes the
2:06structural weaknesses right of the older
2:09regime. They don't cause the revolution
2:10itself.
2:12Um there's resistance by elites to
2:14moderate tax reform that provokes colia
2:16states general which broadens who gets a
2:19seat at the table that starts to
2:21snowball toward revolution. Right? We
2:24know the ABCs, right? you've been
2:26reading that hopefully provided the
2:28intellectual framework for the third
2:30estate to seize um its place as the
2:33national assembly spokesman for the
2:34entire nation which of course the tennis
2:37court oath um sparks
2:41that gives us revolution.
2:44go from a kind of const more or less
2:46run-of-the-mill constitutional debate or
2:48an extraordinary constitutional debate
2:50about taxes then transforms into an
2:53out-and-out destruction of a
2:55thousand-year feudal regime. Right?
2:59Nobody even at the tennis court oath
3:02meant or thought they were going to
3:05destroy pretty much 95% of them were not
3:07interested in destroying the monarchy.
3:11That's what'll happen.
3:14All right. Now, the National Assembly
3:16CLA claims
3:18to on June 17th, 1789 declares itself
3:22the National Assembly. This was a
3:25revolutionary act because the third
3:26estate was no longer acting as one
3:28estate among three. It was claiming to
3:30represent the French nation as a whole.
3:34The National Assembly's declaration
3:35challenged the entire political logic of
3:37the old regime. Remember under the old
3:39regime society was divided into those
3:41three distinct orders. I don't know if I
3:43have a slide for you today because
3:44you've seen that quite a lot right the
3:46first second third estate the clergy the
3:48nobles and the comets um
3:51the king supposedly stood above all of
3:53this but the national assembly right the
3:55third estate and some of the nobles and
3:57some of the clergy will join them um now
3:59claimed all legitimate authority came
4:01from them. So
4:04the revolution then becomes
4:06constitutional when the third estate
4:08claims national sovereignty.
4:10That's kind of key becomes a
4:12revolutionary thing. On June 20th, um
4:15the deputies find themselves locked out
4:17of their usual meeting place. So they
4:19gathered in a nearby tennis court.
4:21There's a bad artistic rendering of
4:22that. They swore not to separate until
4:24France had a constitution. This oath
4:27matters to us as history students
4:29because it shows the deputies were not
4:31simply obeying royal pressure. They were
4:33claiming a higher and deeper political
4:35authority. The will of the nation built
4:38three days out from the 250th here in
4:40America um on the American example. So
4:43it's not violent, but it is deeply
4:45radical. It said the king could not
4:48dismiss the nation's representatives and
4:49the king had to listen to people he had
4:52never had to listen to before. So, the
4:54tennis court oath matters because it
4:57transforms political protest into a
4:59constitutional revolution.
5:03Hopefully that makes everybody tracking.
5:05If you have questions on any of this, of
5:07course, um, write them down and email
5:10me.
5:14So, what else is happening in the summer
5:17of 1789?
5:19Rumors spread throughout rural France.
5:21remember that the people are hungry,
5:23bread prices are high, so they believe
5:25nobles are hoarding grain. Um, many
5:28believe that the nobles were plotting
5:30against the peasants. This became known
5:32as the great fear. Peasants began
5:35attacking manor houses all across the
5:37French countryside and destroying feudal
5:39records. The reason for that, it'd be
5:41like you destroying your credit card and
5:42all your bills. Sadly, it all lives on
5:44the cloud. But if no one can prove you
5:46owe, how can they make you pay? That's
5:48what the peasants are trying to do. So
5:50this matters because it transforms the
5:52revolution into a social revolt against
5:55feudal privilege. So why do we care?
5:58Fear becomes one of the revolution's
6:00most powerful forces. Talking today
6:02about the terror that's driven by fear.
6:05This theme is going to matter over and
6:07over and over, especially as hopefully
6:09you've been reading.
6:13On August 4th, 1789, the National
6:16Assembly moved to abolish all feudal
6:18privileges. all those rights and kind of
6:20duties that nobles it's how they made
6:22their money and achieve their status. So
6:24the national assembly is going to attack
6:26those things.
6:28Um this was a dramatic political attack
6:31on legal inequalities under these
6:33regime. Now the old regime had based
6:36remember it was based one of its logic
6:38and we talked about that a couple
6:39lectures back basically its inherent
6:41logic is on privilege. So what the
6:44August decrees are doing is um
6:46suggesting that legal equality would
6:48replace privilege as a foundation of
6:50society
6:52right
7:00now.
7:04Why do we care?
7:07Step back just a little bit. On July
7:0914th, 1789,
7:12a Parisian crowd will storm the Bastile.
7:15Now, the Bastile was a French prison and
7:17a symbol, an absolute symbol of royal
7:19power. Its fall is going to be kind of
7:22the seed ground of what I just explained
7:23to you, right? Its fall showed that
7:26popular crowds could and would shape
7:28revolution um policy moving forward,
7:30what happened the course of history. But
7:34mobs are very, very hard to control.
7:36They're fickle. They're passionate. They
7:39by definition lack reason. So what we're
7:42seeing in the summer of 89 then is the
7:43revolution shifting. It's not simply
7:45about people debating policy, but action
7:48happening on the streets. That gives you
7:50the fear in the countryside, right?
7:53Apologies for getting that out of order
7:54there. But July 14th, 1789, we get the
7:58storming of the Bastile tearing it down.
8:01Interesting. Um, side fact for y'all as
8:04we near America's um, 250th birthday.
8:08One of the keys of the steel was
8:09presented towards Washington by his old
8:11friend, the Marquita Lafayette as a
8:13symbol of freedom. And so then that fear
8:15of course spreads across the
8:16countryside.
8:22So what do we get? The August decrees,
8:24right?
8:26Remember the decrees attack privilege.
8:29They're promulgated on August 4th, 1789.
8:32Um, the old regime being based on
8:34privilege was now going to be based on
8:35law. The new regime would be right.
8:38The revolution had begun by dismantling
8:41the social order of the old regime. And
8:43now it's going to build something new.
8:46Now, I'm asking y'all to read this, I
8:47believe, in one of our primary source
8:49exercises. Um,
8:52later in 1789, the assembly will issue
8:54the declaration of rights of man and
8:56citizen. This is a key document in the
8:59history of the recent west right there
9:02at the Declaration of Independence. Um
9:04the American Constitution enshrining
9:07great universal human ideals.
9:10It proclaims liberty, equality before
9:12the law, popular sovereignty, freedom
9:15from authority, arbitrary authority, and
9:17property rights. This is one of the
9:19revolution's most important statements
9:21of principles. Right? So
9:25the revolution is trying to define
9:27itself through universal ideals, things
9:29that apply to everybody.
9:31Um there's a tension here though. The
9:34revolution declare declares universal
9:36rights and liberty, but it will later
9:38defend those ideals through arbitrary
9:40coercion and violence. Madame Leotine,
9:44right? So what can we take away? By late
9:481789, the revolution had destroyed many
9:50of the foundations of the old regime,
9:53but it had not yet solved the problem of
9:54political authority and also France was
9:57still broke. Could France then we want
9:59to know become a constitutional monarchy
10:02or would the country swing much further?
10:05All this under the the heavy shadow of
10:08fiscal insolveny.
10:15So, we'll just kind of track this. I've
10:17done this kind of chronologically to
10:19help you understand your book. It is
10:21sort of does topically, right? It
10:22circles back through who, what, when, or
10:24what. Um, trying to do this a little
10:26chronologically for you. Um, first, the
10:30revolution is going to do its best to
10:32compromise with the king. That is the
10:34National Assembly. Now, the assembly did
10:36not immediately move to abolish the
10:38monarchy. The revolutionaries certainly
10:40wanted a constitutional monarchy. That's
10:42what everyone said where the king would
10:44remain but his power would now be
10:46limited by law on the English example.
10:48This certainly fits with the reformist
10:50goals we see in the cai been reading
10:52those. Many French people wanted rights
10:54and representations but not necessarily
10:57a republic. They were attached to the
10:59monarchy. It was something they
11:00understood. They knew. So the early
11:02revolution then 89 and 91 the early
11:05national assembly is going to try to
11:07reconcile
11:08um national sovereignty on more people
11:10not just the king with um reformed
11:13monarchy.
11:16Now one issue is the king's position
11:18begins to erode and become unstable.
11:22Louie wasn't necessarily a bad king. I
11:25don't even know that he was necessarily
11:27weak. What he was was indecisive. he
11:29would make one uh decision and then go
11:32back on it and make another. He couldn't
11:34stay with anything. He couldn't
11:35encourage his friends or um dissuade his
11:37enemies. So, initially Louis the 16th
11:40formally accepted revolutionary changes
11:43but quite plausibly the revolutionaries
11:46doubted his sincerity.
11:48So
11:50in October
11:52um the royal family was forced they
11:55would say invited but forced to return
11:59to Paris from Versailles and Paris
12:01should be shorthand for you for the
12:03absolute epicenter of radical thinking.
12:06The French Revolution is the most
12:08violent, the most intense, perhaps the
12:10most interesting. It's debatable. I like
12:12the von D2 in the west. It's so
12:14fascinating. Um but most intense really
12:17in Paris. So moving the royal family
12:19from Versailles, the heart of royal
12:23power, right? Massive monument to royal
12:26wealth and maybe excess to Paris. So is
12:30a shifting and some would say a
12:31capturing of the monarchy.
12:35Crowds of women marched to Versailles,
12:37right? The October days looking for
12:38bread. All this shows us again is that
12:41popular pressure does matter. It can
12:43make political change happen. It also
12:45made the king or prisoner
12:49in the eyes of the people than monarch.
12:53So right
12:56October of 89 the monarchy survives.
12:58It's legal but the trust and hope and
13:02future relationships with the king are
13:04kind of waning.
13:06two,
13:08we see um
13:11the civil constitution of the clergy. In
13:131790, the National Assembly reorganized
13:16the Catholic Church in France through
13:18what was called the civil constitution
13:19of the clergy. So, what is this? The
13:22clergy were required to swear loyalty to
13:24the new constitutional order. That's a
13:27problem. I'll explain in just a second
13:30why. Because it creates major religious
13:32divides. Some priests will take the
13:34oath, others will refuse. For many
13:37Catholics, this made the revolution seem
13:39hostile to religion itself. And of
13:41course, rel
13:43Catholic priests, bishops, and cardinals
13:45are supposed to have ultimate loyalty to
13:46the bishop of Rome and to God, right? So
13:50toear loyalty to one particular
13:53government or one particular group of
13:55people would be running counter to the
13:57Catholic faith which is supposed to be
13:58universal.
14:00What does this do? The revolution
14:02creates enemies and didn't necessarily
14:06need to by trying to remake ancient
14:08institutions too fast.
14:10Um, this matters if y'all are going to
14:12understand counterrevolutionary
14:14thinking, especially among the rural and
14:17religious regions, west and south. So,
14:20try to compromise with the monarchy. The
14:23king's position is getting worse all the
14:25time. He can't make a decision. He can't
14:27stay with it. The royal family's moved
14:29from Versailles to Paris. And finally,
14:31we get the civil constitution of the
14:32clergy. Should the priests swear loyalty
14:35to the revolution or maintain their old
14:38faith right
14:39to God, the church in Rome.
14:48France does achieve a constitution in
14:501791 which establishes a constitutional
14:53monarchy, certain rights and privileges.
14:57It creates a limited monarchy with the
14:59representative legislature. Now, this
15:01seems like an off-ramp. We can all just
15:03kind of get off the road here, find some
15:05money, get France out of debt, and be
15:08happy. The problem is the settlement's
15:10fragile. It depends on cooperation
15:13between the king and the national
15:14assembly, where trust was already weak
15:16on both sides. The royal family,
15:20while saying all the right things
15:21publicly, is privately reaching out to
15:24the queen's relatives and other monarchs
15:27across Europe. Now, many of the heads of
15:29state in Europe were certainly happy to
15:31see the French struggle, but they didn't
15:32want to see a brother king ticked around
15:35this way because it put ideas into their
15:37own people's heads.
15:40So in June 1791, in one of the most
15:45botched and slow and insanely
15:47incompetent escap,
15:50the royal family sneaks out of the
15:52palace. This is June 1791 and attempted
15:56to flee. They will eventually be caught
15:58in Verin. You can see it on the map
16:00there on the right, which is almost to
16:03Luxembourg, almost to Austria, almost to
16:06safety.
16:08This is one of the clear early turning
16:10points of the revolution. Many
16:12revolutionaries concluded the king
16:14simply could not be trusted. Monarchy
16:16cannot be trusted. If he was trying to
16:19flee, perhaps he was hoping foreign
16:21powers would intervene and restore his
16:23authority. He certainly was.
16:26So what Ven does is turn suspicion of
16:28the king into political facts. Right
16:32after Ven, the constitutional monarchy
16:34still exists on paper, but its
16:37legitimacy was damaged. Ire war would
16:40push the revolution into a far more
16:42radical phase, and the monarchs will not
16:45survive, and nor will the monarchy.
16:52So, got this internal part of it, right?
16:55There's also this external part of the
16:56revolution, specifically a large, soon
16:59to be continental and global world war.
17:02When we add Napoleon into it, in April
17:041792, France declares war on Austria.
17:08French have been spoiling for a fight
17:09with the Germans for a while. It all
17:11boils over. Some revolutionaries believe
17:14war would spread revolutionary ideals
17:16and expose traitors. Others
17:20were kind of skeptical. And what happens
17:22instead is that war intensifies fear and
17:24suspicion. When France suffered early
17:27defeats, as surely she would, many
17:29revolutionaries suspected the king, the
17:31nobles, and other counterrevolutionaries
17:33were working with their foreign enemies
17:35and losing on purpose. Some would say
17:38they were they were suspected of
17:39throwing.
17:41So what does the war do? It turns
17:43political disagreements into
17:45opportunities to search for loyalty
17:47tests, right? For treason. This is
17:49another bridge to the terror.
17:52We've also got the Brunswick manifesto.
17:55In 1792, the Duke of Brunswick,
17:57commander of invading forces, threatened
17:59Paris if the royal family was harmed.
18:03Instead of protecting the king, this
18:05seemed to confirm assembly fears that
18:08Louis V 16th was aligned with foreign
18:10enemies. It made the monarchy appear
18:13dangerous to those in the National
18:15Assembly.
18:17So, what do we get?
18:21Next slide here. Here you go.
18:24On August 10th, 1792.
18:27Again, if I'm talking too fast, um, just
18:29pause this, get the main ideas down. So,
18:33August 10th, 1792, Parisian militants
18:36and other federates, right? People
18:38supporting the federal government
18:39attacked the Tuli Palace
18:42um, ostensibly to come murder the king.
18:46monarchy was suspended and Louis V 16th
18:48was imprisoned. This marks the collapse
18:51of constitutional monarchy. Even the
18:52troops wouldn't defend the king. It's
18:54Swiss guards, same troops that guard the
18:57pope. That's why if you go um to Geneva
18:59now, you'll see the Swiss lion. It's
19:01this wounded lion with the floor dele
19:03the symbol of the French monarchy
19:06because French troops died to protect
19:07the queen and king of France.
19:10But the attack on Tulier Palace is going
19:12to show you the collapse of the
19:13constitutional monarchy.
19:15So the revolutionary has moved them from
19:18limiting monarchy to getting rid of it.
19:22Also se September 1792 as foreign armies
19:26advanced and rumors spread of internal
19:27plots, Parisian crowds began killing
19:29prisoners they believe might join the
19:31counterrevolutionary forces. So they
19:33started clearing jails and just killing
19:34people. Now I'm giving you a a wood
19:37cutting to that over here on the slide.
19:39Right?
19:40Anybody believed to hold conservative
19:42tendencies, royalist sympathies, too
19:45excited about the church, getting
19:47beheaded your heads on pikes.
19:50Um, this shows the fear of internal
19:53enemies
19:55has real consequences beyond the
19:57political. So the terror then grows out
20:00of a climate where fear makes violence
20:02seem defensive. You have to defend what
20:04you're gaining, right? You do that by
20:06rooting out enemies. By the end of 1792,
20:10France is no longer a constitutional
20:12monarchy, becoming a republic. And the
20:16question is, could that republic survive
20:17war, rebellion, and division?
20:20The answer is no.
20:26Let's move the story along.
20:28Um, in September 1792,
20:32the National Assembly becomes the
20:34National Convention. a little bit before
20:35that actually abolishes the monarchy and
20:37declares France a republic. Right? This
20:40is a massive shift from many of the
20:42goals the reformers had just two two
20:45years prior. Right? It was now committed
20:47to political order without any kind of
20:49king. So the revolution moves from
20:51reforming monarchy to rejecting monarchy
20:54altogether.
20:56You can't do that and have a king. The
20:58only place for a deposed king to go is
21:00to a pit. Shakespeare, right? So Louis
21:03the 16th was then put on trial trial for
21:06treason to his people. Now everything
21:08they try him for uh technically was
21:10constitutional. He was exercising his
21:12rights under the constitution passed in
21:141791.
21:16The convention doesn't care. The fact
21:18that he's a king at all means he's
21:20guilty of being hostile to the rights of
21:22the people in the eyes of the
21:23revolutionary.
21:25He was called citizen cap. Louis Cape
21:27because he's from the Capescian branch
21:29of the Bourban family, symbolically
21:32stripping of him of his royal
21:33sacredness. He's no longer treated as
21:36God's anointed, but is just a citizen
21:38answerable to the nation.
21:40Why do we care? Because this reflects
21:43the revolution's larger shifts from
21:44royal sovereignty to national
21:46sovereignty, from king to convention.
21:51On January 21st, 1793,
21:54the convention um executes Louis the
21:5816th by guillotine.
22:04Without the king, compromise becomes
22:06much harder.
22:08To supporters, the execution was
22:11necessary because the king had betrayed
22:13the nation by being a king, by wanting
22:15to stay a king. to opponents. It proved
22:19that the convention had gone too far.
22:21The revolution had slid off the rails
22:23and it was becoming too dangerous and
22:25lacking legitimacy.
22:27Right?
22:30Louis the 16th's death makes
22:33the tumble into revolution and radical
22:36politics and irreversible.
22:40Does that make sense?
22:42I hope so.
22:44Excuse
22:46me. One other thing. Um, the thing to
22:50understand, by 1793, the revolution
22:53faces foreign war, civil war at home,
22:55not everyone's happy to see the king
22:57dead, economic crisis, right, and um,
23:01bitter factional conflict.
23:04The terror will emerge from the crisis
23:05of 1793.
23:07Ardan revolutionaries will bleed. The
23:09republic was surrounded by enemies
23:11outside and enemies within. rampant
23:14paranoia will spark a witch hunt in the
23:17literal sense but um political enemies
23:19by October of this year. The queen
23:21herself will be executed
23:24crimes against the republic and she's
23:27accused of some pretty distasteful
23:28things.
23:32So why emergency politics? First of all,
23:36there's a foreign war, a war with much
23:38of Europe. Um, military defeats will
23:41make the republic feel vulnerable.
23:43Leaders believe that if France loses the
23:46war, the revolution will be destroyed
23:48and the monarchy restored.
23:51So, the terror seems justified in the
23:54eyes of revolutionaries as an emergency
23:56measure to root out um the uncommitted
24:00and save the best of the revolution,
24:03civil government, liberty.
24:05Two,
24:07rebellion and civil war keep
24:08intensifying fear. It's kind of a
24:10ongoing thing. We'll talk to the von D
24:12in a second. In western France, we have
24:14the Vond revolt and I think I have
24:16something dedicated to them. It becomes
24:18one of the most serious internal revolts
24:20against the revolution anywhere in
24:22France before the advent of Napoleon.
24:24Right? Why are the western French people
24:27so grumpy? Um they resent being
24:29conscript drafted into this war. They
24:32don't like attacks on the church.
24:34They're pretty locally minded and they
24:37don't like revolutionary authority and
24:39they're angry about the death of the
24:40king.
24:42Um, if you're in Paris though, the van
24:44seem like proof that the
24:45counterrevolution was active inside
24:47France and certainly it was in certain
24:49places. So internal rebellion makes
24:52suspicion seem reasonable and therefore
24:54terror justified to those who are
24:56leading the revolution guys like Rubs
24:58Pierre and Don.
25:03We also have
25:06economic crisis bringing pressure from
25:09the songs uh without bridges. These are
25:12urban workers and artisans called the
25:15sons koula. So they they just wear basic
25:17um work pants. They face um inflation so
25:21their money is worth less and food
25:22shortages. What do they want? Price
25:25controls, punishment of hoarders.
25:28Something by guillotine. Stronger action
25:30against enemies of the republic. They
25:31are ard and passionate revolutionaries
25:34right. The son koulot want political
25:37liberty but they also want bread bred in
25:39what they define as economic justice.
25:43Um so we see then that the terror is
25:45shaped both by elite revolutionaries
25:47like roses pierre don and others and by
25:49people from below.
25:52The other issue is the convention itself
25:54is divided
25:57between two groups called the giranddons
25:59and the mountains. Now the Gerantans
26:02were sort of moderates. They wanted
26:07right a reformed constitutional
26:09monarchy. They eventually go along with
26:11the death of the king but they want the
26:13radicalism to stop. These are kind of
26:15elite bajgeoa who understand um tumult
26:19and upheaval are bad for business.
26:22The mountain includes um Ardan Jacobins
26:26like ropes Pierre and others were far
26:28more willing to cooperate with the sons
26:29koulot um to achieve their goals.
26:34By 1793 the mountain will clear the
26:37giron and your book talks about that
26:38from government which makes room for far
26:40more radical policies making the the
26:42terror inevitable. So revolutionaries
26:46begin by the fall of 1793
26:49to not tightly define what equals
26:52revolutionary enough. And if you're not
26:54there, you're probably going to the
26:55guillotine. So it's not simply mob
26:58violence with the best of the songs. Um
27:02it's organized institutional violence
27:04through law, through court, through
27:05committee to root out enemies. All of it
27:08driven by fear and a push for
27:11ideological purity.
27:15which gives us the rather infamously
27:18named Committee of Public Safety who
27:20will centralize power.
27:23It will direct the war effort, supervise
27:25internal security, and try to save the
27:28republic from collapse. It says most
27:30famous, of course, was Maximleian Rubs
27:32Pierre. But the terror wasn't simply
27:34him. It was a system involving
27:37committees, revolutionary courts,
27:39representatives on mission, spies or
27:41narcs, local officials, popular
27:43organizations, and basically neighbors
27:45selling each other out. So the terror
27:48then for y'all, again, pause this if you
27:50need to, was institutionalized fear and
27:53emergency rule masquerading as
27:55Republican government. It's not good.
28:00Let's see some examples of that. One
28:02would be the law of suspects allowing
28:04the arrest of people accused of being
28:06enemies of the revolution to be drugged
28:09off to jail.
28:11We also see the category of suspect
28:13broaden. What is a suspect? You could be
28:16targeted because of your social
28:17background, any kind of weird political
28:20statements you make, religious behavior
28:22or association.
28:24You went to mass, you went to church,
28:26it's an issue. You like the wrong
28:28person.
28:29uh it's not always logical.
28:32So this makes loyalty something ongoing
28:35that you continually have to prove and
28:36the goalposts always move
28:39based on what the committee wants who
28:41their who feel their enemies are. Why do
28:43we care? That means suspicion becomes
28:46law. It's literally in there. The law of
28:47suspects. So we're tightening down.
28:50We're not even an assembly. We're a
28:51committee. And that committee is going
28:52to define who's loyal enough. Third,
28:55revolutionary tribunals will turn
28:57politics and political disagreement into
28:59judgment. And judgment can mean death.
29:03They're finding they hope aren revol
29:07counter revolutionaries and reactionary
29:09people and folks that are to commit to
29:11the church of the king. These trials are
29:14often summary, quick, and punishments
29:15are severe. Usually the guillotine or
29:17the prison hoes.
29:21That is the most famous symbol of the
29:23terror was the guillotine which
29:26ironically enough was invented they said
29:27to be a humane way to kill somebody.
29:33Originally the guillotine was associated
29:35with equal punishment. Everybody faced
29:37the blade.
29:39King himself did. But during the terror
29:41it will be associated with revolutionary
29:42violence and state execution.
29:46So the language of justice then becomes
29:48tied to coercion.
29:50um oppression and death.
29:55Then we have representatives on mission.
29:56It's a lot of sills for spies.
29:59Representatives on mission were sent
30:01into the provinces into armies to
30:03enforce revolutionary authority. So they
30:07want to make sure everyone's committed.
30:09So the terror then will look different
30:11in different places. Some areas
30:13experience surveillance and arrest.
30:15Other areas associated with rebellion
30:17will see extreme violence, destruction
30:19of property, churches, um
30:23sexual violence, women, rape and um
30:28the guillotine.
30:31So it's national policy, right?
30:33Absolutely play a role.
30:38What about idiology?
30:42They're not just doing this because
30:44they're schmucks, right? They're not
30:46just doing this because they're
30:47schmucks. Um, violence is seen as virtue
30:51because you're defending the heart of
30:52what? Something good, tearing down
30:54monarchy, and throwning the rights of
30:55the individual.
30:57Rose Pier and others argue that the
31:00republic needs virtue.
31:02He meant public morality, patriotism,
31:05sacrifice, and devotion to the common
31:07good.
31:08It couldn't survive if citizens were
31:10selfish, corrupt, or secretly loyal to
31:12monarchy. And so all that other stuff,
31:14public morality, patriotism, sacrifice,
31:16get subsumed in loyalty to the
31:19revolution itself
31:21to Pierre.
31:28Sorry, I'm get a little drink here,
31:30little water. I'm going to also show you
31:32something else in just a second. Um
31:36so the terror is justified morally or
31:39they try to not simply practically.
31:42Um two the terror is seen as a defense
31:45of liberty itself which sounds kind of
31:48crazy. Robes spear and other committed
31:50jack right those hard
31:53just passionate revolutionaries argue
31:55that terror is necessary because the
31:57republic is in fragile and it's um
32:00facing extreme danger. They claimed that
32:03enemies of liberty do not deserve the
32:04full protection of liberty or the law.
32:06If you're not committed to liberty, you
32:08don't get to enjoy it, which is a weird
32:11kind of conclusion.
32:13Um, to me, this is one of the central
32:15contradictions of the terror itself. It
32:17claims to defend liberty by violating
32:20liberty.
32:25Men like Robespierre, imagine a purified
32:28republic of equal patriotic citizens.
32:30Once you kill enough people um and
32:33educate everyone else, you'll have a
32:34republic that can be defended. Right?
32:37The search for liberty made political
32:38compromise almost impossible. If you
32:42disagree, if I disagree, you're could be
32:44labeled selfish, corrupt, or
32:46counterrevolutionary
32:48and find yourself in front of
32:50guillotine.
32:52So, the desire to purify the revolution
32:56made the revolution turn against itself.
32:59That make sense?
33:02I think
33:06just move this ahead here.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of HIST 213 L4 THE TERROR! PT 1 by Dr. Pearson's History Channel, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,713 words across 808 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.