The French Revolution

Question 1

How did Louis XVI’s personal life isolate him from the rest of France?

Answer 1

He was very stupid and kind. His wife, Marie Antoinette, was not popular, and rumors of her infidelity plagued the monarchy and widened the gap between the court and the rest of the country.

Question 2

What economic problem was facing France during the reign of Louis XVI? Why did it occur?

Answer 2

The monarchy was bankrupt. It had been at war throughout most of the 18th century, from the Seven Years War to the support of the American revolution. The debt grew so large that interest and payments were half of the budget. While other countries had debt of a similar size, the French monarchy was unable to tap into the wealth of France.

Question 3

How did this problem bring Louis XVI into conflict with the nobles?

Answer 3

Because nobles enjoyed a tax-free status, Louis XVI would take this away from them. However, any edict had to be approved by the parlements, which were controlled by the nobles.

Question 4

What was the Assembly of Notables?

Answer 4

It was an assembly of aristocrats and churchmen to see if they would allow a widespread land tax. The notables at the meaning refused to consider the tax and instead demanded a greater role in governing the nation. They demanded the Estates General to be convened, ironically starting their own downfall.

Question 5

Why did the notables want to call the Estates General?

Answer 5

They thought that it would be an effective means of ensuring the monarchy would not implement economic reform that would limit their freedoms.

Question 6

What was the structure of the Estates General?

Answer 6

It was made up of three bodies: The First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the aristocracy), and the Third Estate (common French). Each house had one vote, so the nobility and clergy dominated proceedings.

Question 7

What question arose after Louis XVI convened the Estates General?

Answer 7

People questioned the assembly’s voting structure, declaring that the Third Estate was the true embodiment of the political will, a view that was supported by simple parish priests.

Question 8

Who was Abbe Sieyes?

Answer 8

He was a priest who argued for the extension of rights and representation to the Third Estate.

Question 9

What was the cahiers de doleances?

Answer 9

It was a list of grievances presented to the King by the electoral assemblies at the start of the Estates-General meeting.

Question 10

What were some of the cahiers de doleances?

Answer 10

The demand for an equitable tax system and regular meetings of the Estates-General were the most important. While many of the grievances called for lessening of royal absolutism, they were loyal to the concept of monarchy.

Question 11

What occurred during the meeting of the Estates-General?

Answer 11

The members of the Third Estate exited the meeting, saying it would only come before the king as a national assembly representing the political will of the French nation, including members from all three Estates.

Question 12

What were events prior to the Tennis Court Oath?

Answer 12

The simple parish priests voted to join the Third Estate and meet as a national assembly. The Third Estate also feared that the King was preparing to take action against them.

Question 13

What was the Tennis Court Oath?

Answer 13

It was a promise from members of the Third Estate that promised to continue to meet until a constitution had been created on solid ground.

Question 14

What immediate effects did the Tennis Court Oath have?

Answer 14

It forced Louis XVI into a series of concessions, including less taxes on the poor. Finally, he conceded that the three estates would be consolidated into a national assembly.

Question 15

What were the conditions in France that led to unrest?

Answer 15

Panic began to set in due to a lack of food and famine that was blamed on the nobility and hoarders. The people believed that the King was going to move against the National Assembly and reestablish absolutism, which caused people to purchase arms to defend themselves.

Question 16

How did unrest in Paris manifest itself?

Answer 16

The crowds gathered around the Bastille, a symbol of royal despotism since it held critics of the monarchy. A crowd demanded the surrender of the arms they believed to be inside and eventually stormed the Bastille, parading the head of the commander around the city on a pike.

Question 17

How did Louis XVI respond to the storming of the Bastille?

Answer 17

He made further concessions, recognizing the Commune of Paris, the new municipal government, and agreed to the formation of a National Guard under Marquis de Lafayette. He also moved away troops that were planned to disperse the National Assembly.

Question 18

What occurred in the rural areas of France?

Answer 18

A decade of poor harvests and high taxes created a resentful peasantry, which ultimately led to the Great Fear. The Great Fear was that the nobility were organizing thugs to steal from the peasants, and in response peasants attacked the great noble estates.

Question 19

What did the Great Fear lead to in the National Assembly?

Answer 19

The aristocrats in the National Assembly renounced the rights that made them a separate caste in French society. As of August 4, 1789, all the people of France were subject to the same laws and obligations to society.

Question 20

What was Lafayette’s document that stood in for a written constitution?

Answer 20

The National Assembly put forward the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, written by Lafayette.

Question 21

What did the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen entail?

Answer 21

It declared that political sovereignty was in the hands of the people, not the monarch. It said that all citizens were equal under the law and in obligations to society. People enjoyed freedom of religion, the press, property, and economic activity.

Question 22

What early feminist responded to Lafayette’s Declaration?

Answer 22

Olympe de Gouges wrote The Rights of Women, in which she argued that women should enjoy fundamental rights like education, property, and divorce. While the Revolution saw the extension of some of these rights, they were generally rolled back during the Directory and Napoleon.

Question 23

What was the Women’s March on Versailles?

Answer 23

It was a group of women, angry over the price of bread, who held the King hostage and escorted him back to Paris. It was pivotal, as the King was now under the control of the people of Paris.

Question 24

Why did French revolutionaries try and control the Catholic Church in France?

Answer 24

They wanted to address the financial crisis by confiscating and selling the property of the Church. Assignats were government bonds backed by the sale of Church land.

Question 25

What was the Civil Constitution of the Church?

Answer 25

It was an act that essentially made the Church a department of the state. Bishops were chosen by assemblies of priests, who were elected by parishioners. Clergy became civil servants who were supported by the state.

Question 26

How did the Catholic Church respond?

Answer 26

Pope Pius VI denounced the Civil Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, sparking a counter-revolutionary movement of people who thought the revolution was becoming sacrilegious.

Question 27

How did the government of France change under the National Assembly?

Answer 27

The National Assembly forced the king to accept a constitution, creating a unicameral legislature, although the monarch retained significant powers. Out of fear of the popular vote, the legislature would be chosen by only 50,000 people.

Question 28

What were other significant changes done under the National Assembly?

Answer 28

They replaced the system of provinces with 83 departments of equal size. Jews and Protestants were granted full political rights, and slavery was abolished in France, which resulted in the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint L’Ouverture.

Question 29

What began the end of the monarchy?

Answer 29

As the counter-revolutionary movement grew, nobles who had fled France tried to restore the Ancien Regime and their privileges. They urged the royal family to flee France, but Louis and his family were caught and escorted back to Paris.

Question 30

What were the major parties within the National Assembly?

Answer 30

The most popular faction were called the Jacobins, who were against the monarchy. The Girondins faction primarily filled leadership roles in the Assembly. The Girondins favored war with Austria and Prussia.

Question 31

What were the results of the declaration of war with Austria and Prussia?

Answer 31

It destabilized France and sealed the fate of the royal family while further radicalizing the Revolution.

Question 32

Who were the sans-culottes?

Answer 32

They were revolutionary radicals in France composed of common people that sought to attain equal rights and were concerned about the state of the economy and society under the Ancien regime.

Question 33

What did the sans-cullotes demand?

Answer 33

The fears of the sans-cullote caused them to demand wider political participation and the establishment of the Commune in the city.

Question 34

What events led to the creation of the French Republic?

Answer 34

Sans-cullote mobs killed the King’s Swiss guards and massacred 1200 people accused of being counter-revolutionaries. The Paris Commune forced the national Assembly to call for elections with universal male suffrage, now called the Convention. A French army stopped the combined Austrian and Prussian armies. On Sept 21 1792 France officially became a republic, and Louis was executed in early 1793.

Question 35

How was the Revolution seen throughout the Continent?

Answer 35

Many saw the Revolution as the refreshing spread of Enlightenment values. Prussia and Austria thought it meant the end of French power before realizing the danger of the ideas it professed. Britain saw the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the end of feudalism as friendly.

Question 36

Who was Edmund Burke and how did he react to the Revolution?

Answer 36

He was a British politician who championed conservatism and wrote Reflections on the French Revolution, where he expressed his opposition to the Revolution not because of reform but instead of the extreme alteration of traditional institutions, with the ultimate end in violence.

Question 37

What was the effect of the French conquest of parts of Germany (Frankfurt) and the Netherlands?

Answer 37

They brought with them the ideas of the Revolution and spread them, despite acting like an occupying force.

Question 38

What was the position of the Girondins?

Answer 38

The Girondins wanted to maintain the democratic spirit of the revolution and allow a degree of local autonomy in the different districts of France. They were fearful of the influence of the sans-cullote and wanted to make voting based on landowning, as well as the implementation of laissez-faire.

Question 39

What was the position of the Jacobins?

Answer 39

The Jacobins believed that the only way to maintain the spirit of the revolution was through a centralized Parisian government. The Jacobins argued for regulation of the economy to fight inflation and gained the increasing support of the sans-cullote.

Question 40

How did the Reign of Terror begin?

Answer 40

A counter-revoutionary revolt began in France called the Vendee due to the policies against the Church. French armies were also met with defeat in the Netherlands due to a betrayal.

Question 41

What was formed in response to these events? Who was a member of the institution?

Answer 41

The Committee of General Security and the Committee of Public Safety were formed, with the latter becoming a dictatorial power over France.

Question 42

Who were the leading members of the Committee of Public Safety and with what faction were they associated with?

Answer 42

The leading members were Danton, Carnot, and Robespierre, and they were associated with the Jacobins.

Question 43

Why did the Jacobins become more influential at the expense of the Girondists?

Answer 43

The Girondists were tainted because of promoting the traitor in the Netherlands and their perceived lack of sympathy toward the Parisian Masses.

Question 44

How did the Jacobins consolidate control?

Answer 44

They used a mob of the sans-cullote to expel the Girondin members from the Convention. Marat, a hero of the sans-cullote, was also killed by a radical Girondin.

Question 45

What was Carnot’s levee en masse?

Answer 45

The entire population was drafted for military service. Men were expected to go into battle, women and children were expected to aid in production, and the elderly were supposed to be patriots. The armies created from this system were surprisingly successful.

Question 46

What was the Jacobin Republic of Virtue?

Answer 46

It was a society and government that required the obliteration of the old monarchial regime. A new calendar was created, and Christianity and churches were attacked with religious symbols being removed from buildings. Robespierre created the Cult of the Supreme Being to respond to the perceived corruption of Christianity.

Question 47

Were the Jacobin changes well-liked?

Answer 47

Most of their policies were unpopular and led to a political backlash against the Committee of Public Safety.

Question 48

What occurred when the Reign of Terror reached its peak?

Answer 48

The Committee banned political clubs and popular societies of women and executed many leading Girondin politicians accused of being traitors. 20,000 people were killed at the height of the terror, 15% nobles and clergy, the rest peasants accused of being counter-revolutionary.

Question 49

How did the Reign of Terror turn against those who created it?

Answer 49

The Hebertists, under the leadership of Robespierre, wanted more anti-Christian policies and government control. Danton and his followers were executed.

Question 50

What was the Thermidorian Reaction?

Answer 50

It was the arrest of Robespierre and his followers by the Thermidoreans, or opposers of Robespierre. Robespierre and his supporters were quickly executed soon after.

Question 51

What was the Directory?

Answer 51

The Thermidorians abolished the Paris Commune and the Committee of Public Safety, instead producing a government called the Directory led by an executive council of five men. A two house legislature was created.

Question 52

How did the Directory prove emblematic of a reaction against the Revolution?

Answer 52

The Directory witnessed the triumph of the gentry and aristocrats over the sans-cullotes, the elimination of price ceilings on bread, and the attack on Jacobin club meetings.