Deck 9: The French Revolution

Question 1

One of the reasons that the French Revolution was so significant was that, unlike the revolutions of Russian and China in the twentieth century, it

A) occurred in what was in many ways the most advanced country of its day.
B) had tremendous social as well as political implications.
C) had not been preceded by any other revolutions.
D) occurred in a country with a relatively small population.

Answer 1

occurred in what was in many ways the most advanced country of its day.

Question 2

The Oath of the Tennis Court was

A) a virtual assumption of national sovereignty by the Third Estate and its supporters.
B) the last capitulation of the Third Estate to royal power.
C) supported by a majority of the nobility.
D) the king's reluctant oath to defend the new French constitution.

Answer 2

a virtual assumption of national sovereignty by the Third Estate and its supporters.

Question 3

The Great Fear of 1789 was

A) the National Assembly's fear that the king would crush the revolution militarily.
B) the aristocracy's fear that it would be massacred by the peasants.
C) a general agrarian insurrection provoked by rumors of brigands roaming the countryside.
D) France's fear of foreign invasion.

Answer 3

a general agrarian insurrection provoked by rumors of brigands roaming the countryside.

Question 4

The economic policies of the French Revolution's Constituent Assembly most closely followed the ideas of

A) Colbert.
B) Montesquieu.
C) Adam Smith.
D) Voltaire.

Question 5

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 1790

A) separated church and state.
B) was agreed upon after lengthy negotiations with the pope.
C) created, in effect, a French national church.
D) reduced the clergy to poverty, while buying off the bishops.

Question 6

The Thermidorean reaction brought

A) the grant of new, enlarged powers to the Committee of Public Safety.
B) the end of the Terror and another attempt at constitutional government.
C) the end of inflation and price increases.
D) the working classes closer to power.

Question 7

The government of the Directory was controlled by

A) monarchists.
B) representatives of the working classes and the peasantry.
C) substantial property owners.
D) Jacobins.

Question 8

Never widely popular, in order to stay in power the Directory became increasingly dependent on

A) old republicans.
B) the army.
C) radicals.
D) royalists.

Question 9

The 1801 concordat between Napoleon and the pope resulted in all of the following except

A) Napoleon became head of the French church with the right to appoint and dismiss bishops.
B) the Vatican accepted the confiscation of its lands by the revolutionary authorities.
C) the pope gave up his claim to Avignon.
D) Catholic processions in the streets were allowed.

Question 10

The Napoleonic code helped France become all of the following except

A) a socially bourgeois nation.
B) a legally egalitarian nation.
C) a politically free nation.
D) an excessively bureaucratic nation.

Question 11

Describe the financial problems of the French monarchy before 1789. How did the government try to remedy the situation?

Question 12

Discuss the following statement: The outbreak and much of the course of the French Revolution should be understood as a struggle between the nobility and the middle class rather than between the king and the people.

Question 13

How crucial was the role of the peasants and working classes in the outbreak of the French Revolution? Did the lower classes gain any advantages from the revolution?

Question 14

Discuss the role of religious issues in determining the course of the French Revolution up to the year 1801.

Question 15

What measures did Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety take in 1793-94 to save the revolution? In your opinion, were these measures justified?

Question 16

The Directory (1795-1799) lasted longer than any other French revolutionary government before Napoleon. How do you account for its powers of endurance? What were its weaknesses?

Question 17

Napoleon Bonaparte was perhaps the last and most eminent of the enlightened despots. Compare and contrast his personal traits and political actions with those of earlier enlightened absolutists.

Question 18

Discuss Napoleon's reforms during the Consulate (1799-1804). In your opinion, did these reforms justify his repression of French political freedom?

Question 19

Compare and contrast the causes of the English Revolution and the French Revolution. Evaluate the impact of each revolution on government, economy, and society.

Question 20

What were the economic and social resentments of urban residents and peasants in the decade preceding the revolution?

Question 21

What were the political implications of the storming of the Bastille?

Question 22

What was the impact of the French Revolution internationally? Consider both sympathetic and counterrevolutionary responses.

Question 23

Who did the sans-culottes represent? What role did they play in the course of the revolution?

Question 24

Trace the trajectory of Robespierre's revolutionary career. How did it end?

Question 25

How did Napoleon Bonaparte become First Consul? What aspects of his career made him an attractive ally to some of the leaders of the Directory?

Question 26

As First Consul, how did Napoleon establish peace?

Question 27

What were the main points of the Napoleonic codes? Did they transform French society, or simply retrench many aspects of the Old Regime?

Question 28

How did the expansionist tendencies of the revolutionary government foment or discourage support within France for their policies?

Question 29

What role did Napoleon Bonaparte play in the creation of the dependent revolutionary republics?

Question 30

All of the following are true about the Napoleonic Era (1799-1814) except

A) Napoleon came nearer than anyone before or since to imposing political unity on the European continent.
B) Europe was transformed, not only through resistance to Napoleon but through collaboration in his reforms.
C) the fighting during the period amounted to a world war, involving not only Europe but America.
D) England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, allied against Napoleon from 1799 onwards, resisted defeat by the French until 1812.

Question 31

The reforms of the Napoleonic system were the least successfully implemented in

A) Belgium and the Rhineland.
B) Spain and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
C) north Italy.
D) Germany.

Question 32

War broke out between the U.S. and Britain in 1812 because

A) Britain seized New Orleans.
B) France offered to remove her restrictions on neutral trade.
C) Britain wished to restore the former thirteen colonies to her empire.
D) the U.S. was intent on annexing New Orleans.

Question 33

Nationalism in Spain

A) drew on counterrevolutionary sentiments.
B) was less anti-French than in Italy.
C) helped the country through the dislocations caused by industrialization.
D) led reforms in that country's parliamentary system.

Question 34

The great nationalist thinker Herder

A) championed the spread of the Enlightenment.
B) championed a German culture arising from the life of the common people.
C) predicted the coming primacy of German civilization.
D) called for the political unification of Germany.

Question 35

In reaction to its humiliating defeat by France, Prussia

A) abolished serfdom, but at the cost of antagonizing the Junker class.
B) freed the peasants but gave them no land.
C) created a class of small landowners similar to the French peasantry.
D) abolished serfdom, but still subjected the peasants to forced labor on the landlords' fields.

Question 36

In order to prevent future French aggression, the Congress of Vienna

A) gave Britain control of Belgium and Prussia control of the left bank of the Rhine.
B) gave Prussia the left bank of the Rhine and Austria Milan and Venice.
C) gave Russia all of pre-partition Poland.
D) all of the choices are correct.

Question 37

Alexander II's Holy Alliance was signed by all the countries of Europe except

A) Sweden, Switzerland, and Portugal.
B) France, Bavaria, and Denmark.
C) Britain, the Ottoman empire, and the pope.
D) Austria, Britain, and France.

Question 38

The Holy Alliance claimed to uphold Christian principles of charity and peace, but for many it came to signify an alliance

A) against Jews and Muslims.
B) against liberty and progress.
C) aimed at reconquering the Holy Land.
D) against the economic and political imperialism of Britain.

Question 39

At the Congress of Vienna, one of Britain's chief concerns was to prevent

A) Russian domination of the continent.
B) Prussian domination of Germany and central Europe.
C) Austrian domination of Italy and the Mediterranean.
D) a Russo-French rapprochement and alliance.

Question 40

After the defeat of Napoleon and the 1815 peace treaties of Paris and Vienna, the most powerful country in the world was without doubt

A) the Austrian Empire.
B) Russia.
C) Britain.
D) Prussia.

Question 41

The Peace of Vienna accomplished all of the following except

A) the resolution of two centuries of conflict over colonial territories.
B) the resolution of control of Poland.
C) the resolution of Austro-Prussian dualism.
D) the resolution of the wishes of both nationalists and democrats.

Question 42

The French impact on Europe between 1792 and 1814 represented more than mere forcible subjugation. Innovations of the kind made in France by revolution were brought to other countries by administrative decree. Discuss these innovations and analyze their impact on Europe between 1792 and 1814.

Question 43

Describe the rise and fall of the Continental System.

Question 44

Four coalitions were created to contend with Napoleonic expansionism. Why was only the last successful?

Question 45

In your opinion, was Napoleon's empire beneficial or harmful for Europe in the end?

Question 46

Napoleon's rise was meteoric, but his fall was equally dramatic. What were the major reasons for the collapse of his empire?

Question 47

How did Britain and Russia benefit from the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire?

Question 48

The peace settlement of 1814-1815, including the Treaty of Vienna, the treaties of Paris, and the British colonial settlement, was the most far-reaching diplomatic agreement between 1648 and 1919. What were the major provisions of the peace settlement? What were its strengths and weaknesses? Did its benefits outweigh its defects?

Question 49

How did the Napoleonic period promote the rise of nationalism?

Question 50

Describe the rise of nationalism in Germany at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. What were the ideas of such major thinkers as Herder and Fichte about German nationalism?

Question 51

What was the impact of Napoleon's reform on manorialism?

Question 52

To whom did Napoleon's reforms and policies appeal? Why?

Question 53

Why was Napoleon able to garner support for his anti-British agenda?

Question 54

Why did nationalism become a movement of resistance to Napoleon? What aspects of the international system imposed by Napoleon did they resist?

Question 55

What is Volksgeist? Why did the concept fascinate Germans?

Question 56

How did Stein contribute to the transformation of Prussian society?

Question 57

What aspects of the French Revolution and Napoleon's reforms did the charter of 1814 grant to the French people?

Question 58

How did "Congress Poland" represent a compromise at the Congress of Vienna?

Question 59

How did Napoleon use his family to control his empire?

Question 60

How did Napoleon's empire transform eastern Europe?

Question 61

How did Napoleon contribute to the unification of Germany?

Question 62

To what degree did Germans welcome Napoleon's rule? Why?

Question 63

How did the boundaries set by the Congress of Vienna demonstrate the restoration of the state system?

Question 64

Why was the Peace of Vienna unsatisfactory to nationalists, democrats, and liberals?