[French Revolution]
Before class
* Read Palmer, 343-382
* Key terms
Old Regime Reflections on the Revolution in France
What is the Third Estate Girondins
National Assembly National Convention
Oath of the Tennis Court sans-culottes
Bastille Maximilien Robespierre
Civil Constitution of the Clergy Committee of Public Safety
Great Fear Reign of Terror
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen Dechristianization
Jacobin Thermidorian reaction
The Rights of Women Directory
Coup d’etat of Brumaire
* Key concept: political revolution
* Key questions
1. In what ways did the legal division of society into three estates under the Old Regime fail to
reflect actual political and social conditions in eighteenth-century France?
2. How did the financial crisis facing the French government lead to revolution?
3. What special circumstances created hardship for the lower classes? What manifestations of
unrest appeared in the cities? in the countryside? What affect did these events have on the
National Assembly?
4. Describe the general impact of the French Revolution upon its age. What different
interpretations did contemporaries give to the events taking place? What were the reactions
of various European governments to the revolutionary events in France?
5. What relationship was there between French military expansion and the spread of the
Revolution? What factors weakened the coalition fighting France?
6. Describe the political and military circumstances behind Bonaparte's seizure of power.
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