Great Fear

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The Great Fear (French: Grande Peur) was a general panic that took place between 22 July to 6 August 1789, at the start of the French Revolution. Rural unrest had been present in France since the worsening grain shortage of the spring. Fuelled by rumours of an aristocrats' "famine plot" to starve or burn out the population, both peasants and townspeople mobilised in many regions.^[1]

In response to those rumours, fearful peasants armed themselves in self-defense and, in some areas, attacked manor houses. The content of the rumors differed from region to region. In some areas, it was believed that a foreign force was burning the crops in the fields, and in other areas, it was believed that robbers were burning buildings. Fear of the peasant revolt was a contributing factor to the abolition of seigneurialism in France through the August Decrees.