History 10: Age of Exploration & French Revolution Section | Final Exam

Exploration

The expansion of European influence in the 15th and 16th centuries, driven by desires for land, trade, religion, and control.

Scientific Method

A process using logic and reason to test and validate ideas, emerging as a key tool during the Age of Exploration.

What drove European exploration during the Age of Exploration?

A hunger for spices and silks pushed sailors to find new routes, while zeal to spread the cross and dreams of gold fired their hearts. Tools like the compass and sturdy caravels made the seas less a foe, opening the world.

Absolutism

A system where monarchs hold supreme authority, often justified by Divine Right.

Divine Right

The belief that monarchs derive their authority from God, granting them absolute control.

Revolution

A significant, often violent shift in government or societal thinking, leading to lasting change.

Intellectual Revolution

A transformation in perception driven by new ideas or reasoning.

Forceful Revolution

A change achieved through violence or radical actions.

Rebellion

Resistance or attempts to alter authority, often through confrontation.

Estates

The three social classes in pre-revolutionary France: First (clergy), Second (nobility), Third (commoners).

National Assembly

A body formed by the Third Estate in 1789 to demand power and a fair constitution.

Napoleonic Code

A legal framework by Napoleon standardizing laws, influencing legal systems globally.

First Estate

Roman Catholic clergy, 1% of France's population, controlling 5-10% of the land.

Second Estate

Nobility, 2% of the population, owning 25% of the land and collecting feudal dues.

Third Estate

97% of the population (bourgeoisie, peasants), with little power and often in poverty.

Economic Problems

Deficit spending, costly wars, royal extravagance, and poor harvests in the 1780s causing financial crisis.

The Great Fear

A 1789 peasant revolt against landlords due to economic hardship and unrest.

Bastille

A Paris fortress stormed on July 14, 1789, symbolizing the revolution's start.

Congress of Vienna (1815)

A post-Napoleon meeting to restore monarchies and redraw Europe's map.

John Locke

Enlightenment thinker advocating natural rights (life, liberty, property) and the social contract.

Montesquieu

Enlightenment thinker promoting separation of powers in government.

Voltaire

Enlightenment thinker championing freedom of speech and religious tolerance.

Rousseau

Enlightenment thinker emphasizing the general will and popular sovereignty.

Robespierre

Radical leader of the Reign of Terror, executed in 1794.

Napoleon Bonaparte

General who overthrew the Directory (1799), later Emperor, implementing the Napoleonic Code.

The French Revolution began partly because of economic problems like deficit spending and bad harvests.

True

What were the three estates of French society, and how did they differ in power and wealth?

First Estate: clergy, 1%, held 5-10% of land, tax-exempt. Second Estate: nobles, 2%, owned 25% of land, lived off dues. Third Estate: 97%, commoners, bore taxes, little voice, often poor.

What role did King Louis XVI play in the start of the French Revolution?

Louis XVI, drowning in debt, called the Estates General in 1789 to raise taxes. His refusal to bend to the Third Estate's cry for power birthed the National Assembly, igniting revolt.

What were the main causes of the French Revolution?

A society split by estates, with the Third Estate crushed by taxes; a treasury bled dry by wars and royal excess; failed harvests; and Enlightenment voices like Voltaire's, questioning the old ways.

What were the key events that marked the beginning of the French Revolution?

The Third Estate's bold move to form the National Assembly, the mob's storming of the Bastille, and the Great Fear's peasant uprisings lit the revolution's fuse.

How did Napoleon Bonaparte rise to power, and what was his impact on France?

Napoleon, a hero of wars in Austria and Italy, seized power in 1799, toppling the Directory. His Napoleonic Code brought order, equality under law, and spread Enlightenment ideas, though his wars drained France.

What were the consequences of the French Revolution and Napoleon's rule?

The revolution shattered absolutism, birthed a republic, and inspired the world. Napoleon's reign steadied France but ended in defeat, with the Congress of Vienna in 1815 restoring old crowns.

The Third Estate had the most political power before the French Revolution.

False. The Third Estate, 97% of France, had no say, their voices drowned by clergy and nobles.

Discuss the causes and effects of the French Revolution on French society.

France's revolution was born of a broken society—97% toiled as Third Estate, taxed to the bone, while nobles and clergy lived high. Wars and royal spending bled the treasury; harvests failed, bellies ached. Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau fanned flames, urging people's rule. The effects were vast: absolutism crumbled, a republic flickered, nobles and Church lost sway. Though Napoleon's wars later scarred France, the revolution's cry for equality echoed worldwide.

Explain how Napoleon's rule both preserved and contradicted the ideals of the French Revolution.

Napoleon upheld the revolution's heart with his Napoleonic Code, carving equality and secular law into France's bones. He swept away feudal chains, cementing change. Yet, by crowning himself Emperor, he mocked the revolution's dream of liberty, hoarding power like the kings before him, his iron rule silencing the people's voice.