Reign of Terror Begins

1793

With armies invading, the Vendee in revolt, and Paris starving, the Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre suspended the new constitution and declared terror 'the order of the day.' The Law of Suspects authorized arrest on rumor. In nine months, tens of thousands died on scaffolds across France. The guillotine, designed as a humane instrument of equality in death, became the Revolution's most recognizable and most feared symbol.