Revolutionary Cities

Question 1

Why was religion important to the Florence revolution?

Answer 1

Savonarola = servant of God
Support for his cause through predictions and preaching
Bonfire to purify the city - remove “engines of the devil”
General willingness to give up possessions in the name of religion
Many women still supported his cause after he was killed
Benivieni - the flames “rose all the way up to heaven, to the glory and honour of God and the confusion of Satan”

Question 2

Why was religion important to Munster?

Answer 2

Anabaptists handed out leaflets denouncing Catholicism
Claimed the Bible called for absolute equality, especially in wealth
Matthys proclaimed Munster was the new Jerusalem
City was besieged by the former bishop
Over 1000 adults baptised before it was later made compulsory
Matthys was kill d on Easter Sunday after he prophesied God’s judgement

Question 3

Why was religion important to the Paris Commune?

Answer 3

Church was denounced as a “public monument that until then had served only a caste, born enemy of progress”
Disliked what the church stood for
Took over the Saint Nicholas des Champs church
The Pantheon was used for both club meetings and for the clergy to perform their rites

Question 4

How was religion important to the French Revolution?

Answer 4

Caused a shift in power from the Roman Catholic Church to the state
Effort was made during the reign of terror to replace the Catholic Church altogether
Priests were imprisoned and killed and churches destroyed
Concordat of 1801 represented an agreement between Napoleon and the church, ending de-Christianisation

Question 5

How was religion involved in the Russian revolution?

Answer 5

Communists wanted to rid Russia of religion and the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church- it had benefitted the bourgeois
Lenin said religion was used as “protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class”
Had the ultimate goal of achieving state atheism
When the regime got power, most religions weren’t outlawed but religious property was confiscated and believers mocked
Persecution intensified the further you go into their rule

Question 6

How was religion involved in Paris 1968?

Answer 6

No real religious aspect

More social and political

Question 7

How was social change involved in Florence?

Answer 7

Equalising wealth
Used children to further his cause
Tried to change the way that people lived by burning luxury objects
Potentially used religion as a way to enact social change

Question 8

How was social change involved in the Munster revolution?

Answer 8

Rebaptism was compulsory
Changed for the worse during the siege as there was a food shortage
Polygamy was legalised as the seine left three times as many women as men

Question 9

How was social change involved in the French Revolution?

Answer 9

Recent enlightenment had changed people - produced many writers and published that could influence public opinion
Wanted a far more equal France, change in the privileges held by the nobility and the church
Bastille was a symbol of power so storming it showed a need for social change
Such social change that Wordsworth described it as “human nature seeming born again”

Question 10

How was social change involved in the Paris Commune?

Answer 10

Wanted greater employment
Formed trade unions
Repurposed old factories and workshops - only a few workshops were actually confiscated and repurposed
Wanted more freedom
Wanted fair wages
Posters put up getting people to join saying “if you want to live in a France that is free and where all are equal”

Question 11

How was social change involved in the Russian revolution?

Answer 11

Food availability critically low in February - Tsarist government announces food rationing
Overthrew the Tsar in February
Provisional government failed to help workers
When the communist political structure was in place the workers were no longer exploited
Banks were nationalised
Marriage and divorce laws were discarded

Question 12

How was social change involved in Paris 1968?

Answer 12

Resulted in very little change if any

Wanted president de Gaulle to resign but he didn’t back down and ended up winning with an increased majority

Question 13

How was violence involved in Florence?

Answer 13

Bonfire was a violent spectacle
Taking goods from people that didn’t want to give them up
Savonarola and two supporters captured and tortured by Florentine authorities
They were then handed over to papal commissioners who ordered them to be hanged and burned

Question 14

How was violence involved in Munster?

Answer 14

Metthys’ head was severed and put on a spike with his genitals nailed to the city gate
When the besieges won they tortured and executed the anabaptist leaders the hung them in cages at St. Lamber’s church
Michael Dreidger - the people of Munster weren’t monsters, they were only defending their city from the increasing violence form the besieges

Question 15

How was violence involved in the French Revolution?

Answer 15

Storming of the Bastille - guards carried on shooting despite a surrender
Governor was beheaded and his head out on a spike
Bequart, a soldier who hadn’t fired a shot in the fighting, had his hand chopped off and paraded round the streets and was killed by the mob
Mallary Silva-Grondin - revolution and reign of terror was one of the bloodiest periods in modern civilisation - ‘violence defines the French Revolution in its entirety’

Question 16

How was violence involved in the Paris commune?

Answer 16

Was the result of unrest and a Parisian siege

Not really any great acts of violence

Question 17

How was violence involved in the Russian revolution?

Answer 17

Mike Carey - “the sheer scale and destruction associated with the Russian revolution is almost unparalleled in modern history”
Radicalising role of World War One - normalised violence for much of the civilian population
February revolution removed the Tsar and 1400 people were shot
Provisional government tried to tone down the violence by abolishing the death penalty but brought it back when their power was weakening
Storming of the Winter Palace wasn’t very violent as there was very few people willing to defend it
When the Bolsheviks gained power, many conflicts broke out
Lenin wanted to end to violence but thought that civil wars between the working class and those that exploited them, was a ‘just war’
Red Army and Cheka were set up to defend the state
Mike Carey thinks that the scale of violence set the tone for the future of Russia

Question 18

How was violence involved in Paris 1968?

Answer 18

University had to be closed because of clashes with police
After a break down in negotiations, students won sympathy for their cause after the government responded to a second march very heavy handedly
Led a march of over 20,000 students and teachers but it only resulted in arrests
400-500,000 people protested when de Gaulle returned from Germany
Street demonstrations on Bastille day after de Gaulle won in the election

Question 19

Why was gender important in Florence?

Answer 19

Women and children took part in a procession in 1496 - after ‘laying aside all human wisdom’, men joined as well
Even after the revolution ended and Savonarola was killed women remained loyal to his cause

Question 20

How important was gender in Munster?

Answer 20

Many women were spared during the very violent siege

No real other involvement of women during the revolution

Question 21

How important were women to the French Revolution?

Answer 21

Women’s march on Versailles (5th October 1789) - marched to the Hotel de Ville demanding city officials listen to their concerns
Wanted a response to the bad economic situation they were in and wanted the King to move his administration to Paris
7000 women joined and marched to Versailles, storming the palace and killing guards
King moved from Versailles to Paris on the 6th

Question 22

How important were women in the Paris Commune?

Answer 22

Louise Michel - radical and inspiring figure - wrote 'Les Danses des Bombes' - offered to execute President Adolphe Thiers
Women's Citizens of Paris requested the commune provide premises for meetings of women's committees and subsidise their printing and circulation of pamphlets
Central Committee of the Association of Women for the Defence of Paris and Aid to the Wounded - peace would be a "denial of all working class hopes for total social revolution"
Association of Women - Wanted a reorganisation of labour, equal pay and a reduction in working hours

Question 23

How important were women in the Russian revolution?

Answer 23

Marchers gathered for International Women’s Day (February 23rd) and were joined by striking workers and social agitators
Marriage and divorce laws were discarded in October
Women’s representatives of the Post Office servants and of the Women’s Educational League gave speeches in March - reported in the Guardian

Question 24

How important were women in Paris 1968?

Answer 24

Students and workers - seemingly no gender more involved