The Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794) or simply The Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of about ten months during the French Revolution when struggles between rival factions led to mutual radicalization which took on a violent character with mass executions by guillotine. It is generally associated with the figures of Robespierre and Georges Danton, and is popularly represented as an archetype of revolutionary violence.
The Terror itself started on September 5, 1793. The repression accelerated in June and July 1794, a period named la Grande Terreur (The Great Terror) and lasted until the executions following the coup of 9 Thermidor Year II (July 27, 1794), in which several key leaders of the Reign of Terror were executed, including Saint-Just and Maximilien Robespierre. The Terror took the lives of between 18,500 to 40,000 people (estimates vary widely, due to the difference between historical records and statistical estimates). In the single month before it ended, 1,900 executions took place.
While some consider modern tyrannies to be the legacy of the Reign of Terror, others argue that this view overlooks the French Revolution's influence in the ascendency of representative democracy and constitutionalism.