Events
This event in May 1789 brought together representatives of the Three Estates for the first time since 1614.
What is the Estates-General?
This social group paid the majority of direct taxes despite making up around 99% of the population.
What is the Third Estate?
This philosophe argued for a separation of Church and state.
Who is Voltaire?
This French king called the Estates-General in 1789.
Who is Louis XVI?
This Paris prison was stormed on 14 July 1789.
What is the Bastille?
This oath, taken on 20 June 1789, pledged not to separate until France had a constitution.
What is the Tennis Court Oath?
France's tax system exempted these two privileged groups from many taxes.
What are the First and Second Estates?
This philosopher argued for the separation of powers in government.
Who is Montesquieu?
This finance minister released an account of royal funds and supported tax reform before being dismissed in July 1789.
Who is Jacques Necker?
This widespread peasant panic in the summer of 1789 saw attacks on noble property.
What is the 'Great Fear'?
On the night of 4 August 1789, the National Assembly abolished these privileges.
What are feudal privileges (or feudalism)?
This conflict drove Louis XVI to participate in a war overseas to restore national pride.
What is the Seven Years' War?
This medieval system structured society into three orders.
What is feudalism?
This pamphlet writer asked, "What is the Third Estate?"
Who is Abbé Sieyès?
This social group became known for their escalation of violence during the revolution.
Who are city workers?
This event began when workers protested a perceived fall in wages; rioters stormed houses and factories and believed in a plot to dismiss reformers.
What are the Réveillon Riots?
This group grew resentful of the bourgeoisie who had purchased their way into the aristocracy.
Who are the 'nobles of the sword'?
This concept claims that government is established and exists by the consent of the people, not imposed by a monarch.
What is popular sovereignty?
This individual became a hero of both the American and French Revolutions and commanded the National Guard.
Who is Marquis de Lafayette?
This social group included lawyers, doctors, bankers, brokers and bureaucrats.
Who are the bourgeoisie?
This event on 23 June 1789 saw Louis XVI order the Estates to deliberate separately, but the Third Estate refused to leave.
What is the Royal Session?
These influential Enlightenment principles were written about in Rousseau's 'The Social Contract' (1762).
What are liberty and equality?
The Revolt of the Notables and the Paris Parlement challenged this.
Royal/absolute authority.
This individual is related to Holy Roman Emperor Francis I.
Who is Marie Antoinette?
During the ancien regime, this social class held the exclusive right to being decapitated when condemned to death.
Who are the nobility?