Politics
This ongoing problem—including bankruptcy, bread shortages, inflation, and assignat collapse—drove popular mobilization and radicalized the urban poor throughout the Revolution.
What is the Economic crisis?
This estate, comprised of the nobility, enjoyed feudal privileges and were exempt from many taxes, despite making up a small percentage of the population.
What is the Second Estate?
This French queen's perceived extravagance and detachment from the suffering of the Third Estate earned her the nickname "Madame Déficit."
Who is Marie Antoinette?
This group paid the vast majority of taxes before the revolution.
Who is the Third Estate?
This period of intense violence saw mass executions of perceived enemies of the revolution.
What is the Reign of Terror?
This failed escape attempt in June 1791, along with the king's apparent collusion with foreign powers, destroyed public trust and led to the abolition of monarchy.
What is the flight to Varennes?
This event saw peasants rise up against their landlords, burning châteaux and destroying feudal records, fueled by rumors of an aristocratic conspiracy.
What is the Great Fear?
This King of France during the Revolution was eventually tried for treason and executed by guillotine in January 1793.
Who is Louis XVI?
This staple food saw its price double in 1789 due to poor harvests.
What is bread?
These more moderate revolutionaries favored a constitutional monarchy and initially clashed with the Jacobins.
Who are the Girondins?
Unlike the National Assembly which aimed for constitutional monarchy, this body abolished the monarchy, held supreme power, and governed during wartime emergency from 1792-1795.
What was the National Convention?
The Reign of Terror, characterized by mass executions by this device, instilled fear across society and became a symbol of revolutionary justice and state-sponsored violence.
What is a guillotine?
He was the military general who seized political power in a 1799 coup and later crowned himself Emperor, bringing the revolutionary period to a close.
Who is Napoleon?
The revolutionary government issued this paper currency, backed by confiscated church lands.
What are Assignats?
This radical political group, led by Robespierre, dominated the National Convention during the Reign of Terror.
Who are the Jacobins?
"The Incorruptible" believed in civic virtue and moral regeneration, while his more pragmatic rival called for moderation and clemency before being executed in April 1794.
Who were Robespierre and Danton?
This term referred to the radical working-class revolutionaries who wore long trousers instead of the culottes favored by the upper classes, symbolizing their rejection of elite fashion and social norms.
Who are the Sans-culottes?
This French nobleman and military officer, a hero of the American Revolution, was also a key figure in the early French Revolution, famously commanding the National Guard and helping to draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
Who is Marquis de Lafayette?
Louis XVI contributed to the financial crisis by joining this war.
The American Revolution
This legislative body replaced the Estates-General and swore an oath not to disband until a new constitution was written.
What is the National Assembly?
Robespierre's famous phrase stated that in peacetime virtue suffices, but in revolution, virtue must be armed with this.
What is terror?
While the Revolution did not grant women equal political rights, it did lead to reforms in these areas, including property inheritance and divorce laws.
What are areas like family law, property rights, or inheritance?
A prominent figure in the early stages of the Revolution, this lawyer and powerful orator was the first president of the Committee of Public Safety before being executed for opposing the excesses of the Reign of Terror.
Georges Danton
This financial institution was established in 1800 to stabilize currency.
What is the bank of france?
Leader of the Committee of Public Safety, he oversaw the Reign of Terror before his own execution.
Who is Maximilien Robespierre?