The Renaissance Area was a time of very tragical brutality punishments, with machines such as the guillotine. Today this paper will be going to go over what the guillotine is: how it was used, who was the first person to use it, and when it was used. It will also, be discussing the history of the machine and why it was invented. Also, when and where the guillotine was used in different countries such as France, Germany, and
During the 1700s, the death penalty was a common punishment in Europe. The executions were a very bloody and extremely painful death. In some cases, it was designed to torture the victim. The newly formed French government killed thousands of those they thought were against the Revolution. These executions were carried out
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This decision clarified that everyone who was sentenced to the death penalty, would have their heads cut off by the guillotine. This became law on March 25th, 1992 (Boggs).
Operating the guillotine was a very skillful task. It requires strength, steady hand, and a good eye. The first gentleman, that was able to run the guillotine, was a guy that was named Sanson. His executions rate reached way higher than anyone had ever been expected. His speed was a faster rate than what the skilled headsmen could carry out. The first official guillotine was built in Paris by Tobias Schmidt. He is a German engineer. It had two large upright beams joined at the top. It was placed on top of a platform. The whole contraption was painted a very dull blood red. The blade ran in grooves in a up and down motion in the uprights. On April 25, 1792, the first execution was of a man named Nicholas Jacques Pelletier for robbery in Place de Greve. Guillotine worked according to plan, with his head being cleanly sliced off at the first strike of the
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Many other governments saw lots of advantages of how smooth the machines was, how fast everything happened, and the human practice compared to the other methods. Many other countries used this as well such as Algeria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco Switzerland, Sweden, Tunisia, and Vietnam. Italy used the guillotine from 1814 to 1870 for 369 executions. Sweden bought the guillotine from France in 1903, so they could end beheading with an axe. It was only used once for Sweden’s last beheading of Johan Ander in Stockholm on November 23,
The guillotine was one of the fastest and most painless ways to kill people. Before that though there were a lot more painful and torturous ways to execute people. For example, they used to hang people but they would also torture them, to make their death even more painful. During the Enlightment, people favored human rights and their well being, so they didn’t torture people as bad as before. During the Enlightment, people got more rights so they couldn’t be tortured as much like former executions. The guillotine made execution a lot better. The guillotine was an enlightened way to execute people.
LYNN, MICHAEL R. "Executions, the Guillotine and the French Revolution." The Ultimate History Project. Purdue University, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
The Guillotine brought equality in death to the French Revolution. Sometimes people of higher classes would receive quick deaths whereas people of the lower classes would receive slow, torturous deaths. People of many classes were being killed and the Guillotine allowed everyone to receive equal punishments rather than being tortured. The tribunals were self-selected revolutionaries that dictated who was guilty and who needed to be executed. There were 44,000 of these councils. During the tribunals, most people were prosecuted bases on suspicions and no hard evidence. The Guillotine was also depicted on pins which were worn by supporters of the French Revolution. The Guillotine was a very significant tool and a minimum of 440,000 were executed via the Guillotine. In my analysis, the Guillotine added to the motto of the French Revolution “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death.” The Guillotine made death equal and assured liberty and
The death penalty dates all the way back to Eighteenth Century B.C.. It was codified in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon and it was used as punishment for 25 different types of crimes. It was also a part of the Hittie Code in Fourteenth Century B.C., the Draconian Code of Athens, the Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets, and in Tenth Century B.C. in Britain. The death sentence was carried out in various ways including, drowning, burning alive, crucifixion, beating and hanging (Death Penalty Information Center, 2014).
In the courts a person was not able to speak in their defense so if the prosecutor made a good enough argument the charged would be executed by the guillotine. There were many innocent people who were executed, and many more who were afraid. After the coup a referendum was held in 1802 that made Napoleon First Consul for life.
...reason and theft and falsely for sexual abuse against her own son. After the two day trial, an all-male jury found Marie Antoinette guilty on all charges. Marie Antoinette was sent to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. In the moments before her execution, when the priest who was present told her to have courage, Marie Antoinette responded, "Courage? The moment when my ills are going to end is not the moment when courage is going to fail me."
Narration: According to historians, the first person who tried to restrict the use of the death penalty in the United States was Thomas Jefferson of the Virginia Colony.
A guillotine is a decapitation device that quickly chops off it’s victims head in the blink of an eye. According to document F, About 16,000 people were believed to have died at the hands of it. No matter how small or petty a crime was, people would have been executed for it. Even Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, the leaders of France before the Revolution, were decapitated by one, as was the leader of the Reign of Terror, Maximilien Robespierre. Another method to weed out the counter revolutionaries was a network of spies that watched out for anyone who spoke out against the government, “A careless word of criticism spoken against the government could put one in prison or worse” (Document E). The punishment for a crime as small as ththis was more often than not
Have you ever noticed that people always looked down on the Guillotine? There is no denying that the guillotine can be viewed very bad, but there is also no denying that the guillotine made a huge impact on the French Revolution. The French government believed this the guillotine was the best form of execution and in this paper we will see why the government believed in the guillotine so much. Some people think the guillotine was positive, and some people view the guillotine as a negative in society. The guillotine was viewed good because its ability to kill people without the victim barely being able feel it made it a really good machine, but it was viewed negatively now because it is known to create a large mess on the scene of the execution,
This lesson is positioned after a study into Medieval Europe’s significant individuals. During the previous lesson, students were introduced to individuals such as Charlemagne, and were able to create a presentation, ad or speech either for or against that person. As a result of the previous lesson, students will be able to understand the significance war had on the memory of historical figures. The next lesson will be able to build upon this knowledge by continuing discussion about war, and the possible punishments for those who rebelled in any way. This initial discussion will be broadened by talking about general crime and punishment during the medieval period, asking questions in the discussion such as who, what, when, where and how. At the conclusion of this lesson, student will have developed a deeper understanding into the different forms of torture in medieval Europe, and how it compares to punishment in modern day Australia. In the following lesson, students will be continuing discussions about the comparison of medieval crimes and punishment to the evolution of the nature of justice. This will transition into developing students’ knowledge on the Australian legal system and origin of common and statutor...
Unfortunately, he died before experiencing Haiti’s separation from France in 1804. However, along the way of success of both revolutions, a toll occurred on the numerous lives lost. The Reign of Terror in France was created as a way to protect the republic from its internal enemies, but instead 16,000 people were guillotined. Many documents were shown to be describing the execution of the Reign of Terror to be gruesome and wrongful such that J.G. Milligen stated, “The process of execution was also a sad and heartrending spectacle”, in The Revolutionary Tribunal. Milligen continued to describe the vivid scene of the execution, but this was only one event and many others have died in the fall of the Bastille and the attack on the royal palace.
...st powerful symbols of the French Revolution and killed an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people during the Reign of Terror. (Doc F) The guillotine was a sharp, angled blade that killed quickly the most deadly and feared method of invoking fear during the revolution. (Doc F) These methods; however, became too extreme and the deaths of the incident was not justified.
During the French Revolution, the guillotine became a symbol of the Reign of Terror and executed an amass amount of people(Briticana). The overall usage of the Guillotine traveled a long way, in fact, it moved into the 20th century. Controversially, Widespread usage of the guillotine in France and even Scotland and England, proved its efficiency in carrying out executions. Finally, in 1981, France chose to outlaw capital punishment due to the cruelty and abandoned their usage of the guillotine. An example of a time period that used the guillotine greatly lasted during the Reign of Terror, as previously mentioned before.
The bascule was invented later on through the revolution. Due to the fact it was found to be easier then forcing a struggling prisoner up a flight of steps. With the bascule a prisoner could just be bound to it then tipped over and moved into position to be guillotined. The bascule was made of wood and shaped like a plank. A prisoner would be strapped to it by their feet, ankles and waist.
Imagine being forced into laying down horizontally and looking out towards the masses of people surrounding you. You attempt to look up, but the wooden restraints around your neck are holding you down. The only thing that you can see is the blue sky, and just floating on the edges of your peripheral vision, the slight glint of the incredibly shiny and heavy metal blade hanging about fourteen feet above your head. As you hear the creaking of the rope that holds your life in place, you begin to sweat. This was how death came to King Louis XVI, and many others who fell under the mighty power of the French military. These individuals were executed by one of the most powerful death machines of the day: the infamous guillotine. According to the article, “Off With Their Heads- History of the Guillotine,” it took about a seventieth of a second for the guillotine to fall from its apex to its nadir, (a distance that was an even fourteen feet on average,) while the actual beheading only took a miniscule two hundredths of a second. The rate of speed for a guillotine was approximately twenty one feet a second. Despite this apparent speediness, these executions were apparently far fr...