why was robespierre executed

Maximilien Robespierre was executed because he had become a feared tyrant during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. He intensified the Terror, leading to thousands of executions, and refused to relinquish power, insisting that internal enemies still threatened the Republic. Many members of the National Convention feared that they were targets of another purge after Robespierre's speech on July 26, 1794, in which he suggested unnamed enemies existed but did not name them. This fear united them against him. He was arrested on July 27, 1794, after a brief standoff, and executed by guillotine the next day, marking the end of the Terror and the dominance of his political faction, the Jacobins. Robespierre’s execution symbolized a shift towards more moderate revolutionary policies known as the Thermidorian Reaction.