USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -guillotine, instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation, introduced into France in 1792.

Detailed explanation-2: -It worked by dropping a weighted blade down a wooden frame onto the victim’s neck, severing their head. Death would have been almost instantaneous. In 1791, a French doctor named Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed the machine be used in France, as a more humane method of capital punishment.

Detailed explanation-3: -In less than a year, 300, 000 suspected enemies of the Revolution were arrested; at least 10, 000 died in prison, and 17, 000 were officially executed, many by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution.

Detailed explanation-4: -The “Great Terror” that followed, in which about 1, 400 persons were executed, contributed to the fall of Robespierre on July 27 (9 Thermidor). During the Reign of Terror, at least 300, 000 suspects were arrested; 17, 000 were officially executed, and perhaps 10, 000 died in prison or without trial.

Detailed explanation-5: -One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.