Question 1

The Thermidorian Reaction refers to

Accepted Answer

A)  the return of France to a monarchy after 1794. 
B)  the successful efforts of Jacobins to prevent further reform after the death of Robespierre. 
C)  the successful efforts of anti-Jacobins in France to roll back the policies of Robespierre after his death. 
D)  the efforts of French women to end the violence of the revolutionary era through political action.

Question 2

What three events contributed to rising tensions in the months before elections to the Estates General were held?

Accepted Answer

A)  Louis XVI moved the court from Versailles to Paris, proposed a new constitution, and offered to shrink the army. 
B)  The Queen closed Versailles, the clergy demanded an end to reforms, and the government subsidized grain prices. 
C)  The king refused to mandate voting by head rather than order, censorship broke down, and food shortages occurred. 
D)  The parlement of Paris agreed to support the king, the pope called for order, and the French aristocracy rallied to the monarchy.

Question 3

According to historians, approximately how many people were imprisoned under the repression implemented by Robespierre?

Accepted Answer

A)  50,000 
B)  300,000 
C)  1 million 
D)  5 million

Question 4

Why were French reformers initially unwilling to end slavery in the French Caribbean, and how did the situation on St. Domingue change after 1791?

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Question 5

How was the reform movement in Poland-Lithuania aided by international politics in the 1780s?

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Question 6

Between 1788 and 1791, how did the Polish Patriots attempt reform in Poland?

Accepted Answer

A)  They took power away from King Stanislaw August Poniatowski and dispersed it among Polish nobles and aristocrats. 
B)  They granted King Stanislaw August Poniatowski much greater monarchical power in order to oppose Russia. 
C)  They enacted a new constitution that gave townspeople limited political rights and hinted at possible Jewish emancipation. 
D)  They abolished serfdom completely and instituted a sweeping measure of land reform to benefit newly freed peasants.

Question 7

As France's revolutionary armies won victories across the European continent, what was the French government's policy toward the newly "liberated" lands?

Accepted Answer

A)  It set up a system of military occupation and forced the peoples in those lands to become subjects of the French state. 
B)  It created semi-independent "sister republics" that were modeled on the new French republic. 
C)  It set up French colonies in the annexed territories, sending large groups of French citizens to organize new settler communities there. 
D)  It left the old government structures largely in place but forced the occupied territories to pay the cost of the war.

Question 8

Although the Committee of Public Safety is most frequently linked with the bloodshed of the Terror, its military reforms actually saved the Revolution. Explain why this was so.

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Question 9

Why did French revolutionaries attempt to "republicanize everything" within French society? How did they both succeed and fail in their efforts to "revolutionize" everyday life in France?

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Question 10

As a reward for his efforts in fighting off the Spanish armies, the French appointed Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave, governor of St. Domingue. Which of the following is also true of Toussaint L'Ouverture?

Accepted Answer

A)  He later died in a French prison after his arrest by Napoleon's army. 
B)  He was later made an honorary deputy of the Convention. 
C)  He immediately turned on the French in an effort to win control of the western half of the island. 
D)  He had staged the initial revolt against the Spanish.

Question 11

What issue inspired the dispute in the French National Assembly between the Girondins and the Mountain?

Accepted Answer

A)  The Mountain argued that the upper ranks of the aristocracy should be exiled along with King Louis XVI, while the Girondins believed that the king alone should be exiled. 
B)  The Mountain believed that the entire royal family should be exiled, while the Girondins argued for their execution. 
C)  The Girondins believed that the king, Louis XVI, was guilty of treason, while the Mountain believed that he was guilty simply of shirking his responsibilities. 
D)  The Mountain believed that the king, Louis XVI, should be executed for treason, while the Girondins argued that he should be given clemency or exile.

Question 12

The Great Fear is the term historians use to describe

Accepted Answer

A)  the fear that gripped most of France when the Committee of Public Safety adopted a campaign of terror, especially the use of the guillotine, as a way of crushing opposition. 
B)  the panic of peasants who suspected an aristocratic conspiracy when unemployment and crop failures drove numerous beggars and vagrants to wander the countryside. 
C)  the dismay that spread among aristocrats when Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were apprehended during their flight to Varennes and returned to Paris. 
D)  the panic that drove the sans-culottes to ever more radical measures when they suspected that monarchists were plotting to repress the Revolution.

Question 13

What was the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen? What did it purport to achieve and for whom? What groups found their situation ambiguous by its adoption.

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Question 14

Why did Robespierre believe terror was a necessary measure for the success of the Revolution?

Accepted Answer

A)  He believed it instilled a stronger revolutionary character in the French people, who had lived for too long under a monarchy. 
B)  He thought that fear was an element that had to be provided by the government, since the Catholic church's authority had been curtailed. 
C)  He argued that the government should teach or force citizens to become virtuous republicans. 
D)  He believed that to be more powerful than a monarch, he needed to be more frightening, and so he instituted a regime of terror to maintain authority.

Question 15

Who was the author of the Declaration of the Rights of Women of 1791?

Accepted Answer

A)  Jeanne Roland 
B)  Charlotte Corday 
C)  Marie-Antoinette 
D)  Olympe de Gouges

Question 16

By the time France underwent revolution, it was the

Accepted Answer

A)  richest, most powerful, and most populous state in Europe. 
B)  only state in Europe with an unstable government. 
C)  poorest and most economically depressed state in Europe. 
D)  most devout and powerful state in Europe.

Question 17

Why were Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette so unpopular, despite the king's seeming eagerness to promote reform?

Accepted Answer

A)  They were extremely devout Catholics and seemed to be under the direct control of the papacy. 
B)  They meddled too much in government affairs, when people thought they should stay out of that which they did not understand. 
C)  They lived extravagantly and appeared indifferent to the misery of the people or the problems of the government. 
D)  They traveled abroad constantly and were never in France to deal with the problems the country faced.

Question 18

German states reacted to the French Revolution with an artistic and intellectual revival that was linked to

Accepted Answer

A)  enthusiasm for the French Cult of the Supreme Being. 
B)  a flood of French pamphlets intended to bring the Germans over to the French side. 
C)  anti-French nationalism stirred by distrust of France's advancing armies. 
D)  reforms enacted by the Holy Roman Emperor to placate those who were attracted to the French revolutionary model.

Question 19

What impact did the French Revolution of the late eighteenth century have on France's colonies in the Caribbean? How did France address those impacts? Did the enslaved persons in France's Caribbean colonies experience any benefits from the actions taken by France at this time? If so, explain how.

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Question 20

Which of the following rights was granted in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen?

Accepted Answer

A)  The right to bear arms 
B)  Equality before the law 
C)  The pursuit of happiness 
D)  Universal suffrage

Exam 19: The Cataclysm of Revolution, 1789-1799