Vive la France! The Revolution Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What were the legal orders, or estates, into which all French citizens were divided? (Highest to lowest)

Answer: Clergy, Nobles, Everyone else

The First Estate was comprised of Clergy members, or officials of the Catholic Church. An estimated 100,000 persons were members of the Clergy.
The Second Estate consisted of an estimated 400,000 people, and included anyone who held the title of nobility.
The Third Estate was about 25 million people strong, and considered the "commoners." Merchants, artisans, lawyers, peasants... anyone besides nobles and clergymen was included in this Estate. The Third Estate led the Revolution to gain equal legal rights with the upper two Estates.

2. On June 17th, 1789, the delegates of the Third Estate voted to call themselves by a new name. What was it?

Answer: The National Assembly

The National Assembly later became known as the National Convention.
The Committee of Public Safety was a council of twelve men voted for by the National Assembly. The Committee was given dictatorial power during national emergencies.

3. On August 27, 1789, the National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France's new constitution. Which of the following was NOT part of the Declaration?

Answer: Women's rights

The Declaration of the Rights of Man stated that all men are born and remain free and equal in rights, and that all men have the right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. The Declaration did not, of course, grant women the same rights as men.

This would still come much later, although voices like those of Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges (also known as Marie Gouze) would speak out openly trying to fight for women's rights.

4. Which king and queen reigned in France during the Revolution?

Answer: King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

King Louis XIV, the "Sun King" was known for being probably the strongest absolute monarch and was not exactly popular with the people, but he ruled from 1643 to 1715, several decades before the Revolution. Louis XVI, a descendant of the Sun King, ruled along with his famous queen, Marie Antoinette.
Maria Theresa was Marie Antoinette's mother, and King Henri IV and Marie de' Medici ruled during the mid 1600's.

5. The American Revolution was a great inspiration to the French people, and many volunteers actually fought against the British in America. Which Frenchman, hero of the American Revolution, became commander of Paris's armed forces after the storming of the Bastille?

Answer: Marquis de Lafayette

Ren� de Maupeou was Louis XV's chancellor whom the king appointed to crush the judicial opposition to the king. He abolished the existing 'parlements' (French regional 'parliaments') and created new 'parlements' of royal officials. These were known as the Maupeou parlements.
Emanneul Joseph Siey�s was most famous for his 1789 pamphlet, "What Is the Third Estate?" in which he asserts his belief that the Third Estate was the true strength of France, and that it should get its fair proportion of votes in the Estates General.
Jacques Necker was a finance minister under Louis XVI who was popular amongst the people. He believed in the Enlightenment ideals and had urged the king to call the meeting of the Estates General for the first time since 1613.

6. Who began his career as a provincial lawyer, became a delegate of the National Convention, was a great orator who led one of the main factions of the Convention, and was the main voice behind the Reign of Terror (1793-1794).

Answer: Maximilien Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre was one of the strongest leaders of the Revolution, but when the people thought he had gone too far, he was beheaded by the newly invented guillotine.
Jacques Danton was another famous orator who rallied the French people to join the fighting on the boarder with the Austrian Netherlands.
Jean-Paul Marat was a journalist who wrote "L'ami du Peuple," ("The Friend of the People"), a newspaper that called for blood to be spilled to ensure the success of the Revolution. He was murdered by Charlotte Cord�, who was guillotined for his death.
Toussaint L'Ouverture was a hero of the revolution in Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti), a colony of France that wanted equal rights for free people of colour and slaves as the white people of the colony. He originally fought against French forces, joining with neighboring Santo Domingo, a Spanish colony, but switched sides and helped France retain the colony.

7. Robespierre began his career taking the position against the death sentence, but later in his career, he clearly changed his position, and was a strong advocate for the guillotine, even sentencing some of his own friends to death. Delegates of the National Convention decided to conspire against Robespierre, and they shouted him down when he tried to speak next at the Convention. What was this called?

Answer: Thermidorian Reaction

The Thermidorian Reaction, called such because it occurred on 9 Thermidor (July 27th on the new calendar), took the Revolution back to its early ideals. The Convention abolished many economic controls that Robespierre had instituted in his planned economy.
The Second Revolution refers to the time period right after the fall of the monarchy, marked by the rapid radicalization of the Revolution beginning in 1792.
The term "Sans-Culotte", literally "without knee-breeches," referred to the working-class members of the third estate, who wore full-length trousers rather than the knee-breeches of the upper classes.

8. One of the more radical moves of the French Revolution was the attempted elimination of the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity by Robespierre during the Reign of Terror. What new religious idea did he want the people to accept?

Answer: The Cult of the Supreme Being

The Cult of the Supreme Being supported the idea that there was a Supreme Being watching over France.
This differed from the Cult of Reason because the latter believed in a less Theistic view of the Supreme Being.
Atheism is the believe that there is no God.
Robespierre may have liked to have the people believe he was a god, but he did not advocate this to the people.
It was this attempt to abolish the Roman Catholic Church that made many Frenchmen believe Robespierre was taking the Revolution in the wrong direction, and it was for this that he was guillotined.

9. One of the reasons the Revolution and the wars abroad were so successful was a strong feeling of patriotism and nationalism that swept across France. It was during the Revolution that France's national anthem emerged. What is it called?

Answer: La Marseillaise

"La Marseillaise" was composed by Joseph Rouget de Lisle. La Carmagnole was another revolutionary song. "Vive la France" simply means "long live France."

10. After the fall of Robespierre, many changes followed. The population voted for electors, just as before, and these electors in turn elected members of a reorganized Legislative Assembly. However, this assembly now chose a five-man executive board. What was it called?

Answer: The Directory

The Directory supported more military expansion, and believed that war would be France's economic solution for its every increasing national debt, which had been racking up for quite a while. The people did not support this continued war effort, however, and in the next election, they elected conservatives and even monarchists.

The Directory, using military force, nullified the elections and took over France in a five-man dictatorship. This would last for two years, until Napoleon Bonaparte ended it in a coup d'�tat.

Source: Author voilaviola

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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The French Revolution is considered the turning point into modern government and one of the most influential revolutions in history. How much do you know?

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