Download Study Guide for French Revolution and Enlightenment Test You

Study Guide for French Revolution and Enlightenment Test
You should study the Choices French Revolution packet. The test will be both multiple choice
and essay.
Key Terms
1. Absolute Monarchy - A government in which all power and all legitimacy descends from the
King.
2. Constitutional Monarchy - A government in which the King is the executive (like our
president) but in which his powers are limited by the Constitution, a little like the way the
U.S. Constitution defines and limits the powers of the American President.
3. First Estate - The Clergy or priests. Traditionally, their role was to pray for the state and
they were therefore exempt from taxation.
4. Second Estate - The Aristocracy. Traditionally, their role was to fight (like knights) for the
state and since they paid the "blood tax" in war, they were also exempt from taxation.
5. Third Estate - The Commons. Traditionally, their role was to work, primarily by growing
food. They were often heavily taxed.
6. Peasants - The bulk of the Third Estate were peasants. Mostly they did agricultural work
although there were urban peasants living in cities. Most peasants were poor and badly
nourished.
7. The Church - The Catholic Church, to which almost everyone on France belonged and which
had great wealth and popular influence.
8. Bourgeois, before the French Revolution (1789–99) these were the rich men and women
who were members of the urban and rural Third Estate — they often were merchants,
lawyers and doctors. Some were quite wealthy. This group led the first stage of the
Revolution.
9. Ancien Regime or Old Regime - The name for the system of French society prior to the
Revolution.
10. Counter Revolution - Resistance to the Revolution in an attempt to restore some or all of the
Old Regime.
11. Emigrés - People, typically aristocrats (nobles), who fled France during the Revolution
because they opposed the Revolution's goals or feared for their safety. These folks wanted
to stop the Revolution and Louis XVI was accused of conspiring with them against the
Revolution.
12. Law of Suspects - September 1793 law passed by the National Convention allowed for the
creation of revolutionary tribunals to try those who were suspected of treason against the
Republic and to punish those convicted with death.
13. The Guillotine - Execution device used during the Revolution, it was intended as a
humanitarian innovation that would allow all people to be treated equally in death.
14. Jacobin Club: a radical group advocating egalitarian democracy.
Robespierre was responsible for the Reign of Terror.
This group led by
15. Girondists - were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the
National Convention during the French Revolution. They campaigned for the end of the
monarchy but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution. They came into
conflict with The Mountain a more radical faction within the Jacobin Club.
16. Sans-Culottes were the radical left-wing partisans of the lower classes; typically urban
laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army
during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars.[1] The appellation refers to the
fashionable culottes (silk knee-breeches) of the moderate bourgeois revolutionaries, as
distinguished from the working class sans-culottes, who traditionally wore pantalons
(pants).
17. Left, Right and Center- these terms correspond (respectively) to radical, conservative and
moderate political views. The terms were coined because of the seating during the National
Assembly.
18. The Mountain - a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest
benches in the Assembly. Montagnards tended to be vocal in defence of the lower classes.
EVENTS / INSTITUTIONS
The Financial Crisis of the Ancien Regime - During the 18th Century, France had taken on huge debts
in order to finance several major wars against England. However, because of internal inefficiencies
and limits on the government's ability to tax, the country could not pay off those debts. By the
1780s, France was facing bankruptcy.
Estates General - (May 1789 - June 1789) The traditional representative body of France in which
each Estate would have one vote. There had not been an Estates General since 1614. However,
faced with bankruptcy and unable to raise taxes without popular consent, Louis XVI agreed to call
the Estates General in 1789.
Legislative Assembly - (October 1791 - September 1792) The legislative (law-making) body under
the Constitution of 1791. Attempted to deal with foreign invasion, internal starvation and riots.
Dissolved when Louis XVI was dethroned following the Storming of the Tuileries.
National Convention - (September 1792 - November 1795) The legislative (law-making) body of the
Republic that followed the overthrow of Louis XVI. Tried and executed Louis and wrote the
Constitution of 1793 which gave rights to all white men. The Convention was led by the
Committee of Public Safety.
The Directory - (November 1795 - November 1799) Conservative governing body that succeeded
the National Convention and ruled with the cooperation of the military.
Tennis Court Oath - (June 20, 1789) The young National Assembly found itself locked out of its
meeting room in Versailles and concluded that the King was attempting to suppress them. The
members then convened in an empty tennis court and swore that they would stand together until a
constitution was written.
Fall of the Bastille - (July 14, 1789) The Parisian mob, fearing that the King was going to use the
army to shut down the National Assembly, stormed the Bastille, symbol of Royal power and fear,
then killed the mayor of Paris. Critically, the mob was aided by the Paris militia who sided with the
people against the King.
The Great Fear - (Summer 1789) The rural peasantry revolt against feudalism along with a number
of urban disturbances and revolts. Many members of the aristocracy flee Paris to become émigrés.
Declaration of the Rights of Man - (August 27, 1789) National Assembly document that lays out
enduring concepts of justice, freedom and equality.
Women's March To Versailles - (October 5, 1789) In response to ongoing hunger and Louis' stalling
regarding the August 4th Decrees, a mob from Paris, consisting mostly of women, invade Versailles,
disrupt the deliberations of the National Assembly, and force the King and Queen to return with
them to Paris.
Civil Constitution of the Clergy - (July 12, 1790) Demands priests to take an oath of loyalty to the
state, splitting the clergy between juring (oath-taking) and non-juring priests.
Flight to Varennes - (June 20, 1791) The royal family attempts to flee the county in order to link-up
with the King's émigré brothers and overthrow the Revolution.
Constitution of 1791 (Constitutional Monarchy) - (September 1791) Constitution written by the
National Assembly, creating a constitutional monarchy.
Louis' Acceptance of the Constitution - (September 13, 1791) Louis XVI was forced to accept the
Constitution after he was captured and returned from Varennes.
Brunswick Manifesto - (July 25, 1792) Austria warns that should the royal family be harmed by the
popular movement, an "exemplary and eternally memorable revenge" will follow. Interpreted by
Parisians as proof that Louis XVI was collaborating with the foreign Coalition.
Storming of the Tuileries - (August 10, 1792) Mob of sans culottes, enraged by France's continuing
defeats against the Austrians and Prussians, storm the King's palace in Paris. Swiss Guard
massacred. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody, along with his family.
September Massacres - (September 3-7, 1792) Sans culottes, preparing to leave Paris to fight the
foreign invaders, decide to eliminate threat of counter revolution before they go. They butcher
~2000 defenseless prisoners being held in Parisian jails.
Trial of Louis XVI - (December 1792) Under heavy pressure from the sans culottes, the National
Convention tried, convicted and executed Louis for treason.
Committee for Public Safety - A small committee formed in 1793 that dominated and led the
National Convention as a kind of executive branch. Eventually dominated by Robespierre. Led the
Terror.
The Terror - (September 1793 - July 1794) A period of internal violence and repression marked by
mass executions of "enemies of the Revolution." It was led by the Committee of Public Safety and
Robespierre. As many as 40,000 people were killed as a result of The Terror.
De-Christianization - (1793-1794) A movement by some local government officials (but not the
Committee of Public Safety) to destroy Catholic religious practice and religion itself. The movement
was motivated by the belief that the Church and priests were organizing counter-revolutionary
activity.
Cult of the Supreme Being - (1794) Robespierre's attempt to create a new deist state religion to
replace Catholicism as a unifying institution.
Thermidorian Reaction - (July 27, 1794) A revolt against Robespierre and The Terror. It led to a
conservative backlash against the excesses and ideals of the Revolution and the Constitution of
1793.
Constitution of 1795 (Conservative reduction of suffrage) - (August 22, 1795) More conservative
than the abortive democratic French Constitution of 1793. The Constitution of 1795 established a
liberal republic with a franchise based on the payment of taxes, similar to that of the French
Constitution of 1791; and a five-man Directory. The central government retained great power,
including emergency powers to curb freedom of the press and freedom of association.
PEOPLE / PLACES
Versailles - The massive palace of French monarchy and the seat of government. It was about 15
miles outside Paris.
Louis XIV - The “Sun King,” led France at its peak. Built Versailles and fought several foreign wars,
incur ing a large debt for his country.
Louis XV – Took the side of the colonies in the Revolutionary War and increased France’s debt load.
Said “After me, the flood.” Nearly killed by Damiens.
Louis XVI - King of France from 1774-1792. Executed January 21, 1793
Marie Antoinette - Louis XVI's wife and Queen of France from 1774-1792. Executed October 16,
1793.
Paris - Capital of France and the site of many critical events of the Revolution.
Bastille - Feared prison and symbol of royal power in Eastern Paris. The Fall of the Bastille is
recognized as the critical event marking the beginning of the French Revolution.
Tuileries - The palace of King Louis XVI in Paris where he lived after he was forcibly removed from
Versailles in October 1789. The storming of the Tuileries in August 1792 marked the effective end
of the monarchy.
Maximilian Robespierre- Leader of the Committee of Public Safety and the chief architect of The
Terror.
Napoleon Bonaparte - Ambitious general who assisted the Directory to retain power then
participated in a coup which overthrew the Directory and took absolute power for himself.
We will probably have an essay on one of these Topics
1. Why did the French Revolution begin? What were the triggering events and what were the
deep, underlying causes?
2. How can we periodize (break up the Revolution into segments of time) the French
Revolution?
3. When reflecting upon the American Revolution, John Adams said the following: "The
Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and
hearts of the people . . . . This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and
affections of the people was the real American Revolution." To what extent can Adams' point
be applied to the the French Revolution?
4. The slogan of the Revolution was "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!" Was it ever possible for
France to achieve all three of these goals? Do they inherently come into conflict with each
other? If so, how?
5. Why didn't the Revolution end after 1789? When the King ratifies the August Decrees and
Declaration of the Rights of Man, weren't the goals of the revolution and reform achieved?
6. Was the Terror the result of circumstances (the resistance of the King and the invasions of
foreign powers) or of a violent ideology that was part of the Revolution (or part of French
culture) from the beginning?
7. When asked in 1969 whether the French Revolution was a success, Chinese Premier Zhou
Enlai famously said, "It is too soon to say." What do you think? Did Napoleon fulfill or betray
the Revolution? Did the Revolutionaries achieve the goals they set themselves?