The French Revolution

What percentage of the population comprised the first estate and what percentages of French lands did they own?

0.5% of the population, 10% of the land owned

What percentage of the population comprised this estate and what percentage of land did they own?

1.5% of the population, 25% of the land

What percentage of the population comprised the third estate and what percentage of the land did they own ?

98% of the population, 65% of the land

Why was the reaction of the National Assembly to the violence at the Bastille, and what critical pattern did this set throughout the Revolution?

Despite the violent outcome of the storming of the Bastille, the National Assembly did not condemn or correct their actions. Instead, they let it go, which set the precedent for the rest of the revolution. It set the critical pattern that as long as they were doing it to protect the revolution, they could be as violent and gruesome as they wanted.

Why was it a byproduct of the manner in which earlier French monarchs gained their absolute authority?

Earlier monarchs made them exempt from taxation and they were put in high positions of control

How did Marat often believe France's issues could be resolved?

He believed they could be solved with executions and that everyone opposed to the revolution should be put to death

What techniques did Marat use in his writings to spread paranoia?

He planted false ideas into people's heads that they cannot trust anybody because the enemy is everywhere and he urges them to act before the enemy does

What earlier role did he have in the women's march on Versailles?

He printed rumors that the Queen had stomped on the new flag which was created by the revolutionaries

Did Marat believe the Revolution could survive and achieve its goals under a constitutional monarchy?

He said that people were given bribes to talk nicely about it and that Louis must be put to death so that he could never gain absolute power again. He calls the constitution a complete failure, so completely failed that it formed the most dreadful of governments

Why did the personal behavior and policies of King Louis XVI create growing hostility toward the monarchy?

He spent money despite knowing the condition of his people and it was rumored that he had lavish feasts while his people starved.

Why did King Louis XVI call together the Estates General in May of 1789?

He wanted to try and get them to vote in favor of having the nobility be taxed because he does not want to do it himself, but the monarch needs the money that they could give

Why was King Louis placed on trial before the National Convention for treason and executed?

He was placed on trial for trying to flee the country and then they found letters written asking for aid from foreign countries to restore France to the Old Regime

How did Robespierre and the Jacobins justify taking this action?

If he was not executed, then there was always a chance that he could rise back to an absolute power

Why was it so dangerous for the royal family that they were brought back to the Tuileries Palace inside of Paris?

Instead of being miles away from the rebellions and the revolutionaries like they had been in the Palace of Versailles, they were now being brought into the heart of the rebellion where all the poverty, anger, and revolutionaries live

How can the decision to declare war on Austria and Prussia be linked to the emigres who fled during the Great Fear?

It can be linked to paranoia that the emigres caused by fleeing and conspiring with foreign countries. They wanted to act first.

What was the structure of government created by the new constitution in 1791?

It created a republican form of government called the French Republic

How did the French involvement in the Seven Years War and its loss in this conflict contribute to the crisis?

It resulted in the loss of all of their colonies in America, which was a major source of income for France. They lost the money that could have helped their debt situation.

What did the American Revolution stand for, and how did this affect those in France interested in reform and those influence by the Enlightenment?

It was a rebellion against unjust taxation. It teaches them that they can rebel against a leader that imposed unfair taxes, which is what France's leader was currently doing to the Third Estate.

What was the Old Regime and how was it structured?

It was a system of feudalism that France was structured in. There were three estates under the Old Regime, which included the first second, and third.

Why was Catholicism abolished by the Jacobins and replaced by the Cult of the Supreme Being?

It was part of the Old Regime, which they were trying to completely erase. The new religion was based off republican and patriotism.

What was the Great Fear and what were its short-term and long-term causes?

It was rebellion that spread across France where peasants stormed manors that were owned by the nobility. They tore up rent papers, burned down the manors, and slaughtered some of the nobility. Peasants had to pay rent to nobles and the nobles never helped them as they were starving and poor, so the peasants resented the nobles. The nobles became afraid of the peasants during these rebellions.

Who was Marat, and what was his influence on the Revolution?

Jean-Paul Marat was a very paranoid man that lived in the sewers. He published works that paranoid the people because he responded with all threats to the revolution with paranoia. He planted in the people's heads that they cannot trust the king and that the enemies are at their gates waiting to attack. He turned the Revolution to a violent one once again after he pulled a random number from his head and said that they had to execute that many people.

What did Louis attempt to do regarding the Netherlands, and why did he try to convince other kingdoms to invade France?

King Louis XVI attempted to flee to the Netherlands with his family. He tried to convince other kingdoms to invade France and come to his aid because he wanted to dissolve the new constitution that was created by seditious, or rebels against the monarch, people and create a more desirable form of government.

What specific actions taken by King Louis XVI prompted the decision by Parisians to storm the Bastille?

King Louis dismissed Necker, who the Third Estate favored because he did not believe continuing to tax them would solve their debt problem. Then, he stationed Swiss Guards around the Bastille, which led to paranoia and unrest

Why did Marquis de Lafayette from the National Guard in Paris?

Louis XVI increased the military presence in both Paris and at the Palace of Versailles, which the National Assembly saw as Louis starting to develop a plan to violently dissolve the National Assembly. Therefore, Lafayette formed its own unofficial military system so that they would be able to fight back and defend themselves.

Why did Austria have an interest in the survival of the French royal family?

Marie Antoinette was the brother of the ruler there and she came from Austria

How did Necker advise King Louis XVI to respond to the formation of the National Assembly, and why did Louis' decision to ignore this advice further escalate the Revolution?

Necker urged King Louis XVI to work with the National Assembly so that their rebellions would not turn violent. Louis ignored this advice and instead he locked the third estate out of their meeting place. The third estate immediately knew that Louis was trying to suppress the National Assembly and get them to revert back to the Old Regime

Why did the delegates of the National Assembly occupy the Versailles tennis court, and what did they swear to din in the Tennis Court Oath?

Once the National Assembly realized that King Louis had locked them out of their usual meeting place, they stormed the Tennis Courts to have their meeting there. The Tennis Court Oath was a pledge that they would continue to meet in the palace tennis court until they finalized a new constitution.

What is paranoia, and why did its emergence at this point in the Revolution later derail the enlightened goals of the revolutionaries?

Paranoia is the thought that there is always someone out there that wants to harm or kill you. The emergence of paranoia at this point resulted in thousands of executions across France. They believed enemies and traitors were everywhere and they killed people they believed to be traitors with only small, to none, evidence to say that they were traitors. This derailed the enlightened goals because in order to escape oppression, they became oppressive.

What conclusion did Robespierre come to after witnessing the September Massacres in the jails of Paris?

Robespierre came to the conclusion that they should not let the peasants kill. He felt that they should kill in a more enlightened way

Which philosopher's writings most influenced Article 6 of the declaration, and what form of government did this article call for the creation of?

Rousseau's writing on the laws being a reflection of the general will most influenced it because it was a call for a democratic form of government where the people had a say through personal voice or a representative's voice

Why did many French subjects become particularly hostile towards Queen Marie Antoinette?

She had several extravagant dresses that she threw out at the end of the season and she gambled. She was wasting money while her citizens were starving and poor on the streets.

What critical influence did Abbé Sieyés have on early revolution?

Sieyes was one of the most vocal representatives for the Third Estate and he felt that they had to develop a new government with no feudalism where everyone is equal because he feels as of right now, the clergy and noblemen are useless in the government

Why did the Parisians storm the Bastille?

The Bastille contained hundreds of barrels of gunpowder that the National Guard would need to fire the weapons that they had stolen to defend the National Assembly. Marquis de Sade was a prisoner at the Bastille and he shouted down to the National Guard that they were torturing and killing the prisoners, which enraged the Parisian mob. They began to turn their anger on the Bastille and its royal guards. They stormed the Bastille to free the prisoners and obtain the gunpowder that they needed.

What role did the Brunswick Manifesto play in this reaction by all the sans-culottes of Paris?

The Brunswick Manifesto was issued by the Austrians and the Prussians and it said that if any harm came to the royal family, they would come with their armies and kill everyone. Therefore, the sans-culottes wanted to kill all of the people in the prisons before they could come and release them since all of the people in the jails were suspected traitors.

What did many French subjects hope Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would do upon taking the throne in 1774?

The French subjects hoped that they would be different than their previous monarchs because they rarely get a new monarch and they were hoping that they would be good leaders to them and change the third estate's situation

Did the policies of the Jacobins represent the general will of the French people, or the Jacobin's belief regarding what was best for the general good?

The Jacobins had a vision for the general good while the general will had a differing opinion. This quickly eroded all the support that the Jacobins had previously had from the people.

What were the policies and goals of the Jacobin political club led by Maximilien Robespierre, and how did these differ from the Girondin political club led by Georges Danton?

The Jacobins were extremely paranoid and they wanted to declare Louis a traitor and have him executed for treason. Robespierre argued that because Louis was no longer the actual monarch of France, the only thing he could do was pose a continual threat to the National Convention. The Girondin's, however, argued for a lesser sentence. They were trying to control the radical policies of the Jacobins. They believed that Louis should be imprisoned for the rest of his life instead of put to death. They were the more moderate political club.

Overall, to what extent did Jacobin policies and the manner in which they were enforced violate the stated principles in the Declaration of the Rights of Man?

The Jacobins were punishing people for speaking freely and seeming guilty. No one can have their freedom of speech taken away and no one can be put on trial without evidence

Why did the failures of the Legislative Assembly lead to growing support for radical ideologies and solutions?

The Legislative Assembly was getting nowhere because of differing opinions of the people that made it up, and they wanted progress. They wanted their food and debt problems solved not discussed endlessly with no results

What troubling steps were taken in the National Assembly's Decree Confiscating Church Lands?

The National Assembly's Degree Confiscating Church Lands declared that all Church lands were under the property of the government and could be sold as needed. By putting the Church on its payroll, the government gets more control over what the priest says and does. If he says something against the government, they can fire them. This leads to the government taking control of the priests to make sure that they do not support the revolution.

What was the goal of the Thermidorian Reaction and what did it result in?

The Thermidorian Reaction was a violent opposition to the Reign of Terror, which was mass executions of drowning and shooting for anyone who opposed the executions such as Georges Danton and Marie Antoinette. The goal was to take the power away from the Jacobins who were executing everyone at an alarming rate and becoming oppressive, which was shown when Robespierre came out as the Supreme Being at the festival. Robespierre was arrested and guillotined face up so he watched the blade that killed him.

How did King Louis XVI's decision to financially and militarily assist the American Revolution help produce the French crisis?

The debt increased even more, he was joining the Americans in a fight against a tyrannical leader that imposed unfair taxation over his people.

How did this system maintain feudalistic structures in France?

The first and second estates were above the third estate because they were eligible for high political offices and were exempt from all taxation.

Why was the guillotine used for executions?

The guillotine was used for executions because they believed it to be quick and painless. However, no one could come back from the dead to tell them if it really had been painless

Did the monarchy or the Legislative Assembly hold more power?

The legislative powers were granted exclusively to the Legislative Assembly, and the King had essentially no power. He was no longer an absolute monarch, instead the only power he had was to temporarily veto a decision made by the Legislative Assembly

Why did the Jacobins create the new Revolutionary calendar?

The old calendar worshipped things that came out of the Old Regime, which they were trying to erase all influences of. They named their months after natural things and their days of the weeks after numbers instead of religion

What was the purpose of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and which Enlightenment influences directly inspired its articles?

The purpose of the Declaration of the Rights of Man was to establish and declare the rights and treatment of equality of all men. Influences from John Locke with his natural right policies, Rousseau with his idea that the people should have a say in the government and the laws, Voltaire with freedom of speech, Montesquie with his view on government, the English Bill of Rights concerning a fair trial, and the English Parliament and Magna Carter talking about no taxation without representation.

Who were the bourgeoisie?

The wealthiest segment of the Third Estate and they were made of artisans, craftsmen, business owners, lawyers, doctors, and wealthy non-noble landowners.

Why did reliance upon the Third Estate for all tax revenues contribute to the French debt/political crisis of 1788-1789?

There was excessive taxing on the third estate, so businesses were ending and many become unemployed and struggled to feed their families. However, they still had to pay their taxations to the crown, rent to the nobility, and tithes to the Catholic Church. Then on top of that, severe weather destroyed the crops and food shortages became common. They were left with no money to pay taxes, which means that no money is coming into the monarch because the Third Estate pays all of the taxes.

How did the spending of previous French monarchs help create a financial crisis in late 1780s France?

They entered into wars when they were already in debt, and then they spent lavishly on themselves. Wars that contributed were the Thirty Years War and Seven Years War.

Why was the structure of the new government, the National Convention, formed by the leadership of Jacobins?

They had gained favor among the people, and the people wanted the Legislative Assembly dissolved because of its lack of progress, and they dissolved it

Were Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI aware of the suffering of many in the Third Estate, and did this affect their personal spending habits at all?

They knew because Marie Antoinette wrote to her mother about how even though they were starving, they still treated her with kindness. This did not stop her from spending.

Why did Parisian women storm the Palace of Versailles in early October of 1789?

They stormed after Jean-Paul Marat printed a rumor in his newspaper "The Friend of the People" which said that at a royal dinner, the King and the Queen had stomped on the revolutions flag.

Why did the September Massacres occur in Paris?

They thought that the prisoners would be freed by invading countries and since they were believed to be all traitors, they wanted to kill them all first

How did the Jacobins react to Charlotte Corday's murder of Marat?

They used Marat as a martyr and using his bloody bathtub in their meetings

Why did the Jacobins vote to have the Legislative Assembly declare war on Austria and Prussia before dissolving it to form the National Convention?

They voted for war on Austria and Prussia because they were deeply paranoid and believed that they were poised to attack at any moment.

Overall, despite the sympathy and active involvement of many members of the clergy in the Revolution, what was the usual treatment of the Catholic Church?

They were controlled by the government, through payroll and being threatened with losing their jobs. This later led to them being forced into hiding and sometimes executed

What did Robespierre and the Jacobins hope to achieve in their program to create a Republic of Virtue?

They were hoping for an enlightened form of government and erase all remnants of the Old Regime

Who were the emigres and why did they produce so much fear amongst the French revolutionaries?

They were nobles that fled to neighboring countries during the Great Fear. They produced so much fear because they believed that the nobles were plotting with neighboring countries to come back and defeat the National Assembly and then restore the Old Regime

Why did the Jacobins implement a socialized economy under government control, and what were the effects?

They were trying to make everything equal and enlightened, but instead they were starting to be oppressive again. For example, they made everything the same price, but that made all of the businesses go bankrupt. No one had jobs because no one had money and people were still starving. They also stole the shoes from an entire city of aristocrats to put shoes on a different city that had none. It resulted in shortages

What are the multiple causes of the Reign of Terror led by Robespierre and Jacobin-dominated Committee for Public Safety?

This developed because of the growing paranoia of internal enemies of the revolution, unenlightened executions such as the September Massacre, and fear that the French society was on the verge of unrest because of the Republic of Virtue

Why is them representing the Jacobin belief of the general good a critical detail?

What started as a government that was supposed to be completely focused on the general will of the people was quickly becoming a government that thought they knew what the general will wanted

What estate did Sieyes originally belong to, and what does his decision to join the Third Estate reveal about the views of the French Catholic clergy?

he originally belonged to the clergy, and his decision shows that the French Catholic clergy was split between members who supported the second estate and members who supported the third estate

What critical statements did he make in What is the Third Estate?

he said that the clergy and nobility were useless in the functions of the government and economy and that the church and state should be separate

What did the Bastille traditionally symbolize?

it symbolized tyranny of the Old Regime and the Bourbon dynasty because it was a prison for political prisoners that were kept there without a trial, and when they were released they spoke of horrors that they had endured in the prison

What political and taxation privileges did the Third Estate not receive?

not eligible for high political positions, had to pay taxes

Why did the peasants have an extremely poor relationship with the landowning nobility of France?

peasants had to pay rent to the nobility and when the crops failed and they had no money, the nobility did little to help them

What did Sieyes mean when he referred to the nation?

since the third estate makes up most of the population, they are the nation. he believed the government should be a republican representative for the interests of the common population that was already supporting the country

Which French subjects made up the 3rd estate?

the French commoners made up the third estate so basically all of the people who were not clergy members or members of the nobility, the Third Estate was made up of rich, poor, craftsmen. They were not all starving peasants

Which French subjects made up the second Estate?

the French nobility

Which French subjects made up the 1st Estate?

the Roman Catholic Clergy

Where was the meeting place of the Estates General?

the Salles des Menus-Plaisirs, which was located in the Palace of Versailles

Who were the French peasants?

the most impoverished, abused by the policies of the government, and they were mostly urban workers and farmers

How did the selection process for the delegates to the Estates General create a hostile atmosphere of very pro-reform Third Estate bourgeoisie delegates and very anti-reform Second Estate delegates?

the second estate delegates were picked based on how much they opposed taxation for the second estate and the third estate delegates were picked based on how much they wanted equal taxation between the second and third estates

Why did the Third Estate delegates refuse to register themselves separately by estate?

the third estate knew that they would only get one vote per estate if they registered separately and that would mean they would lose 2 to 1

What was the very specific purpose of the National Assembly?

they declared themselves the only ones to be able to make taxes, which 98% of the population would support, their major goal was to completely reform the policies and make it so everyone was equal in the taxes that they paid

Why did the delegates of the Third Estate, led by Sieyes, form the National Assembly?

they formed it as a temporary structure to govern France until a new constitution could be drafted for the French nation. they wanted to be the only ones that could enact taxes, not the king

What was the role of the bourgeoisie in the French Enlightenment and how did this movement promote revolutionary ideology regarding the structure and format of governments?

they had access to the highly educated and elite writings of the Enlightenment, the call for liberty and political equality in these writings inspired them to call for taxation in the second estate

Why did the bourgeoisie become the leaders of the French Revolution?

they had to pay the high taxes on top of their regular business expenses

What was the goal of the Parisians in storming the Bastille?

they hoped to free the seven prisoners contained there and obtain the gunpowder and weaponry that they needed to defend their revolution. They had resolved to defend it with force if necessary

Why did they oppose the traditional registration of delegates and traditional voting procedures of the Estates General?

they wanted to have more representatives because they were more of the population, so if they submitted to the traditional way, they would be allowing the minority of the population to decide what's best for the majority

What exclusive privileges did the second estate have regarding taxation and access to political offices?

they were eligible for high politics offices and they were exempt from taxation

What exclusive privileges did this estate have regarding taxation and access to political offices?

they were exempt from taxation and eligible for high political positions

Why did they resent the French hereditary nobility?

they were treated better and had more privileges than the third class did, they also had to pay them the rent dues

Who were the sans-culottes and what role did they have in the later Revolution?

they were urban workers that received low wage and they led many of the rebellions