Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

West Civ II Exam #1 > Chapter 4 - The French Revolution > Flashcards

Chapter 4 - The French Revolution Flashcards

1
Q

Define What Groups Constitute the Three Estates.

A

First Estate - The Roman Catholic Clergy
Second Estate - Nobility
Third Estate - All Other Frenchmen.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What was the population of the First and Second Estates compared to the Third Estate?

A

500,000 to 26 Million.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What characterized the lifestyles of members of the First and Second Estate?

A

Lavish and Leisurely Living That Enjoyed Enormous Privileges Such as Tax Emption

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What was the Key Group of People in the Third Estate?

A

The Bourgeoisie

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Who was in the Bourgeoisie?

A

Non-Aristocratic Merchants, Doctors, Lawyers, Bankers, Teachers, Manufacturers, Low-Level Government Bureaucrats, and Intellectuals.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What characterized the lifestyles of members of the Third Estate?

A

Poverty Among Peasants, Taxes and Tithes, and Rising Prices.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

How much of the wealth was controlled by the top 2%?

A

95% of the wealth

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What was the origin of this “caste system”?

A

Medieval feudalism (this lacked a middle class like the Bourgeoisie)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

When did the Bourgeoisie emerge as numerous and strong?

A

Late 1700s

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Which two kings had ruled absolute in France prior to the Revolution?

A

Louis XIV (1643-1715) and Louis XV (1715-1774)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What event made Enlightenment ideals “do-able”?

A

The American Revolution

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

How would the French Revolution be different than the American Revolution?

A

(1) The FR was largely social and changed the fabric of French society. (2) The FR was aimed at an omni-present royal and ecclesiastical system. (3) Post FR day-to-day life was very different. (4) Frenchmen killed Frenchmen. (5) Domestic turmoil led to a dictator. (6) It was hindered by external foreign pressure from European states who wanted to end the revolution.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

How was France mismanaged in the late 1700s?

A

Internal tariffs tampered domestic trade, as did different systems of weights and measurements. Bureaucrats were incompetent. There was no uniform legal code.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What was France’s most pressing problem in the 1700s and why?

A

Financial crisis. This was caused by a century of wars.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

How did French aristocrats respond to financial crisis?

A

They would not pay higher taxes so they assembled the Estates General in 1789 in order to gain popular consent to raise the taxes of the third estate.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What were the years of the Moderate Stage of the FR?

A

1789-1791

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What did Third Estate delegates do in response to their lack of voice in the Estates General?

A

They assembled themselves into a new National Assembly in June of 1789 and declared themselves to be the only legislative authority.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What did the National Assembly first attempt to do?

A

They excluded the First and Second Estates, and they challenged the nobility, defied the king, and pledged to draw up an entirely new constitution for France that would restructure the state.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Why did the Second Estate back down from crushing the National Assembly?

A

The largely middle-class National Assembly received critical assistance from rural peasants and the poorer urban laborers.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What did Louis do to confirm the Third Estate’s poor opinion of him?

A

He dismissed Finance Minister Jacques Necker, who was very popular with the commons.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What happened on Bastille Day?

A

Parisians stormed and captured the Bastille, a Paris fortress-prison and a symbol of royal authority. Rural peasants went on a rampage, burning manor houses and destroying their lords’ registers (which recorded their feudal financial obligations).

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What was the result of Bastille Day?

A

The nobility relented and surrendered many special privileges.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

What day was Bastille Day?

A

July 14, 1789.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

What did the National Assembly pass as a preface to the new Constitution?

A

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

How was the king compelled to sign the Declaration?

A

Parisian men and women (along with an armed citizen militia of 20,000) marched on the king’s palace at Versailles.

26
Q

What were French aristocrats who fled the state called?

A

Emigres.

27
Q

What were the National Assembly’s three chief reforms?

A

Nationalizing (i.e., confiscating) of Roman Catholic Church-held land, freedom of the press (i.e., no more censorship), and a separation of legislative and judicial powers.

28
Q

What else changed under the National Assembly?

A

The First and Second Estates’ special privileges were abolished. Human rights were established, including individual liberties, freedom of religion, and equal treatment under the law. The Roman Catholic Church was subordinated to the state. Suffrage was extended to about 70 percent of France’s males. Torture was abolished. Internal tolls and duties were eliminated within France’s borders. They forbid workers from unionizing or striking.

29
Q

What was the revolutionary slogan of the FR?

A

liberty, equality, fraternity

30
Q

Who did the moderate revolution favor?

A

The rising middle class businessmen, the philosophes and intellectuals, and the Enlightenment-friendly aristocrats. It broke the power of the king and nobility, but also prevented the urban poor and peasants from wielding significant political power.

31
Q

What were the years of the Radical stage of the FR?

A

1792-1794

32
Q

Who were the sans-culottes?

A

small shopkeepers, artisans, and wage earners

33
Q

What did the sans-culottes want?

A

higher wages, government-enforced price controls on food, no more food shortages, and government action to prevent both extreme wealth and poverty.

34
Q

Why did the radical reformers want to abolish monarchy altogether?

A

They suspected (accurately) that like the emigres, the king felt more brotherhood with and loyalty toward non-French aristocrats than he did French non-aristocrats. In the face of what they perceived as collaboration with foreigners to kill the revolution, members of the Third Estate (and primarily Parisians) attacked the king’s palace, either killed or jailed priests and nobles, abolished the monarchy outright, and established a republic.

35
Q

When did the Radical Revolutionaries vote to kill the king?

A

January 1793

36
Q

What was the name of the more extreme group of revolutionaries?

A

the Jacobins

37
Q

Who led the Jacobins?

A

Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety

38
Q

What did the Jacobins do?

A

!hey created a stronger central government to effect some of the changes demanded by the sans-culottes. All adult males were granted the vote. Slavery in the French colonies was abolished, imprisonment for debt was outlawed, plans were made for free public education, and the government set wage and price controls. They expanded their professional army into a mass army of young, unmarried, and drafted men.

39
Q

Why was this period known as the Rule of Terror?

A

40,000 Frenchmen died in an attempt to preserve the French Republic by eliminating its enemies.

40
Q

What were the years of the FR’s Thermidorean Counter-Revolution?

A

1794-1799

41
Q

What ended the Radical Revolution?

A

The arrest and execution of Robespierre in 1794.

42
Q

What did the Counter-Revolution accomplish?

A

A new republican government, the Directory, assumed control of France. It ended the Reign of Terror, abolished economic controls, reestablished property requirements for voting, and crushed both rioting Parisian sans-culottes and nobles seeking to restore the monarchy.

43
Q

Why didn’t the middle-class Directory maintain control?

A

France’s external military situation grew steadily worse. This forced the Directory to turn more and more to the military for leadership. At the same time, domestic unrest had not disappeared. There had been enough revolution, bloodshed, and economic dislocations to leave almost all Frenchmen dissatisfied. A growing number of French citizens distrusted the government, unsure of what the future held. Many simply wanted peace and stability. In this environment marked by turmoil and uncertainty, political power began to pass into the hands of the army’s generals.

44
Q

When and how did Napolean take over?

A

In 1799, he seized control of the government by engineering a coup d’etat that overthrew the Directory and became one of three “ruling consuls” (or presidents) in the republic.

45
Q

What were the years of Napoleon’s rule?

A

1799-1815

46
Q

How many years did it take for Napoleon to become “first consul for life” and then emperor?

A

5 years

47
Q

What is Napoleon best characterized as?

A

an enlightened despot

48
Q

What is an enlightened despot?

A

a European dictator who had been heavily influenced by Enlightenment ideals.

49
Q

What did Napoleon do as enlightened despot?

A

He promoted a strong centralized state, administrative efficiency, secular education, and government regulation of trade and industry. He encouraged the development of the arts and science. He disliked feudalism, religious persecution, and civil inequality. He suppressed some political liberties, executed political enemies, and concentrated power in his own hands. But he also provided law-based, non-arbitrary rule that applied the law equally to all citizens. He negotiated a deal with the pope in order to win the loyalty of French Catholics, and yet remained in control over France’s clergy. He molded public opinion by protecting a quasi-free press and yet also “managing” their treatment of his regime.

50
Q

During what years did Napoleon try to takeover Europe?

A

1805-1810

51
Q

What was Napoleon’s fatal mistake in trying to takeover Europe?

A

When he attempted to add Russia to his empire. He invaded Russia in 1812 with his massive “La Grand Armee” of 600,000 men only to meet a retreating Russian army that shrewdly drew him deeper and deeper into the heart of Russia. When the Russians finally fought, Napoleon won an indecisive and costly victory at the Battle of Borodino. His French soldiers defeated the Russian contingent there, but the victory did not provoke a Russian surrender. Winter was approaching; Napoleon hurried to nearby Moscow, only to discover the city ablaze and bereft of much-needed supplies. Napoleon then commenced the infamous “Great Retreat” across Russia. The brutal Russian winter of 1812-1813 did what the Russian army could not do: it decimated Napoleon’s army, thus provoking the assessment that “General Winter” defeated Napoleon. Only 40,000 of Napoleon’s soldiers struggled back into Poland in early 1813.

52
Q

How was France and Napoleon defeated?

A

In 1813 at Leipzig and then in 1814 when they suffered the capture of Paris.

53
Q

Where was Napoleon first exiled?

A

The small island of Elba off the coast of Italy.

54
Q

Who was reinstalled as King of France after Napoleon?

A

The younger brother of the executed King Louis XVI, Louis XVIII.

55
Q

When did Napoleon escape Elba?

A

1815

56
Q

How did Napoleon establish his 100 Days Reign?

A

The soldier’s dispatched by Louis XVIII sided with Napoleon.

57
Q

When and how did Napoleon’s 100 Day Reign end?

A

at Waterloo in 1815

58
Q

Where was Napoleon exiled the second time?

A

He was exiled to the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena and he made no more returns to France. He died in exile six years later.

59
Q

What were the 8 ramifications of the FR?

A
  1. Monarchy was weakened. 2. The middle class was strengthened. 3. The people now owned the state (nationalism/patriotism was born). 4. Enlightenment ideas spread throughout Europe. 5. European life was secularized. 6. The concept of total war was introduced. 7. Christians regarded the bloodshed of the FR to be a result of its secular foundation. 8. It was part of the 1760-1860 Age of Democratic Revolutions.
60
Q

What one fundamental fact of political revolutions was demonstrated in the FR?

A

once they are started, they are hard to stop.

West Civ II Exam #1 (8 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions