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Study Guide for French Revolution

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Study Guide for French Revolution
Study Guide for French Revolution

* Brinton’s model of a revolution: * Symptomatic Phase- all social classes are unhappy (peasants are scared of change, bourgeoisie want change) * Moderate Phase- revolution begins in hopes of control (radicals feel like there isn’t ENOUGH change) * Radical Phase- a strong men from a radical group gains and assumes power * Convalescence Phase- revolution has a setback; moderate groups regain power * Estates: * First Estate: Clergy (less than 1% of population) * Upper Clergy: noble by birth/bishops * Lower Clergy: peasant class/priests * Second Estate: Nobility (less than 2% of population) * Privileged class * Absolute monarch would cause them to lose power * Third Estate: Common People (97% of population) * They pay all the taxes for the country * Includes the bourgeoisie, urban workers, peasants and serfs * Sans-culottes: radical lower class workers * Louis XVI: King of France during the revolution; he was slow to make decisions about the revolution * Marie Antoinette: France disliked her from the minute she married Louis XVI because she was Austrian and did not have a child for the first 7 or 8 years, and disregarded the struggle the public was going through * Old Régime: the social and political system before the revolution began * Cahiers- nobility * Estates-General: under the Old Régime there was a legislative assembly with representatives from each estate; this system is very unfair because the 1st and 2nd estates would usually agree with one another and the third estate (which was obviously much larger than the other estates) was left in the dust; Louis XVI called them together when he heard about the revolution * Abbe Sieyes: a priest that wrote a pamphlet about the 3rd estate, which created the revolution to some extent because it made the third estate think about how little

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