Yesterday’s seminar opened up my mind to
the complexity that is French history. I learned several new things that were,
at the same time, interesting and flat out weird. For example, in a video we
watched about Napoleon, I learned
that he had a phobia of cats and was terrified of open doors and no, that’s not
even a joke. Not only did I enjoy learning new, mind-boggling information, I especially
enjoyed having the opportunity to view my fellow applicants’ timelines. Many of
us even had the same ideas and designs; great minds think alike I suppose. Yesterday’s
seminar was very intriguing indeed; however, the one topic that stood out to me
the most was the Committee of Public
Safety.
Wikimedia Commons: Jacques-Louis David |
Simply
put, the Committee of Public Safety was an epic fail. Following the execution
of King Louis XVI, the French people needed some form of governance. The
Committee of Public Safety was formed as an executive branch that could react
quickly to various threats including conflict and war. Their leader, a very
paranoid man, was Robespierre. The committee used terror tactics in response to
many situations. Anyone Robespierre suspected was an enemy of the revolution
was guillotined and made an example out of. The Committee of Public safety was
responsible for the murder of 16,000 people, many of whom were innocent
citizens. This time period was known as The Terror.
Wikimedia Commons: Louis Boilly |
After
endless bloodshed, Robespierre advocated for the terror which made him an enemy
of the same republic in which he was trying to form. This, ironically, led to
his execution via guillotine. To sum it up, the Committee of Public Safety did
an extremely horrible job at public safety! A more fitting name for it would be,
the “Committee of We Really Suck at Public Safety”. This is so interesting to
me because all throughout French history, you will see these strange moments of
twisted irony and the French Revolution itself is an example of this. This
excites me about the possibly of going to Paris because the idea of being in
the heart of where many of these situations occurred is absolutely mind-blowing.
Learning about these interesting moments in the same place in which they
happened excites me.
In
conclusion, I really enjoyed yesterday’s seminar and I want to give a quick
thanks to Mr. Dundov for taking the time out on his Saturday to teach us more
information about France. I’m especially excited about the future seminars and
can’t wait to learn something new.
~DeRael
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