French Historical Interpretations

Question 1

Marxist, Karl Marx - ‘The French Revolution

Answer 1

‘The French Revolution was the greatest revolution in the history of the world’

Question 2

Revisionist, Timothy Blanning

‘The first crisis

Answer 2

‘The first crisis was political, deriving for the financial bankruptcy of the monarchy following the French involvement in the American War of Independence’

Question 3

Revisionist, Timothy Blanning

‘The second crisis

Answer 3

‘The second crisis was economic, stemming most immediately from the harvest failure of 1788…It was the fusion of these two crises in 1789 which allowed the mass of discontents to become critical and to turn a crisis into a revolution’

Question 4

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘The King of France

Answer 4

‘The King of France needed no coronation. He reigned by the grace of God’

Question 5

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘[The Assembly of Notables] marked

Answer 5

‘[The Assembly of Notables] marked the beginning of a political crisis that double only be resolved by revolution

Question 6

French- Marxist, George Rudé

‘As the crisis deepened,

Answer 6

‘As the crisis deepened, bourgeois and sans-culottes, and even peasants, were drawn…into a close partnership and joint opposition to the privileged orders and the absolutist regime

Question 7

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘This assembly had seized

Answer 7

‘This assembly had seized sovereign power in theme of the French Nation. It was the founding act of the French revolution. If the nation was sovereign, the King no longer was’.

Question 8

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘The Monarch recognised

Answer 8

‘The Monarch recognised that he no longer had the power to enforce his will’

Question 9

French Marxist, Albert Soboul

‘The decrees ‘were more a

Answer 9

‘The decrees ‘were more a concession to the needs of the moment than the sign of a real desire to satisfy the grievances of the peasantry’.

Question 10

French-Marxist, Georges Lefebvre

‘[The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen] was in effect

Answer 10

‘[The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen] was in effect [the death certificate] of the old regime, which had been put to death by popular revolution’.

Question 11

Post-Revisionist, Joh McManners

‘If there was a point at which

Answer 11

‘If there was a point at which the French Revolution ‘went wrong’, it was…the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. This marked the end of national unity, and the beginning of civil war’.

Question 12

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘The essence of the Constitution of 1791

Answer 12

‘The essence of the Constitution of 1791…was to keep the executive week. Despotism must have no opportunity to revive in France’.

Question 13

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘The flight to Varennes opened up the

Answer 13

‘The flight to Varennes opened up the second great schism of the revolution. There had been hardly any republicanism in 1789…’

Question 14

Post-Revisionist, Alan Forrest

‘The war…overshadowed

Answer 14

‘The war…overshadowed all the other aims of the revolution and became the principal objective of the state’.

Question 15

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘[The Vendée Revolt of 1793] was

Answer 15

‘[The Vendée Revolt of 1793] was an open rebellion against the entire course the Revolution had taken’.

Question 16

French Marxist, George Rudé

‘So the needs of war, civil war and public order

Answer 16

‘So the needs of war, civil war and public order combined to persuade Robespierre and his associates to take further steps to strengthen their control in Paris’

THE TERROR

Question 17

Revisionist, William Doyle

‘The principles of 1789 were

Answer 17

‘The principles of 1789 were not to be confused with the principles of 1793’.

Question 18

Post Revisionist, Martyn Lyons

‘The revolution was by no means ended on 9 Thermidor…the

Answer 18

‘The revolution was by no means ended on 9 Thermidor…the aspirations of the middle classes who made the revolution were only just beginning to come to fruition’.