UNIT THREE: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND
NAPOLEON
Unit 3: French Revolution and Napoleon (Chapter 19 in the Textbook)
Terms: Define the following as they pertain to the historical topic at hand.
Term
Estates
Bourgeoisie
Deficit Spending
Cahiers
Tennis Court Oath
The Bastille
The National Assembly
Committee of Public Safety
Guillotine
Reign of Terror
Nationalism
Define (what does it mean)
Importance (what effect does
this have on history?)
The Directory
Plebiscite
Napoleonic Code
Congress of Vienna
People: Identify the following individuals
Individual(s)
King Louis XVI
Third Estate
Jacques Necker
Marie Antoinette
Maximilien Robespierre
Napoleon
How do they affect France?
Map Activity: Place the kingdoms/places listed below on the map. Create a color key to demonstrate
the coordination.
A) In France:
Paris
Versailles
Corsica
B)
Napoleon’s power (on the map below, use the map on pg. 486 of the textbook to show):
- French Territory
- States ruled by
Napoleon’s family
- Areas France
controlled/was
allied with
Charts: Complete the chart using information from class as well as your textbook.
A) Causes of the French Revolution
Social Causes
Political Causes
Economic Causes
Short Term Causes
Long Term Causes
Short Term Effects
Long Term Effects
(Check page 487 to help with this!)
Primary Sources: Use the documents to answer the following questions. Use complete sentences.
Maximilien Robespierre, Speech on Revolutionary Government
The theory of revolutionary government is as new as the Revolution that created it. It is as pointless to
seek its origins in the books of the political theorists, who failed to foresee this revolution, as in the laws
of the tyrants, who are happy enough to abuse their exercise of authority without seeking out its legal
justification. And so this phrase is for the aristocracy a mere subject of terror a term of slander, for
tyrants an outrage and for many an enigma. It behooves us to explain it to all in order that we may rally
good citizens, at least, in support of the principles governing the public interest.
It is the function of government to guide the moral and physical energies of the nation toward the
purposes for which it was established.
The object of constitutional government is to preserve the Republic; the object of revolutionary
government is to establish it.
Revolution is the war waged by liberty against its enemies; a constitution is that which crowns the
edifice of freedom once victory has been won and the nation is at peace.
The revolutionary government has to summon extraordinary activity to its aid precisely because it is at
war. It is subjected to less binding and less uniform regulations, because the circumstances in which it
finds itself are tempestuous and shifting above all because it is compelled to deploy, swiftly and
incessantly, new resources to meet new and pressing dangers.
The principal concern of constitutional government is civil Liberty; that of revolutionary government,
public liberty. Under a constitutional government little more is required than to protect the individual
against abuses by the state, whereas revolutionary government is obliged to defend the state itself
against the factions that assail it from every quarter.
To good citizens revolutionary government owes the full protection of the state; to the enemies of the
people it owes only death.
1)
Why does the revolutionary government exist? Why must it use violence?
2) Explain how a revolutionary government is different from a constitutional government.
Summary Questions: Answer the following questions in 3+ full sentences
1)
What excesses of the absolutist monarchs led to the French Revolution? Name two things that
the kings could have done differently and why that would have avoided revolution?
2) Why were the leaders of the Congress of Vienna so interested in France after the Rule of
Napoleon? What were their goals?
3) Was the French Revolution successful? Why or Why Not?