That three-year period of executions, riots, and persecutions of anyone suspected of resisting the French Revolution, which had begun three years earlier with the storming of the Bastille. Some have suggested that our current revolution began on 9/11/2001. Violent, chaotic, political. Fear was instilled in the public. Authoritarian rule worked tirelessly to reduce resistance. The driving force: the Jacobins was the forerunner of the democrat party.