The Terror was not simply an outburst of the fury of radicals, as Sorel would have it, nor was it a mere defense against perils for which the revolutionists were not responsible, as Aulard appears to have believed. It was made necessary by circumstances, but the chief of these circumstances was the internal chaos which the Revolution had produced. It began as a means of defense against the menace of invasion, but invasion was a menace because of the disunity in France.
