The Committee of Public Safety's assumption of political power and rule between 1793 and 1794 marked what was arguably the most radical phase of the French Revolution. The Committee justified its excesses as necessary to protect against domestic and foreign counter-revolutionaries. In this lesson, students question the motives of the Committee through analyzing excerpts from the "Decree Against Profiteers" and the "Law of Suspects."
Image: A painting by Pierre-Antoine de Machy illustrating an execution by guillotine, 1807. From the Wikimedia Commons.
