Just, to the guillotine by
direction of the National Convention in July, 1794. This meant the
beginning of reaction.
[Sidenote: End of the Terror: Thermidorian Reaction, 1794]
The death of Robespierre ended the Reign of Terror. The purpose of the
Terror, however, was already achieved. The Revolution was preserved in
France, and France was preserved in Europe. The Thermidorian Reaction,
as the end of the Terror is called, left the National Convention free
to resume its task of devising a permanent republican constitution for
the country. A few subsequent attempts were made, now by reactionaries,
now by extreme radicals, to interfere with the work, but they were
suppressed with comparative ease. The last uprising of the Parisian
populace which threatened the Convention was effectually quelled
(October, 1795) by a "whiff of grape-shot" discharged at the command of
a young and obscure major of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte by name.
[Sidenote: Reforms of the National Convention, 1792-1795]
In the midst of foreign war and internal dissension, even in the midst
of the Terror, the National Convention found time to further the social
reforms of the earlier stage of the Revolution.
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