Vive la Révolution!
This event on 14 July 1789 saw revolutionaries seize the fortress-prison in Paris, making it a powerful symbol of the Revolution.
Storming of the Bastille
This 1789 event saw the National Assembly's deputies take an oath not to separate until France had a constitution.
What is the Tennis Court Oath?
This Enlightenment idea placed sovereignty in the people or nation rather than the monarch.
What is popular sovereignty?
Published in early 1789, this pamphlet helped build support for the political demands of the Third Estate on the eve of the Estates-General.
What is What Is the Third Estate??
This financial minister was dismissed by Louis XVI in 1781, later recalled, and became a popular symbol of attempts to reform France’s financial crisis.
Who is Jacques Necker?
This was the name given to the representatives of the common people in the Estates-General.
What is the Third Estate?
This October 1789 event brought Louis XVI and his family from Versailles to Paris.
What are the October Days?
This feature of the ancien régime gave certain groups special legal and social advantages.
What is privilege?
This revolutionary document of August 1789 attacked privilege and established principles of liberty, equality and popular sovereignty.
What is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen?
This nobleman and military officer fought in the American War of Independence before becoming commander of the National Guard during the French Revolution.
Who is Lafayette?
This 1793–94 development saw revolutionary governments use executions, surveillance and revolutionary tribunals against those considered enemies of the Revolution.
What is the Reign of Terror?
This wave of peasant panic and revolt spread across France during the summer of 1789.
What is the Great Fear?
This intellectual movement was associated with thinkers such as Rousseau, Voltaire and Montesquieu, whose ideas challenged traditional authority and influenced revolutionary thinking.
What is the Enlightenment?
These lists of grievances were prepared by different groups in France before the Estates-General.
What are the Cahiers de Doléances?
This revolutionary journalist used his newspaper "The Friend of the People" to attack enemies of the Revolution and advocate radical action.
Who is Marat?
This radical popular movement was associated particularly with urban workers in Paris.
Who are the sans-culottes?
This failed attempt by Louis XVI to escape France occurred in June 1791.
What is the Flight to Varennes?
This revolutionary principle challenged the idea that political authority should be based on inherited privilege.
What is equality?
This revolutionary document can be used as evidence of changing ideas about liberty, equality and political rights.
What is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen?
This revolutionary leader became associated with the Committee of Public Safety and defended the use of revolutionary government and Terror to protect the Republic.
Who is Robespierre?
This 1790 measure reorganised the Catholic Church in France and required clergy to swear an oath to the state.
What is the Civil Constitution of the Clergy?
This 1794 event resulted in the fall and execution of Robespierre.
What is the Thermidorian Reaction?
This political system replaced absolute monarchy with elected representatives claiming to act on behalf of the nation.
What is representative government?
In this speech to the Estates-General in May 1789, this royal minister proposed reforms to France's financial and political system and supported voting by head rather than by Estate.
What is Necker's speech?
This revolutionary politician argued that the Third Estate represented the nation and demanded that political authority reflect the will of the people.
Who is Sieyès?