French Revolution

Question 1

5 causes of French Revolution

Answer 1

1. Financial Issues: Who pays?
2. Weak Leaders: who rules?
3. Enlightenment Ideas: Who teaches?
4. Storming the Bastille
5. War for independence in America

Question 2

Financial Issues: Who pays? (4)

Answer 2

• broken up into 3 estates
• first estate: clergy
• second estate: nobles
• third estate: (1) bourgeoisie, wealthy, (2) urban lower class, workers of the city, (3) peasant farmers, largest group in 3rd estate

Question 3

First Estate (4)

Answer 3

• clergy
• highest officials of the catholic church
• wealthiest of 3 estates
• hated enlightenment ideas

Question 4

Second Estate (2)

Answer 4

• nobles that owned 20% of the land and held highest government office
• mixed feelings about enlightenment ideas

Question 5

Third Estate (7)

Answer 5

• divided into 3 groups: (1) bourgeoisie, wealthy, (2) urban lower class, workers of the city, (3) peasant farmers, largest group in 3rd estate
• politically the same, economically different
• embraced enlightenment ideas
• had no power to influence government
• 1/2 their income went to income taxes
• owed “corvee”: worked part of the year on a government project instead of getting paid

Question 6

Weak Leaders: who rules? (8)

Answer 6

-Louis XVI + Marie Antionette 
^deeply in debt from fighting great britain
^Marie Antionette spent excessively
^suggested a tax on nobles
-Nobles refused to pay taxes
^food shortages+overcrowding
-king called a meeting of the estates general
^1st time in over 100 years

Question 7

Enlightenment Ideas: Who teaches? (8)

Answer 7

-Rousseau and Voltaire Ideas take hold
-Third Estate, heavily taxed, wanted change
^seized power as the National Assembly
^led by a clergyman named Abbe Sieyes
^outnumbered first and second estate
^voted to end absolute monarchy 576-1
^voted to have new constitution
^voted for more representative government

Question 8

Storming the Bastille (7)

Answer 8

-July 14, 1789
-mobs forming in paris
^over high cost of bread, high taxes, and wasteful spending
-mobs wanted Bastille’s supply of gunpowder for defense against the king
-bastille becomes symbol of the act of revolution
-bastille day = 4th of july
-us response= neutrality

Question 9

War for independence in America

Answer 9

us constitution signed

Question 10

Signed contract w Pope Pius

Answer 10

political and personal gain, not religious

Question 11

Policy known as continental system (6)

Answer 11

-blockade of great britain
-attempt to paralyze Great Britain’s trade
-why blockade failed
^smugglers
^Czar Alexander (of Prussia) continued to sell grain to britain
^britain captured, searched, and taxed french ships

Question 12

Peninsula war (5)

Answer 12

• france vs spain
• louis XVI wants his brother to be king of spain
• Guerilla warfare thwarted Napoleon’s efforts
• British helps spanish
• Spanish nationalism grows to defeat napoleon

Question 13

Napoleon used propaganda

Answer 13

proud that napoleon was style but little substance

Question 14

Russian campaign (8)

Answer 14

-czar alexander refused to stop selling grain to britain
-czar alexander pulls back- uses scorched earth policy
^left napoleon’s army without any resources
-grand alliance forms: sweden, britain, prussia, & austria
-Battle of nations (leipzig)
^beginning of the end for napoleon
-generals refuse to fight and napoleon sent into exile to elba by alexander I

Question 15

Escapes Elba (6)

Answer 15

-the hundred days: napoleon’s last big for powers
^forces Louis XVIII to flee
^”the devil himself has escaped”
-grand alliance assembles against napoleon
-last battle of waterloo
^defeated by british army led by the duke of wellington

Question 16

Napoleon sent to st. helena

Answer 16

lived 5.5 more years in lonely exile

Question 17

Congress of Vienna (2)

Answer 17

• members and representatives, five major powers: Austria, Russia, Prussia, Great Britain, France
• Klemens von Metternich of Austria created congress of vienna

Question 18

Goals of Congress of Vienna (4)

Answer 18

• establish lasting peace and stability in Europe
• prevent future French aggression
• restore balance of power
• restore royal families to throne

Question 19

Actions Taken by Congress of Vienna (4)

Answer 19

-deprive France of all territory conquered by Napoleon, without reparations
-affirmed principal of legitimacy
^france was restored under Louis XVIII
^spain was restored under ferdinand VII

Question 20

Legacy of Congress of Vienna (6)

Answer 20

-short term:
^conservatives regain control of government
^triggered revolts in colonies
-long term:
^peace in Europe for almost 40 years
^France weakened
^sparked the growth of nationalism 
^Britain and Prussia become world powers

Question 21

National Assembly makes changes (7)

Answer 21

-adopts: A declaration of rights of man and the citizen
^monarchy is limited
^peasant revolt in the countryside
^catholic church changed
*lost land
*lost political independence 
*government now controls the church

Question 22

Split in national assembly (6)

Answer 22

-left side: radicals
^hated the king, wanted more change
^jacobin were the most violent
-middle: moderates called centrists
-right: conservative
^wanted to bring back the old regime

Question 23

Influences outside national assembly (3)

Answer 23

-émigrés: nobles who fled but plotted against revolution
-sans-culottes: without knee breeches
^parisian workers and shopkeepers who wanted great change

Question 24

Jacobin’s Robespierre (9)

Answer 24

-rules with Marat
-reign of terror
-committee on public safety
^decided who was an enemy of the republic
^had marie antionette executed first
-thermidorian reaction
^new constitution limited voting rights
^robepierre executed
-the directory is new government

Question 25

Marat (3)

Answer 25

• friend of Robespierre and the Jacobin
• newspaper editor of “the friend of the people”
• murdered by a young Royalist-Charolette Corday: “I killed one to save thousands”