No figure of the French Revolution has aroused so much controversy as that of Maximilien Robespierre. He is known to most people as the symbol of the Reign of Terror, a short but horrifying period where approximately 17,000 people died in prison in horrible conditions or were executed on the simple thought of being a traitor by such inventions as the guillotine. He was born to Francois Robespierre in the spring of 1758 and received and education …showed first 75 words of 352 total…

…showed last 75 words of 352 total…Tribunal. Maximilien Robespierre started out his political career hoping for peace, freedom and equality. Through the influence of Rousseau, an earlier philosopher, and the many fanatical revolutionaries he had as his peers, he very quickly became a violent and evil tyrant, taking over the minds and, in many cases, lives of the French people. His execution in 1784 ended the Reign of Terror and began the Thermidorian Reaction, a time of peace and reflection for the