Year 12 Exam- France- AOS1

Question 1

💡 Absolute monarchy

Answer 1

• A political system in which the monarch rules personally, without being accountable to an elected parliament.

Question 2

💡 Feudalism

Answer 2

• In 1692, the seigneurial system was established in France and replaced feudalism.
• Peasants who occupied land owned by a seigneur ‘lord’ had to pay him feudal dues.
• Seigneurialism and feudal dues were a significant source of dissatisfaction and grievance in revolutionary period (which is reflected in the cahiers of the Third Estate).

Question 3

💡 Divine Right

Answer 3

• Believed the King received his power directly from God and was infallible (incapable of making mistakes)
• Divine right reinforced absolute monarchy

Question 4

💡 Social order: First Estate

Answer 4

• Clergy, divided as higher clergy were aristocrats and shared noble’s interests while lower clergy were commoner parish priests.
• Exempt from Royal taxes, paying only a voluntary don gratuit (donation) of 1% of its income.
• Could apply the tithe (a tax of 8-10% of people’s income/value of crops and livestock). Every peasant had to pay.

Question 5

💡 Social order: Second Estate

Answer 5

• Dominated the highest administrative posts in government and the church.
• Held key positions in the military.
• Some tax exemptions.
• Through education, travel and exposure to Enlightenment texts and ideas, some nobles acquired liberal political ideas and became important leaders in the 1st phase of the rev.

Question 6

💡 Social order: Third Estate

Answer 6

• Peasants = 82-88% of the population, majority were feudal tenants or day labourers, heavily taxed by state, church and seigneurs.
• Urban workers = poorly paid, difficult living conditions, pressured by rising food prices.
• Bourgeoisie = ranged from middle class to rich. Politically disregarded by the old regime, which contributed to rising revolutionary sentiment in the late 1780s.

Question 7

⚡️ Social and economic conditions: Taxation

Answer 7

• Imbalanced. 3rd Estate taxed heavily while the two privileged classes payed very little.
• Taxation system was in highly efficient. Too complex, plus taxes were collected by contracted ‘tax-farmers’ (notoriously corrupt or incompetent) instead of gov officials.

Question 8

⚡️ Social and economic conditions: Agriculture

Answer 8

• France’s food supplies were affected by poor harvests in 1769-1770, 1775-1776, 1782-1786, and 1788.
• At the start of 1789, France was critically short of food.
• Necker had taken precautions in 1788, banning food exports and requiring grain to be sold to official markets.
• He organised the importation of 148 000 tonnes of foreign cereal and grain, preventing a mass famine. Didn’t stop shortages though.
• By 1789 bread prices were critical (increased to 14.5 sous, meaning unskilled labourers were spending 70-90% of their daily wage on bread)

Question 9

👤 Louis XVI (role in Old Regime, financial crisis, National Assembly, August decrees to October Days)

Answer 9

• Ruled by divine right. Absolute monarchy.

- ————————–

Question 10

👤 Marie Antoinette (role in Old Regime, financial crisis)

Answer 10

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Question 11

👤 Motesquieu

Answer 11

• (1689-1755)
• Suggested in ‘The Spirit of the Laws’ (1748) that France should have a constitution and civil liberties should be guaranteed
• 3 arms of gov should be separate to prevent tyranny

Question 12

👤 Voltaire

Answer 12

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Question 13

👤 Rousseau

Answer 13

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Question 14

👤 Physiocrats

Answer 14

• believed the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of agriculture

Question 15

⚡️ French involvement in the American Revolution

Answer 15

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Question 16

💡 Social contract

Answer 16

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Question 17

💡 Popular sovereignty

Answer 17

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Question 18

👥 American revolutionary spirit

Answer 18

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Question 19

👥 Salons

Answer 19

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Question 20

💡 Impact of the Enligtenment

Answer 20

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Question 21

👤 Turgot

Answer 21

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Question 22

👤 Necker

Answer 22

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Question 23

Calonne

Answer 23

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Question 24

Brienne

Answer 24

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Question 25

Abbe Sieyes (financial crisis, National Assembly)

Answer 25

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Question 26

Assembly of notables

Answer 26

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Question 27

Estates General

Answer 27

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Question 28

Parlement of Paris

Answer 28

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Question 29

Society of Thirty

Answer 29

• Pro-reform group
• First meeting in Paris, Nov 1788.
• Members were liberal-minded nobles who supported political reforms based on Enlightenment principles.
• Most historians consider it a forerunner to the Breton Club.

Question 30

Cahiers de doleances

Answer 30

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Question 31

Pamphlet war

Answer 31

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Question 32

Aristocratic revolt

Answer 32

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Question 33

Royal wastefulness

Answer 33

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Question 34

Taxation reform

Answer 34

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Question 35

Fiscal reform

Answer 35

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Question 36

Events of the meeting of the Assembly of Notables

Answer 36

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Question 37

Royal session 1787

Answer 37

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Question 38

Day of tiles

Answer 38

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Question 39

Bankruptcy

Answer 39

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Question 40

Financial resistance- Popular resistance

Answer 40

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Question 41

Financial crisis- Retreat into authoritarianism

Answer 41

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Question 42

Revellion riots

Answer 42

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Question 43

Declaration of the National Assembly

Answer 43

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Question 44

Tennis Court Oath

Answer 44

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Question 45

Duc D’Orleans

Answer 45

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Question 46

Bailly

Answer 46

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Question 47

Mirabeau

Answer 47

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Question 48

Lafayette

Answer 48

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Question 49

Desmoulins

Answer 49

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Question 50

Popular movements

Answer 50

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Question 51

Fall of the Bastille

Answer 51

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Question 52

Municipal revolt

Answer 52

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Question 53

The Great Fear

Answer 53

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Question 54

The night of August 4th

Answer 54

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Question 55

The August Decrees

Answer 55

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Question 56

Fundamental principles of government

Answer 56

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Question 57

October days

Answer 57

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Question 58

Women’s March on Versailles

Answer 58

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Question 59

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Answer 59

• Adopted by the National Assembly on 26/8/1789

Question 60

Merincourt

Answer 60

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