The History of the Guillotine

During the 1700's, executions in France were public events where entire towns gathered to watch.

A common execution method for a poor criminal was quartering, where the prisoner's limbs were tied to four oxen, then the animals were driven in four different directions ripping the person apart.

Upper-class criminals could buy their way into a less painful death by hanging or beheading.

Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin belonged to a small political reform movement that wanted to banish the death penalty completely.

Guillotin argued for a painless and private capital punishment method equal for all the classes, as an interim step towards completely banning the death penalty.

The French named the guillotine after Doctor Guillotin. Doctor Guillotin together with German engineer

Tobias Schmidt, built the prototype for an ideal guillotine machine.

Thousands of people were publically guillotined during the French Revolution including king Louis XVI and Robespierre.

On September 10, 1977, the last execution by guillotine took place in Marseille, France.

Review: Show what you know!

• Were all criminals treated the same way before the guillotine was invented?

• What was the purpose of the invention of the guillotine?

• Who was the guillotine named after?• How many people were executed by the

guillotine?• When and where did the last execution happen?

The end

Remember!

Don´t lose your head and hit the books!!!