The Guillotine

During the French Revolution there were a number of devices used to execute people, however the Guillotine became the device of choice. The Guillotine has become the symbol of tyranny and terror. Who designed the Guillotine?

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope, and the condemned then places his or her head beneath it. The blade then falls rapidly, severing the head from the body. The device is noted for long being the main method of execution in France and, more particularly, for its use during the French Revolution,

Description: "The guillotine was used during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. Now that the power of the Girondists was broken, and military successes had strengthened the revolutionary party in control, France entered upon that part of the Revolution known as the Reign of Terror. The characteristic feature of the next few months was the wholesale murder of all persons suspected of hostility toward the Jacobin government or lukewarmness on its behalf. To be sure, the victims enjoyed the show of a judicial trial, but sentence was rendered without regard to justice or the facts of the case and execution followed quickly. The guillotine, named after its inventor, Dr. Guillotin, was a serviceable instrument for disposing quickly of the condemned, and hardly a day passed without seeing a score or more of suspected persons beheaded in the city of Paris alone."—Colby, 1899
Former King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were executed in 1793
The period from June 1793 to July 1794 in France is known as the Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre became one of the most powerful men in the government, and the figure most associated with the Terror. The Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced thousands to the guillotine.
Invented on 10 October 1789, by Doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a French physician and named after him. (What a dubious honour!!!
For a time, executions by guillotine were a popular entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators.
Maximilien Robespierre: the one who sent many to the guillotine, was himself to die on the gullotin! On 28 July 1794, he was arrested and executed in the same fashion as those whom he had condemned. This arguably ended the Terror, as the French expressed their discontent with Robespierre's policy by guillotining him.^[15]
The last public guillotining was of Eugen Weidmann, who was convicted of six murders. He was beheaded on 17 June 1939

Man carrying a head that has been decapitated!!!!!

In South Vietnam, after the Diệm regime enacted the 10/59 Decree in 1959, mobile special military courts dispatched to the countryside to intimidate the rural peoples used guillotines belonging to the former French colonial power to carry out death sentences on the spot. One such guillotine is still on show at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.(from Wikipidea)
From its first use, there has been debate as to whether the guillotine always provided a swift death as Guillotin had hoped. With previous methods of execution intended to be painful, there was little concern about the suffering inflicted. As the guillotine was invented specifically to be humane, however, the issue was seriously considered. The blade cuts quickly enough so that there is relatively little impact on the brain case, and perhaps less likelihood of immediate unconsciousness than with a more violent decapitation, or long-drop hanging.
We had to take photos with the guillotine.....can you imagine how old it is? Could this have been the one that chopped of King Louis XVI's head? or Marie Antoinette? or even Robespierre?

Invented in 1789!! I am so awed to be standing next to a piece of history!

Imagine this existed in the 1700's and was actually in France

in such a momentous event: The French Revolution

that toppled the French Monarchy.

(albeit a sad "history"bit though, since it took so many lives)

Nobility and commoners, intellectuals, politicians and prostitutes, all were liable to be executed on little or no grounds; suspicion of "crimes against liberty" .

Thank goodness it was abolished in 1981. Long live Liberty!

Disclaimer: Most of the above are victims of "CUT AND PASTE" writing, and I hope you know which pieces are written (or not) by me.

Note: I learnt about the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror and the guillotine in School in World History in Form Five. Sadly, World History syllabus has disappeared from Malaysian History and students of this day and age know nothing about the above.