Starter quiz
- In what year was the Declaration of Independence signed?
- '1776' ✓
- The printing press allowed __________ ideas to arrive in the American colonies.
- Protestant
- Renaissance
- Enlightenment ✓
- Classical
-
- There were ______ British colonies in North America at the time of the Revolutionary War.
- '13' ✓
- In 1765 Britain introduced new taxation to the American colonies in the form of the ______ Act.
- 'Stamp' ✓
- Starting with the earliest, place these events in chronological order.
- 1⇔The Stamp Act
- 2⇔The Boston Massacre
- 3⇔The Boston Tea Party
- 4⇔The Declaration of Independence
- The collective name for the basic principles/laws which govern a country is a...
- 'constitution' ✓
Exit quiz
- Enlightenment thinkers in France blamed the problems of their country on Louis XVI and the ______ Régime.
- 'Ancien' ✓
- In France, which group had to pay the taille?
- nobles
- clergy
- peasants ✓
-
- Many peasants in France were starving following years of bad...
- 'harvests' ✓
- Match the 'estate' to its social group.
- First Estate⇔clergy ✓
- Second Estate⇔nobility ✓
- Third Estate⇔ordinary commoners ✓
- When members of the Third Estate broke away from the Estates-General they formed the 'National ______'.
- 'Assembly' ✓
- When Louis and Marie Antoinette were executed in January 1793 it brought about the end to ______ monarchy in France.
- 'absolute' ✓
Worksheet
Presentation
Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- European Enlightenment ideas had spread to America, causing a revolution which France had supported.
- The French monarchy was deep in debt and taxed the poorest in society the most.
- The inequality of the Ancien Régime and successive poor harvests angered ordinary people.
- King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette spent money lavishly whilst their people were starving.
- The people of France rose up against the monarchy in revolution in 1789 leading to the execution of the king.
Common misconception
The French Revolution only occurred because of the Enlightenment.
The French Revolution occurred for a myriad of reasons. These include causes such as the Enlightenment, the influence of the American Revolution, the lavish spending of the monarchy and their supposed indifference to the plight of the Third Estate.
Keywords
Ancien régime - the Ancien Régime was the name for the political and social system in France before the Revolution, ruled by the monarch: King Louis XVI
Taille - the taille was a land tax paid in France by peasants and non-nobles before the Revolution, and was not paid by clergy or nobility
Estates-general - an Estates-General was an emergency meeting of people from all areas of French society that the king could call to advise him
Republic - a republic is a country without a king or queen.
Absolute - the ability of a monarch to do as they please without having to answer to anyone for their actions is known as absolute power