Study Guide
Absolutism
 What is absolutism and why did this political system emerge in Europe?
 What made Louis XIV an effective absolute monarch?
The Enlightenment
 What changes in 17th and 18th century Europe gave rise to the Enlightenment?
 What is the Enlightenment? What did philosophers hope to achieve?
 Describe the beliefs of the following Enlightenment thinkers
o John Locke
o Thomas Hobbes
o Jean-Jacques Rousseau
o Baron de Montesquieu
o Mary Wollstonecraft
o Voltaire
The French Revolution
 Before
o The Estates System
o Grievances of the French people
o The Estates-General and the events that set the revolution in motion (Tennis Court
Oath, Declaration of the Rights of Man)
 During
o The structure of the three revolutionary governments (Assembly, National
Convention, Directory)
o What major changes were implemented by each government
o How specific events impacted the course of the revolution (actions of King Louis XVI
and the response of foreign nations)
o Why and how the revolution became more radical
o The idea of French nationalism
o The following people / terms: Declaration of Pillnitz, Marie Antoinette, Jacobins, sansculottes, Committee of Public Safety, Reign of Terror, Robespierre, Thermidorean
Reaction
 After
o How Napoleon gained power
o Napoleon’s major economic, political, social policies
o How Napoleon lost power
o Congress of Vienna