The French Revolution Test | European

Answer: 1789

The French Revolution began on July 14, 1789. This is also known today as Bastille Day. Today it is celebrated as a national holiday in France. In fact, the Eiffel tower itself was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Bastille Day.

Answer: The storming of the Bastille

The storming of the Bastille is celebrated as the first event of the French Revolution. The king had sent troops to Paris and a mob was formed by citizens that rushed in to the Bastille to gain gunpowder to defend themselves. The Bastille was later demolished by hand in a victory celebration by the rebels over their success in capturing the prison.

Answer: Louis XVI

Louis XVI was the king of France during the French Revolution. He died rather unpleasantly. There would not be another monarch empire until Napoleon crowned himself emperor. The Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1814 with Louis XVIII as king.

Answer: guillotined

After Louis XVI tried to escape France and flee to Austria in the hope that his allies would restore him to the throne. He was tried and convicted of high treason before the National Convention of the new republic. He was sentenced to death by the guillotine by a vote of 361 to 288, with 72 effective abstentions. Louis XVI was stripped of all titles and honorifics by the goverment and treated as an ordinary traitor.

However he was granted the privilege of riding in a closed carriage to the execution, a privilege not even his wife would get at her execution. "Citizen Louis Capet" was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd on January 21, 1793.

Answer: he died from TB in prison

Louis XVI's son died in prison at the age of 10, in 1795, probably of tuberculosis. At age 8 he was taken away from his mother, Marie Antoinette, by the government, for fear that she was preparing him to be king and that he might become the focus of attempts to restore the monarchy. He was treated very badly in prison.

Answer: Robespierre

Robespierre was the leader of the Commitee of Public Saftey and was responsible for the Great Terror and creating a new religion. During his reign of terror, he signed many death warrants. After the Festival of the Supreme Being (the festival of the goverment's religion), many thought Robespierre had gone insane, when he paraded himself in a toga, as if he was god.

Answer: a newspaper editor

Marat was responsible for most of the Revolutions propaganda. He was the chief editor of a newspaper that is translated as "The People's Friend". He was also a college professor before the Revolution, but went bankrupt and had to live in the sewers, until the revolution came.

Answer: in his bath

Marat was murdered in his bathtub where he had to soak for long hours for relief from a painful skin disease he got while living in a sewer years earlier. And here is another interesting fact---he was killed by a woman!

Answer: Danton

Danton and Robespierre were close friends. However, Danton broke away from the Committee of Public Safety and founded his own group, the Dantonists. Robespierre suspected him of treason and turned him in. He was tried and convicted of treason. His last words before he was executed were, "My only regret is that I have to go before that rat Robespierre."

Answer: Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette was a very unpopular queen of France because of her fashion and extravagant spending, at a time when France was almost bankrupt. She is blamed for a line she never said, "Let them eat cake!" and nicknamed Madame Deficit. She was later executed at the guillotine by the son of the executioner that killed her husband.