French Revolution - Quiz I

The French Revolution

1. What nationality was Jacques Necker?
2. What was the currency in France that was being used c. 1780?
3. Besides Necker name two of the three other finance ministers who worked to secure National solvency?
4. What was the ‘lettre de cachet’?
5. What two wars had effectively bankrupted France by 1785?
6. Who was the editor of the Encyclopédia?
7. Three French philosophers from the Enlightenment are often considered to be driving forces behind the Revolution. Name two of them?
8. What was called by the Louis XVI on the 8th August 1788 to meet on May 1st 1789?
9. Who wrote the Pamphlet ‘What is the Third Estate’?
10. Why did the First and Second Estate want Separate Estate sessions and a block vote by Estate?
11. What ‘jewel’ related incident had earlier in her reign tarnished the reputation of Marie Antoinette?
12. Which famous event happened on the 20th June 1789?
13. This famous astronomer was chosen on June 3rd 1789 to head the Third Estate. Who was he?
14. What disease did the Dauphin die of in 1789?
15. Which sub-class made up most of the political representatives of the Third Estate?

Answers to French Revolution

1. He was Swiss.
2. The livres.
3. Jacques Turgot, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne and Archbishop Etienne de Brienne.
4. A warrant issued by the king that could result in imprisonment without trial. It was usually invoked to suppress criticism of the crown.
5. The ‘Seven Years War’ and the American Revolution.
6. Denis Diderot. The Encyclopédia was a major work of the Enlightenment. By its very nature, it contained anti-absolutist overtones which contributed to the intellectualism of the Revolution.
7. Charles Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire.
8. The Estates-General. It had last been called in 1614.
9. Abbé Sieyes, he would later gain notoriety in the Revolutionary Government.
10. So the two of them together could outvote the Third Estate.
11. The Affair of the Necklace.
12. The Taking of the Tennis Court Oath. The Third Estate agreed not to disperse until a new constitution had been implemented.
13. Jean-Sylvain Bailly. He would conduct himself admirably, but would lose popularity when he ordered the National Guard to fire on anti-royalist crowds. As an astronomer he is famed for writing the ‘Histoire de l’astronomie’ (1775-1787).
14. Tuberculosis
15. The Bourgeoisie.