Socialism

FRENCH REVOLUTION

1. Causes of the Revolution in France.

In France, society was divided into three groups estates: clergy (the First Estate), nobles (the Second Estate), and common people (the Third Estate). Most people were in the Third Estate. The paid heavy taxes and had few rights. The First and the Second Estates were wealthy, but these groups paid few taxes. By the late 1700s, the French goverment was nearly bankrupt, oro ut of money.

1. Declaration of the rights of man.

In August 1789, the National Assembly tried to end the unrest spreading across France by ending the privilefes of the First and Second Estates. The assembly issued the Declarationn of Man and Citizen. This document guaranteed basic rights for all French citizens.

1. What ocurred during the reign of terror? Who was the leader, and what he did?

By early 1793, radicals known as the Jacobins had taken the control of the French goverment, they were led by Maximilien Robespierre, so they declared a “policy of terror”. During the reign of terror the goverment arrested 300,000 people. About 17,000 of them were executed including Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette. The Reign of Terror finally came to an end when the Jacobins’ opponents arrested and executed Robespierre. The guillotine (called the "National Razor") became the symbol of the revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of executions:King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité (Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans), and Madame Roland.

1. How Napoleon became so powerful?

He became powerful during the revolution, the goverment had taken control of the Catholic Church in France. The pope rejected this action. Napoleon won Catholic support by negotiating an end to the conflicto between the church and the goverment.

1. What was the  Napoleonic code?

The Napoleonic code was a set of laws that protected basic freedoms and guaranteed equality before the law. Many of the laws and legal systems in Europe today are base don the Napoleonic Code.

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