The French Revolution became increasingly radical. Explain why this occurred.
The spiralling radicalisation of the French Revolution was propelled mainly by the economy, pressure from other countries, fear of counter-revolution, sans-culottes dominance and finally the tyranny of Maximillien Robespierre. The perception of what was alleged as "radical" (defined as "departing markedly from the usual or customary; extreme") was altered through the various stages of the revolution due to these different influencing factors that occurred over time. Hence, since these factors pushed the idealology of radicalism further left, what was previously conceived as "extreme" became moderate, therefore acceptable and were adapted, which further radicalised the revolution itself.
Firstly, the Economy had a significant role as one of the forces behind radicalisation. The economic crisis from early as the 1700 was the fundamental reason for the public discontent that lead to unification of the people against the monarchy and the radical act later of executing the king.
The execution of Robespierre and his supporters on...
The Wanderer is set during the Reign of Terror, ex...
English: "Enemies of the people" headed for the gu...It was the scarcity of food that lead to the Economic Terror imposed by the Convention in July 1793, passing a death penalty for hoarding, The Law of General Maximum on 29 September 1793 which fixed bread and essential goods and services as well as wages and the Committee of Public Safetys' creation of a Food's Commission whose rule was to supervise and punish.
Secondly, pressures from other countries of Europe who felt the need to halt the revolution in France and restore the monarchy, lead to radical acts within France. As the Revolution stumbled under the weight of foreign war (Austria, Prussia, Holland, Spain and Great Britain) and civil war in 1971 less than a year after Convention was established, the people were deeply unhappy due to inflation from war, the shortage of food and in particular various legislation forcing Conscription. The results...