The French Revolution — causes and radicalization
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Question
What three types of factors caused the French Revolution?
Answer
Intellectual (Enlightenment ideas questioning absolute monarchy), economic (state debt and 1788 bread crisis), and social (unequal Estates system).
Question
What was the Estates General?
Answer
France's old assembly of the three legal Estates (clergy, nobility, everyone else), summoned by Louis XVI in May 1789 for the first time since 1614.
Question
Why did the Estates General's voting system cause a crisis?
Answer
Each Estate got one vote, so the clergy and nobility could always outvote the Third Estate two-to-one, despite the Third Estate representing about 97% of the population.
Question
What was the Tennis Court Oath (20 June 1789)?
Answer
The Third Estate's deputies, now calling themselves the National Assembly, swore not to disband until France had a written constitution.
Question
Why did the storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789) matter?
Answer
It showed ordinary Parisians could shape events by force, not just deputies through debate — and became a symbol of the fall of royal tyranny.
Question
What did the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 August 1789) proclaim?
Answer
Liberty, equality before the law, and that sovereignty belongs to the nation, not the king by divine right.
Question
What kind of government did the Constitution of 1791 create?
Answer
A constitutional monarchy — Louis XVI kept his throne but shared power with an elected Legislative Assembly, with voting limited by wealth.
Question
What happened at Varennes in June 1791, and why did it matter?
Answer
Louis XVI was caught fleeing France in disguise; his apparent betrayal destroyed trust in constitutional monarchy and fuelled republican sentiment.
Question
How did the monarchy end?
Answer
A Paris crowd stormed the Tuileries palace on 10 August 1792; the monarchy was suspended and France was declared a republic on 21 September 1792.
Question
Who was Maximilien Robespierre and what did he lead?
Answer
A radical lawyer-deputy who dominated the Committee of Public Safety and led the Terror (1793–94), arguing terror was 'virtue' defending the Republic.
Question
What was the Thermidorian Reaction?
Answer
The swing away from Robespierre's Terror after his overthrow and execution (27–28 July 1794) toward more moderate, less repressive rule.
Question
Compare the Terror's defenders and critics.
Answer
Defenders: it saved the Republic from invasion and civil war. Critics: it spiralled beyond military necessity into eliminating political rivals.
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Topic 13.4 hub
The French Revolution (1774–1815)
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