Inquiry Question
Why did people participate in the French Revolution?
The Context
From “The French Revolution”
McDougal Littell
During the 18th century, the impulse toward democracy had also been stirring in France. Under Louis
XIV, who reigned from 1683 to 1715, France experienced the excesses of absolute monarchy. Louise left
unresolved problems and massive debts for his heirs. Unrest grew during the reigns of Louis XV and
Louis XVI.
Causes of the Revolution.
Louis XVI came to the throne at the age of 19 in 1774. He was a well-intentioned but weak leader who
was often dominated by his wife, Marie-Antoinette. She was a spoiled and extravagant woman who
often involved herself in matters of the royal court. She was unpopular with the French people.
France’s problems, however, went deeper than the monarchy. The clergy and the nobility enjoyed
many privileges. Even though the monarchy was deeply in debt, only commoners paid taxes. Many
historians say that the French Revolution was fought to balance the inequities, or injustices in French
society.
Throughout the 18th century, Enlightenment ideas caused people to rethink the structure of society. The
French middle class and also some nobles were impressed with the ideas such as the social contract and
freedom of speech. They were also inspired by the example of the American people throwing off an
oppressive government in the 1770’s. The peasants, too, were dissatisfied and restless. The year 1789
had been preceded by two years of poor harvests. The people were hungry and felt that neither the
king nor the nobility cared.
Early Reforms of the Revolution .
Louis XVI’s government was about to go bankrupt in 1789. In desperation, Louis sought to raise taxes.
He called into session the Estates-General. This representative assembly had not been summoned since
1614. The commoners in the Estates-General, however, felt their class was not fairly represented and
protested. They left and formed the National Assembly. Eventually, members of other classes joined
them. In the meantime, on July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a much-hated prison
in Paris that symbolized autocratic rule. Peasant uprisings then spread from Paris thought the country.
The fight to win democratic freedoms for the people, the French Revolution, had began.
The National Assembly made many needed reforms. It adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen. This document was strongly influenced by Enlightenment ideas and the American
Declaration of Independence. The declaration guaranteed the rights of “liberty, property, security, and
resistance to oppression” to all people. The assembly also ended feudalism in France. It drafted a
constitution that made France a limited monarchy. It reorganized the Catholic Church in France and
redistributed its land. It reformed the court system. Believing its work to be over in 1791, it disbanded
so that the new Legislative Assembly could take over.
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #1
French Republic Undone.
In France, the new assembly was not accepted by the king, the aristocrats, or many Catholics. Other
European countries who had absolute monarchs feared the spread of democratic ideas. They went to
war with France, hoping to undo the new government. The new French republic was in a state of crisis.
In 1792, the royal family was imprisoned. A new legislature, more radical in nature, took charge. A
period historians call the Reign of Terror followed. Many people who were thought to be opponents of
the revolution were killed for their beliefs. Included among them were the king and queen. Finally, in
1799, a military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, assumed control of France and created a dictatorship.
--------------------------------Exercises with Source Documents
Exercise 1- Primary Sources: How Trustworthy of Reliable?
Primary sources are records from the past. But this does not mean they can always tell you exactly how
life “really was” in the past. You need to evaluate such sources carefully to be able to learn things from
them. For example, one important question you need to ask of every primary sources is this:
·
How trustworthy or reliable is this sources? In other words, can you depend on it to give you
information that you can use to answer a specific essay question you have been given? What
other evidence might you need to judge (corroborate) its accuracy of reliability?
This exercise will help you think about a source’s reliability. Below each document or source are three
statements about the document’s trustworthiness of reliability. For each document, choose the one
statement you agree with most. Mark your choice in the space provided. Discuss your choices in class.
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #2
Source Documents
Source 1 – A French cartoon drawn in 1789. The peasant is being crushed by a stone. “Impots” were
taxes and “corvees” was forced labor. Who does the illustrator show as standing on the stone?
Choose the best statement about source 1
A. This evidence is reliable in showing that the clergy and the nobility were friends of each other.
B. This evidence is reliable in showing that taxes were crushing the peasants.
C. This evidence is reliable in showing that an artist at the time drew what may have been a popular
belief that the peasants were being oppressed by the clergy and nobility.
Your choice _______________
Why?
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #3
Source 2 - A Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
On August 27, 1789 the National Assembly of France wrote a Declaration stating what they believed
should be the rights of all men. The following are some of the rights that they listed.
1) Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon
the general good.
3) Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally or
through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or
punishes.
8) The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man.
Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write and print with freedom….
10) A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of
administration. This should be equitably distributed among all citizens in proportion to their
means…
Choose the best statement about source 2
A. This document is reliable for understanding what rights many French people thought they should
have in 1789.
B. This is reliable evidence of what rights the King thought the people of France should have.
C. This is reliable evidence of all the rights that French people thought they should have.
Your choice _______________
Why?
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #4
Source 3 - French Playing
cards after the
Revolution
Playing cards show some
of the changes in France.
By 1890 there was, for
example:
- Freedom of marriage “Liberte du marriage”
- Freedom of the press –
“Liberte de la presse”
Choose the best statement about source 3
A. This document is evidence that there was no discrimination against people, no matter what their
color, after the Revolution.
B. This document is evidence that ideas about freedom influenced the content of materials people
used in their everyday lives.
C. This document is evidence that most French people were religious;
Your choice _______________
Why?
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #5
Source 4 - This is an account about the day in 1793 that Louis XVI was executed by guillotine. The man
who wrote it was with the King on that day.
The Execution of Louis XVI by Henry Essex Edgeworth de Firmont. An eyewitness account from J.M.
Thompson English Witness of the French Revolution.
…The path leading to the scaffold was extremely rough and difficult to pass; the King was obliged to lean
on my arm, and from the slowness with which he proceeded, I feared for a moment that his courage
might fail; but what was my astonishment, when arrived at the last stop, I felt that he suddenly let go
my arm, and I saw him cross with a firm foot the breadth of the whole scaffold; silence by his look alone,
fifteen or twenty drums that were placed opposite to me; and in a voice so loud, that it must have been
heard at the Point Tournant, I heard him pronounce distinctly these memorable words: ‘I die innocent
of all the crimes laid to my charge. I pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God
that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.”
He was proceeding, when a man on horseback, in the national uniform, and with a ferocious cry,
ordered the drums to beat. Many voices were at the same time heard encouraging the executioners.
They seemed reanimated themselves, in seizing with violence the most virtuous of Kings, they dragged
him under the axe of the guillotine, which with one stroke severed his head from his body. All this
passed in a moment. The youngest of the guards, who seemed about eighteen, immediately seized the
head, and showed it to the people as he walked round the scaffold; he accompanied this monstrous
ceremony with the most atrocious and indecent gestures. At first an awful silence prevailed; at length
some cries of “Vive la Republique!” were heard. By degrees the voices multiplied and in less than ten
minutes this cry, a thousand times repeated, became the universal shout of the multitude, and every hat
was in the air.
Choose the best statement about source 4
A. This document is reliable evidence that most people thought the execution of the King was
monstrous.
B. This document is reliable because it explains how the wealthy people in France felt about the
execution of the King.
C. This document is reliable as evidence of how one eyewitness to the execution viewed the event.
Your choice _______________
Why?
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #6
Exercise 2 – Interpreting Primary Sources: Making Inferences
Below are five statements about Document 4. Some of the statements are reasonable inferences
(conclusions), others are not – that is, they are not supported by Document 4. In the space provided,
write “yes” or “no” for each statement that is or is not a reasonable inference about Document 4.
1) The document is a clear statement of how most Englishmen felt about the execution of the King.
A reasonable inference? _________
Explain:
2) This document is evidence that many French people were happy to see the king executed.
A reasonable inference? ___________
Explain:
This document proves that the King was not guilty of the crimes that he died for.
A reasonable inference?_______
Explain:
3)
4) This document is evidence that many people in France believed that the death of the king would help
the Republic to survive.
A reasonable inference? _______
Explain:
5) This document is evidence that the execution of a French king had an impact on the English people as
well.
A reasonable inference? _________
Explain:
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #7
Exercise Three - Primary Sources: Understanding Perspective
Diary entries, letters, newspaper articles, painting, cartoons, ads, photos and other primary sources are
often created by people with specific goals and strong personal opinions. This means sources have
“perspective,” a point of view. Sometimes this perspective is easy to notice – as when an author states
a point of view strongly. But more often, the perspective can be hard to detect. It can be found as
much in what is left out as in what is included. Per can be expressed simply in including some facts
while leaving others out. Or it can be shown by exaggerated or emotional language and images. To
detect bias, think about emphasis, specific selection of facts, emotional language, etc.
You can get important clues about perspective by noting the author or creator of the source, his or her
purpose in creating that source and the audience for the source. To help you think about this, choose
two documents from those for this lesson. Choose one that has seems to have a clear and strong
perspective and that in which the perspective is less noticeable. Then answer the questions below.
1. Demonstrates a Clear Perspective : Document ______
Why do you think this document has a clear perspective?
A. Who might have been the intended audience of the document, and how might that help to
explain its perspective?
B. For what purpose might this document been created, and how might that help to explain
its perspective?
1. Perspective hard to detect
Why do you think this document’s perspective is hard to detect?
A. If you think the document has a perspective on the French Revolution, what do you think
that perspective might? Why do you think that?
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #8
Your Conclusion
Using your knowledge about the French Revolution, and your thoughts and questions about the
source documents, respond to the following question.
Why did people participate in the French Revolution?
Base your response on what you know about the event, what you can infer from the documents, and
evidence gathered from the documents you regard as most reliable.
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #9
OUSD 10th History Writing Assessment 2011-2012 / Support Activity /
Adapted From “History Unfolding” by Mindsparks / page #10