French Revolution Comprehensive Review

85 question-and-answer flashcards covering the Revolution’s causes, major events, radical phase, Reign of Terror, Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna, and all 13 red-check review questions from the study guide.

What major conditions caused the French Revolution?

Social unrest, years of deficit spending, war expenses, bad harvests, and the monarchy's ineffective response created a severe economic and political crisis.

What reforms did finance minister Jacques Necker recommend?

Reduce royal spending, reform government, remove burdensome internal tariffs, and tax the First and Second Estates.

What was the Estates-General?

A legislative body with representatives from France's three estates; no king had called it for 175 years before 1789.

Why was the Third Estate dissatisfied with voting in the Estates-General?

Each estate voted as one block, so the First and Second Estates could always outvote the Third Estate two to one.

What were cahiers?

Notebooks of grievances prepared by all three estates; many called for reforms such as freedom of the press and regular meetings of the Estates-General.

What was the National Assembly?

The body formed mainly by the Third Estate, claiming to represent the people of France after its meeting hall was locked.

What was the Tennis Court Oath?

The National Assembly promised not to separate until France had a sound constitution.

Why did Parisians storm the Bastille?

They feared royal troops would crush the National Assembly and sought the gunpowder and weapons believed to be stored there.

What happened during the storming of the Bastille?

The commander refused entry and fired on the crowd; the mob broke in, freed prisoners, and seized the fortress.

What was the Great Fear?

A wave of rural panic caused by rumors of attacks and crop seizures; peasants attacked manor houses, burned records, and seized grain.

How did the National Assembly abolish feudal privilege?

Nobles surrendered manorial dues, exclusive hunting rights, special legal status, and tax exemptions.

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

Male citizens were equal before the law, eligible for public office, protected from arbitrary arrest, free in religion, and taxed according to ability to pay.

What ideas inspired the Declaration of the Rights of Man?

Enlightenment natural-rights ideas and the American Revolution.

Why were women disappointed by the Declaration of the Rights of Man?

Its promise of equality and political rights applied to men, not women.

What was the slogan of the French Revolution?

Liberty, equality, fraternity.

Why did women march from Paris to Versailles in October 1789?

Bread shortages, popular suffering, the royal family's lavish lifestyle, and Louis XVI's resistance to reform fueled the march.

What resulted from the Women's March on Versailles?

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were forced to move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, where the king was effectively under popular control.

What did the Civil Constitution of the Clergy do?

It made bishops and priests elected salaried officials, ended papal authority over the French Church, and dissolved monasteries.

Why did many peasants oppose the Civil Constitution of the Clergy?

They remained loyal Catholics and rejected state control of the Church.

What did the Constitution of 1791 create?

A limited monarchy and an elected Legislative Assembly empowered to make laws, tax, and decide war and peace.

Who could vote under the Constitution of 1791?

Tax-paying male citizens; voting was not extended to all men.

Why did Louis XVI's attempted escape in June 1791 damage the monarchy?

His capture and return to Paris made many French people view him as a traitor to the Revolution.

Who were the emigres and what did they want?

Nobles, clergy, and others who fled France and urged foreign monarchs to restore the Old Regime.

What was the Declaration of Pillnitz?

Austria and Prussia threatened to protect the French monarchy, which revolutionaries viewed as a hostile warning.

What political groups sat in the Legislative Assembly?

Radicals on the left wanted major change, moderates in the center wanted limited change, and conservatives on the right favored a limited monarchy.

Who were the Jacobins?

A radical political club of mainly middle-class lawyers and intellectuals who used newspapers to promote a republic.

Who were important Jacobin leaders?

Maximilien Robespierre and Jean-Paul Marat, publisher of The Friend of the People.

Why did revolutionary France declare war on Austria in 1792?

It responded to the Pillnitz threat and sought to defend and spread the Revolution; Prussia joined Austria.

What was the Brunswick Manifesto?

The Duke of Brunswick threatened to destroy Paris if the royal family were harmed.

How did Parisians respond to the Brunswick Manifesto?

It enraged them; sans-culottes and other militants stormed the Tuileries Palace and killed the king's guards.

Who were the sans-culottes?

Militant lower-class revolutionaries who wore long trousers rather than aristocratic knee breeches.

What did radicals do after taking control of the Paris Commune?

They forced the Legislative Assembly to suspend the monarchy and call elections for a National Convention.

What happened to the royal family after the Tuileries attack?

They were imprisoned in the Temple.

What changes did the National Convention make in 1792?

It abolished the monarchy, declared a republic, and extended voting rights to all adult male citizens.

Why was Louis XVI tried and executed?

Secret letters showed he had communicated with foreign powers and emigres; he was convicted of treason and guillotined.

What major threats faced the French Revolution in 1793?

War with a European coalition, peasant rebellion against the draft and Church attacks, factional conflict, food shortages, and rising prices.

What was the Committee of Public Safety?

A 12-member emergency government created in 1793 with near-total power to defend the Revolution, led by Robespierre.

What was the Reign of Terror?

A year-long campaign of rapid trials, executions, and repression intended to eliminate enemies and build Robespierre's Republic of Virtue.

How many people died during the Reign of Terror?

About 17,000 were officially executed, while as many as 40,000 died in total; most victims were ordinary peasants and workers.

How did the radical government attack Christianity?

It closed churches, promoted dechristianization, and introduced a new revolutionary calendar.

How did the Reign of Terror end?

Fearing they would be next, opponents overthrew Robespierre and guillotined him in 1794.

Why was the Directory established?

After Robespierre's fall, moderates wrote the Constitution of 1795 to restore stability through a five-man executive and two-house legislature.

Why was the Directory vulnerable?

It was weak and corrupt, and France's financial problems continued while people longed for order.

How did Napoleon first become a national hero?

He defended the National Convention from a royalist mob and then won major victories against Austria in Italy in 1796.

Why did Napoleon invade Egypt in 1798?

He hoped to cut Britain's trade route to India.

What happened to Napoleon's campaign in Egypt?

Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, but Napoleon hid the defeat and returned as a hero.

How did Napoleon take power in France?

He overthrew the Directory in the coup of 1799, became First Consul, and later made himself emperor with public approval in plebiscites.

What was the Napoleonic Code?

A uniform law code establishing legal equality and religious toleration while ending feudalism.

What rights did the Napoleonic Code restrict?

It limited speech and press freedom, reduced women's rights, and Napoleon restored slavery in French colonies.

What was the Concordat of 1801?

An agreement with Pope Pius VII recognizing Catholicism as the faith of most French people while leaving the state in control and keeping seized Church lands.

What was the significance of the Battle of Austerlitz?

In 1805 Napoleon defeated Austria and Russia in his greatest victory, helping him dominate most of Europe by 1812.

Why could Napoleon not defeat Britain?

Britain had Europe's strongest navy and was protected by the English Channel.

What happened at the Battle of Trafalgar?

In 1805 Nelson's British fleet destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleet, securing British naval dominance.

What was the Continental System?

Napoleon's 1806 blockade intended to stop European trade with Britain and wreck the British economy.

Why did the Continental System fail?

Smuggling continued, Britain counter-blockaded Europe, and the policy hurt France and its allies more than Britain.

How did the Peninsular War weaken Napoleon?

Spanish guerrillas resisted French occupation and steadily wore down French troops.

Why did Napoleon invade Russia in 1812?

Czar Alexander I withdrew from the Continental System.

How did Russia's scorched-earth strategy hurt Napoleon?

Russian forces retreated while burning crops and villages, denying food and shelter to Napoleon's army.

Why did Napoleon's retreat from Moscow become a disaster?

Moscow was burned, Russia would not surrender, and winter, starvation, disease, and attacks destroyed most of the roughly 600,000-man army.

What happened at the Battle of Leipzig?

Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden defeated Napoleon in the 1813 Battle of Nations.

What happened to Napoleon in 1814?

He abdicated and was exiled to Elba while Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI, became king of France.

What were the Hundred Days and Waterloo?

Napoleon escaped Elba and ruled again in 1815, but British and Prussian forces defeated him at Waterloo.

What happened to Napoleon after Waterloo?

He was exiled to remote St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821.

What was Napoleon's lasting impact on Europe?

He spread legal equality and the Napoleonic Code, encouraged nationalism in conquered lands, and ended the Holy Roman Empire.

What was the Congress of Vienna?

A meeting of European leaders in 1814-1815 to restore order, contain France, restore royal families, and create a balance of power.

What did Talleyrand achieve for France at the Congress of Vienna?

He persuaded the other powers to treat France as an equal and helped it avoid severe punishment.

What did Britain's Castlereagh seek at the Congress of Vienna?

A balance of power preventing any one country, especially France, from dominating Europe; Britain also gained colonies.

What did Austria's Metternich seek at the Congress of Vienna?

As the conservative host and leader, he opposed revolution and democracy and favored restoring traditional monarchies.

What did Russia's Alexander I seek at the Congress of Vienna?

Control of most of Poland and a Holy Alliance of Christian monarchs.

How did the Congress of Vienna establish a balance of power?

It strengthened states around France and created the Concert of Europe so the powers could cooperate against future revolutions.

What was the long-term result of the Congress of Vienna's settlement?

No single state dominated Europe, and the continent avoided another general war until World War I.

RED CHECK 1: Why did the Third Estate want the Estates-General to meet as a single body?

A single body would vote by person. Because the Third Estate had the most delegates, it could outvote the First and Second Estates instead of losing two estate votes to one.

RED CHECK 2: What was the main motivation behind the Parisians' attack on the Bastille?

They wanted its gunpowder and weapons so they could defend themselves and the National Assembly from the king's troops.

RED CHECK 3: What stoked the Great Fear?

Rumors that nobles hired outlaws to attack villages and that troops were seizing crops; food shortages intensified the panic.

RED CHECK 4: Why did the women who marched on Versailles want Louis XVI to return to Paris?

They wanted him to witness the people's suffering and bread shortage and to keep him under popular control rather than living lavishly at Versailles.

RED CHECK 5: What was the main difference between earlier assemblies and the National Convention of September 1792?

All adult men elected the National Convention; it abolished the monarchy and created a republic, while earlier assemblies retained a limited monarchy and restricted voting to taxpayers.

RED CHECK 6: How did radicals such as Robespierre justify the use of terror?

They said terror was necessary to defend the Revolution from internal and foreign enemies and build a Republic of Virtue through prompt, severe justice.

RED CHECK 7: Why did Catholics welcome the return of emigres?

The Revolution had seized Church lands, put clergy under state control, and closed churches. Catholics hoped returning priests and nobles would restore religion and tradition.

RED CHECK 8: In what ways did the Revolution change French society?

It ended feudal privilege, established male legal equality, put the Church under state control, spread nationalism, replaced titles with citizen, promoted public schools and the metric system, and abolished colonial slavery in 1794.

RED CHECK 9: How did Napoleon rise to power so quickly in France?

Military victories made him a hero; the weak Directory created demand for order; he hid the Egyptian defeat, seized power in the 1799 coup, and won approval through plebiscites.

RED CHECK 10: How did Napoleon dominate most of Europe by 1812?

He used large fast-moving armies, won battles such as Austerlitz, annexed territory, placed relatives on thrones, forced rivals into alliances, and strengthened ties through marriage.

RED CHECK 11: What reforms did Napoleon introduce?

The Napoleonic Code, the Concordat, organized taxes and the Bank of France, lycees, merit-based government jobs, and public works such as roads and canals.

RED CHECK 12: What led to Napoleon's disaster in Russia?

Russia left the Continental System; scorched earth denied supplies; Moscow burned without surrender; winter, starvation, disease, and attacks devastated the retreating army.

RED CHECK 13: Why were the French eager for Napoleon to return after his escape from Elba?

Many feared Louis XVIII and returning nobles would restore the Old Regime. Napoleon represented glory, order, revolutionary reforms, and retained the loyalty of many soldiers.