shorter history quiz on french rev

What were the short-term causes of the French Revolution?

food shortages, high bread prices, financial crisis, Estates-General (1789).

What were the long-term causes of the French Revolution?

unequal estates, unfair taxes, royal power, debt, Enlightenment ideas.

To what extent was the French Revolution an Enlightenment Revolution?

Enlightenment ideas shaped the Declaration of Rights: liberty, legal equality, natural rights, and popular sovereignty. But women lacked equal political rights.

What was the relationship between revolutionary leaders and “the people”?

Leaders made laws; ordinary people pushed change through the Bastille, Great Fear, and Women’s March. Both shaped events.

What was the impact/legacy of the French Revolution?

Ended many feudal and Church privileges; expanded ideas of rights and citizenship. Levée en masse and La Marseillaise encouraged nationalism.

To what extent was the French Revolution a success or a failure?

Success: ended monarchy and feudal privileges; promoted equality and rights. Failure: Terror, instability, unequal rights for women, and Napoleon’s takeover.

Old Regime (Ancien Régime)

French society before 1789: absolute monarchy, three estates, and unequal privileges.

First Estate

The clergy; enjoyed religious influence and special privileges.

Second Estate

The nobility; enjoyed inherited privileges and many tax exemptions.

Third Estate

Commoners, from peasants to bourgeoisie; most of the population and much of the tax burden.

Taille

Direct tax paid mainly by commoners under the Old Regime.

Relics of Feudalism

Old dues and obligations peasants owed to lords, surviving into the 1700s.

Bourgeoisie

Middle class of merchants and professionals; part of the Third Estate.

King Louis XVI

French king when the Revolution began; faced a debt crisis and was executed in 1793.

Estates-General

Assembly of the three estates summoned by Louis XVI in 1789 over financial problems.

National Assembly

Formed by Third Estate representatives in 1789 to represent the nation and write a constitution.

Tennis Court Oath

1789 pledge by National Assembly members not to separate until France had a constitution.

Storming of the Bastille

July 14, 1789 attack on a Paris fortress-prison, symbolizing resistance to royal power.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

1789 statement of liberty, equality before the law, and rights of citizens.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

1790 law reorganizing the French Catholic Church under state authority.

Decree on Church Property

1789 decision to nationalize Church lands to help address government debt.

Decree Abolishing Feudalism

August 1789 measures ending many feudal privileges and challenging the old order.

Legislative Assembly

Lawmaking body under the constitutional monarchy from 1791 to 1792.

Georges Danton

Influential revolutionary leader who later opposed continuing the Terror; executed in 1794.

Jean-Paul Marat

Radical revolutionary journalist assassinated in 1793.

Jacobins

Radical political club linked to Robespierre and the Reign of Terror.

National Convention

Assembly that abolished the monarchy and established a republic in 1792.

Committee of Public Safety

Powerful revolutionary committee directing wartime policy and associated with the Terror.

Maximilien Robespierre

Leading Jacobin and Committee of Public Safety member associated with the Terror.

Reign of Terror

1793–1794 period of severe repression and executions of suspected enemies of the Revolution.

Guillotine

Execution device that became a symbol of the Reign of Terror.

Levée en Masse

1793 mass mobilization of French people and resources for war.

La Marseillaise

Revolutionary war song that became the French national anthem.

Moderate Phase (1789–1792)

Constitutional monarchy; National Assembly, Declaration of Rights, and abolition of feudal privileges.

Radical Phase (1792–1795)

Republic; monarchy abolished, Jacobins, Committee of Public Safety, and Reign of Terror.

Reactionary Phase (1795–1799)

The Directory ruled amid instability until Napoleon’s coup in 1799.

Napoleon’s Coup (1799)

Napoleon seized power, commonly marking the end of the French Revolution.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: freedom, equal rights, and solidarity.