French Revolution - Prequel Flashcards
Long Term Causes of the French Revolution
- King / nobility
- Financial ruin ($ to US)
- Taxes – the less you make the more you pay
- Famine / Flour War – harsh winters, starvation, bread riots
Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette
King and Queen of France. He was disinterested in running the country. She was from Austria. They lived lavishly while most people were poor.
Old Regime, or Ancien Regime
Old social and political system: three social classes with uneven representation in government (Third Estate is 97% of people but only 1 vote in government)
First Estate (social class)
Clergy (church), paid no taxes
Second Estate (social class)
Nobility, paid no taxes
Third Estate (social class)
Everyone else, paid all taxes, 80% peasants
Bourgeoisie (social class)
Business owners / merchants / educated (often wealthy, but taxed)
Estates General (E.G.)
France’s traditional government assembly with representatives of the three estates, or social classes. Meeting of the Estates General in 1789 to fix problems but excluded (locked out) Third Estate and this eventually led to the French Revolution.
Tennis Court Oath
A pledge made by the members (3rd Estate) of France’s Estates General in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting (anywhere) until they had drawn up a new constitution.
National Assembly (N/A)
French Revolutionary assembly (government) (1789-1791) started by Third Estate. It passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789, abolished monarchy, gave voting rights to men with property, confiscated Church property, and formed 83-department bureaucracy.
Bastille Day (Fall of Bastille)
In response to army gathering outside of Paris, hundreds of hungry people stormed the Bastille fort / prison in search of gunpowder to defend themselves. Widespread violence broke out and this was the symbolic start of the Revolution.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen - What was it, and what rights were declared?
Declared all citizens E: equal before the law, LLP: with right to life, liberty, property; and P right to protest.
What was the slogan of the revolutionaries? What did it mean?
Liberté, égalité, fraternité = “Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood” – right to freedom, equality, and unity.
Political cartoon
A cartoon about a political action, subject, or person – Makes an ARGUMENT
Techniques in political cartoons
SEALI:
- Symbolism: simple objects represent larger things
- Exaggeration: overdo physical characteristics of people or things 🡪 make a point
- Analogy: comparison between 2 unlike things
- Labeling: labeled objects / people – CLEAR
- Irony: difference between way things ARE and way things SHOULD BE
