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Y213: The French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon 1774–1815

The causes of the French Revolution from 1774 and the events of 1789: the Ancien Régime, Louis XVI and the financial crisis

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on the estates and privilege, Louis XVI, Turgot, Necker and Calonne, the failure of the Assembly of Notables and the struggle with the parlements in 1787 and 1788.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Outline Calonne's proposals of 1786 for dealing with the deficit.

Who and when

Why did the Assembly of Notables of 1787 fail?

Numbers

What was the political outcome of the struggle between the crown and the parlements in 1787–88?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How was French society legally divided under the Ancien Régime?

    Model answer

    It was divided into three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and everyone else from wealthy merchants down to peasants.

  2. 2

    State the main privileges the first two estates enjoyed and the Third Estate did not.

    Model answer

    They were exempt from the taille and most direct taxation, held a monopoly of senior offices in the army, church and government, and had their own courts and honorific rights.

  3. 3

    Describe the qualities Louis XVI brought to the throne in 1774.

    Model answer

    He was conscientious, pious and well meaning but indecisive, easily swayed by court factions and his wife, and reluctant to sustain a minister through unpopularity.

  4. 4

    What did Turgot try to do as Controller-General, and why did he fall in 1776?

    Model answer

    He freed the internal grain trade, abolished the guilds and the corvée and urged retrenchment at court; noble, parlementaire and popular opposition after the Flour War led Louis XVI to dismiss him.

  5. 5

    How did Necker fund the American war, and what was misleading about his Compte rendu?

    Model answer

    He borrowed heavily rather than raising taxes, and his 1781 published accounts showed a surplus only by omitting wartime expenditure, disguising the true scale of the deficit.

  6. 6

    Outline Calonne's proposals of 1786 for dealing with the deficit.

    Model answer

    A universal land tax payable by all landowners regardless of estate, together with provincial assemblies, free internal trade in grain and the abolition of internal customs.

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