French Revolution

French Revolution Questions

The Outbreak of the Revolution:

1) French society around 1789 was split into three groups of people or the Three Estates. The First Estate consisted of the clergy or the leaders of the church. The Second Estate were the nobles who were highly privileged. The Third and final estate consisted of peasants, city workers, and the middle class, all of which were taxes heavily and underprivileged.

2) The complains of the Third Estate were they were being taxed to heavily, they had land too small to support their families, and they lived in poverty compared to the other classes. The only complaints that the Second and First Estates had were that they would not pay taxes and that the Third Estate complained too much.

3) In 1789 under the reign on Louis XVI France faced an inefficient government, which was nearly bankrupt. There was a shortage of food and the food they had was incredibly expensive.

4) A meeting of the Estates General was called in May of 1789 because the nobles refused to be taxed and Louis XVI hoped they would approve of a new tax plan. The problem they had was they were not able to decide on a method of voting.

5) The bourgeoisie wanted all the Estates to meet together with each delegate having one vote. Seeing as they had about half of the delegates represented there they would have a better chance to bring about change.

6) On June 17, 1789 the Third Estate's delegates decided to force the other Estates to meet as one body so they created the National Assembly and invited the others to join.

7) The "Tennis Court Oath" was an oath in which the people took demanding a constitution for France and they swore not to leave until this was done. The king responded by giving in after a week and he ordered all the nobility and clergy to join the National Assembly.

8) The people of Paris stormed the Bastille on July 14th, 1789 because they were angry about food shortages and high prices, as well they feared the king's soldiers would crush the National Assembly and plunder the city.

9) The effect of the "storming of the Bastille" on the revolutionary moment was it caused the king to pull back his troops and it saved the National Assembly. This caused a rebellious spirit to move across the county. The great fear was that the nobles were organizing armies to kill the peasants and seize their property.

10) The émigrés' were nobles that fled France to other parts of Europe because they feared the peasants.
11) On August 4th, 1789 the National Assembly announced the end of Feudalism as well as drafted The Declaration of the Rights of Man.

12) The "Declaration of the Rights of Man" was a historic declaration that stated the government belonged to the people as a whole and its purpose was the preserve the natural rights of liberty and equality.

13) The women of Paris marched or Versailles because there was a shortage of bread and there was soaring food prices, so many of them lived in poverty. The monarchy was forced to cooperate with the people and make sweeping changes for them.

14) The Bourgeoisie introduced government administration, church influence, and constitutional government into the National Assembly.

15) The First and Second Estate were ignorant and refused to be taxed which caused poverty and unrest among the Third Estate. All in all this caused the Third Estate to rise up and make a change.

The Radical Stage of the Revolution:

1) The Constitution of 1791 marked the end of the first stage of the French Revolution.

2) On June 20th, 1791 Louis and his family were going to the Austrian Netherlands. They were fleeing because they thought the revolution had gone to far and they were going to go work with other European monarchs on a counterrevolution.

3) The radicals of the revolutionaries wanted drastic change, they wanted no king, and they wanted France to become a republic. They were known as the sans-culottes and were unhappy because the Parisian working people had gained few benefits.

4) The Bourgeoisie viewed the demands of the radicals as a threat to private property and to their control of the government.

5) The French revolutionaries feared a counterrevolution because they had caused a stir within Europe and they feared that Austria, ruled by the family of Marie Antoinette, might help to émigré to restore the old ways of government.

6) When France declared war on Austria Prussia backed them up and both countries threatened the destroy Paris if the kind or queen were harmed. The French responded by rioting, seizing power, and imprisoning the kind.

7) The National Convention granted all adult males suffrage, the right to vote, when it first met. They also ended the monarchy and declared France a republic.

8) By 1793 the crisis' in the new French republic were they were being invaded by Foreign troops, food prices soared, and hungry Parisians looted stores.

9) The disagreements emerging in the National Assembly caused two groups to emerge. The Jacobins and the Girondists. The Jacobins were centered in Paris. On the other hand the Girondists got most of their support from provinces outside of Paris.

10) The Committee of Public Safety was a group set up by the Jacobins, which held an almost unlimited power to deal with the problems in France at the time.

11) The slogan of the new French army was "Liberty, equality, fraternity."

12) Robespierre's Reign of Terror was an attempt to preserve the republic, it was a brutal program to silence critics of the government and caused at least 20,000 executions before it was put to an end when Robespierre was arrested and executed.

13) The moderates, after gaining control of France, sought to undo some of the more radical changes in the government and they created a republic headed by five men called the Directory.

14) The results of the French revolution were it overturned the Old Regime, the absolute monarchy came to an end, and the church lost their special privileges.

15) The Reign of Terror conflicted with the slogan of the revolutionaries because it caused inequality and it took away the peoples liberty and right to say and think anything!