French Revolution Quiz

French Revolution Quiz

French Revolution Quiz

1-3. Identify, explain the importance, and give the fate of each of the following (3 pts each):

  1. Maximilian Robespierre – former lawyer; brains of the revolution main leader; beheaded in Thermidorian Reaction
  2. Georges Danton – voice of the Revolution; rallied crowds to fight of Austria; beheaded
  3. Jean-Paul Marat – pen/writer of the revolution; had to spend most of life in bathtub; published “the friend of the people”; assassinated

4. Explain three major problems with life under the Ancien Regime.King had completed power; people over taxed; church had too much power; nobles to rich; decadent court, etc.

5-7. List and define the three estates.

First – clergy

Second – nobility

Third – everyone else (peasants)

8. What was the peasants’ main problem with the Estates General?The vote was determined via house, so the first two houses would always vote down the third, thus the peasants have no say.

9. What happened on July 14, 1789?Fall of the Bastille

10. What was the problem with the Tennis Court Oath?It had no action to back up its words (i.e. there were no teeth—nothing to enforce it)

11. What served as the constitution of the National Assembly?Declaration of the Rights of Man

12. What was the practical problem with said constitution (#11)?It was a list, it did not set up a government

13. What big role did the fishmonger’s wives play in the revolution?Led march on Versailles (this would eventually make the royal family return to Paris)

14. What major role did the sans-culottes play in the revolution? (This has nothing to do with pants!!)September Massacre – butchered a bunch of people in jail after the army left to fight Austria

15. Give two reasons Austria would have had for invading France in the middle of the revolution.Historical rivals; weak thanks to revolution; save Marie Antoinette (she was Austria); show solidarity within the nobility of Europe

16. What was the fate of Louis XVI?Beheaded

17. What was the Committee of Public Safety?Set up to keep order, but it perpetuated the Reign of Terror

18. What reason did Robespierre give for the Reign of Terror?Fear was needed to get people to buy into and care about the Republic

19. How did Thomas Paine affect the French Revolutions and views upon it?Encouraged the French to revolt; served in French Legislature; gave credence government actions

20. What was the point of redoing the calendar?Dechristianize (i.e. get rid of church’s power i.e. Sunday)

21. Robespierre wanted to found a Republic of ______.Virtue

22. What was the Festival of the Supreme Being?Big (toga) party held by Robespierre to kick of his new republic—he came down from a top of a paper mache mountain.

23. What massive miscalculation by Robespierre led to the Thermidorian Reaction (on Thermidor 9)?He wouldn’t tell who the new enemies of the Republic were

24. What was the name for the reaction to the Reign of Terror during the early months of the Directory?White terror.

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