William Bramley/The Gods of Eden/29

The World Afire

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One consequence of the French Revolution was a severe disruption of the French economy. Food production had dropped severely and the new regime was in deep political trouble because the majority of Frenchmen were still loyal to the monarchy. Under this cloud, the revolutionary government decided to solve the problems of political opposition, hunger and distribution of wealth by reducing the human population of France. Rather than increase food production to meet the demand, it was decided to reduce the demand to match the lessened amount of food. Throughout the French nation, a program of mass murder was launched as an official program of the revolutionary council. This program was known as the Reign of Terror. People were put to death by all means available, including guillotine, mass drowning, bludgeoning, shooting, and starvation. Although not as many people were murdered as the council had planned, it has been estimated that over 100,000 people died.

We have noted that genocides are committed by grouping people into superficial categories usually based upon race, religious belief, or nationality. The victims are then targeted for slaughter even though they may be guilty of no crimes against their murderers. The French revolutionaries took the process to an extreme. During the Reign of Terror, people were grouped simply according to their economic and vocational standing. Those who fell into the wrong categories were deemed members of an undesirable social class and were killed. This was certainly as superficial a distinction as one can make, yet grouping people in this fashion has been extremely successful in factionalizing human beings.

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