AP Euro Revolution and Industrialization — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What procedural dispute at the Estates-General in May–June 1789 led the Third Estate to declare itself the National Assembly?
- Whether the king could veto tax measures passed by the clergy
- Whether the Estates-General would meet at Paris or at Versailles
- Whether voting would be by order, with one vote per estate, or by individual head (Correct answer)
- Whether the nobility would be exempt from the proposed land tax
Correct answer: Whether voting would be by order, with one vote per estate, or by individual head
Voting by order let the clergy and nobility outvote the Third Estate two to one. The Third Estate demanded voting by head, and when this was refused it broke away and declared itself the National Assembly.
The Estates-General of 1789 had not met since 1614, and the traditional rule gave each estate a single vote. The Third Estate represented roughly 97 percent of the population, so it demanded double representation and voting by head. When the king and privileged orders resisted, the deputies of the Third Estate declared themselves the National Assembly in June 1789. They then swore the Tennis Court Oath not to disband until France had a constitution. This marked the shift of sovereignty from the monarchy toward the nation.
Question 2: Which of the following best summarizes the central argument of Abbé Sieyès's pamphlet "What Is the Third Estate?" (1789)?
- The Third Estate was the productive body of the nation and therefore deserved political power matching its importance (Correct answer)
- The clergy should be stripped of land and the Church abolished in France
- The monarchy should be replaced immediately by a republican government led by Jacobin clubs
- The nobility should be restored to its medieval powers to balance royal absolutism
Correct answer: The Third Estate was the productive body of the nation and therefore deserved political power matching its importance
Sieyès argued that the Third Estate was everything in the nation yet had been treated as nothing politically. It should therefore have real representation.
Sieyès, himself a clergyman, wrote that the Third Estate carried out the useful work of the nation, while the privileged orders were a burden that contributed little. His pamphlet is famous for the claim that the Third Estate was "everything" but had been "nothing" in politics. This reasoning helped justify the Third Estate's claim to speak for the whole nation. It reflects Enlightenment ideas of popular sovereignty and challenges the legal hierarchy of the Old Regime.
Question 3: What was the main effect of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) in revolutionary France?
- It restored the tithe to support parish priests
- It made the Catholic Church a branch of the state, with clergy elected and required to swear loyalty (Correct answer)
- It granted full religious toleration and ended all state involvement in religion
- It transferred control of the French church to the pope in Rome
Correct answer: It made the Catholic Church a branch of the state, with clergy elected and required to swear loyalty
The law made priests and bishops state-paid officials chosen by voters and required them to swear an oath to the constitution. This divided the clergy and alienated many Catholics from the Revolution.
After the Assembly nationalized Church lands in 1789, it needed a way to pay the clergy, and the Civil Constitution of 1790 reorganized the church under state authority. Clergy became salaried officials elected by citizens, and the pope's authority was reduced. About half of the parish priests refused the oath, creating a split between "juring" and "non-juring" clergy. The conflict pushed many rural and devout French people toward counterrevolution and fed later unrest, including the revolt in the Vendée.
Question 4: Which development most directly marked the shift to the Reign of Terror in 1793–1794?
- The calling of the Estates-General by Louis XVI
- The Congress of Vienna's restoration of the Bourbons
- Napoleon's seizure of power as First Consul
- The Committee of Public Safety's use of revolutionary tribunals and the Law of Suspects to suppress perceived enemies (Correct answer)
Correct answer: The Committee of Public Safety's use of revolutionary tribunals and the Law of Suspects to suppress perceived enemies
Facing foreign war and internal revolt, the Committee of Public Safety, with Robespierre as a leading figure, used the Law of Suspects and tribunals to execute tens of thousands of suspected opponents.
By 1793 France was at war with much of Europe and faced rebellion in regions such as the Vendée. The Convention gave sweeping powers to the Committee of Public Safety, which enforced the Law of Suspects and used the Revolutionary Tribunal to try accused enemies of the Republic. Tens of thousands were executed or died in prison, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The Terror ended after Robespierre's fall in July 1794 (Thermidor).
Question 5: The Haitian Revolution, beginning in 1791 in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, is historically significant because it:
- produced the only successful large-scale slave uprising that led to an independent state ruled by former slaves (Correct answer)
- convinced the Directory to abolish the slave trade throughout the Atlantic world immediately
- was crushed by British forces, which restored plantation slavery in the colony
- led France to expand its Caribbean empire under Napoleon
Correct answer: produced the only successful large-scale slave uprising that led to an independent state ruled by former slaves
Enslaved people, led most famously by Toussaint Louverture, defeated colonial and foreign forces, and Haiti declared independence in 1804. It became the first independent state in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The uprising in Saint-Domingue began in 1791 amid the turmoil of the French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Toussaint Louverture emerged as a skilled leader, and the French government abolished slavery in its colonies in 1794. Napoleon later sent an expedition to reestablish French control and slavery, but it failed, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haitian independence in 1804. The revolution frightened slaveholders across the Atlantic world and showed that revolutionary ideals could be claimed by enslaved people.
Question 6: At the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), the Austrian foreign minister Klemens von Metternich and other leaders sought primarily to:
- spread the principles of the French Revolution through the creation of republics
- partition France among the victorious powers and abolish its monarchy
- restore a balance of power and legitimate monarchies to prevent future French aggression and revolution (Correct answer)
- grant constitutional rights and national self-determination to all European peoples
Correct answer: restore a balance of power and legitimate monarchies to prevent future French aggression and revolution
The conservative leaders at Vienna aimed to contain France, restore legitimate ruling dynasties such as the Bourbons, and balance power among the great powers to maintain stability.
The Congress of Vienna worked on the principles of legitimacy, compensation, and balance of power. France was restored to roughly its 1792 borders under Louis XVIII rather than being dismembered. Strong buffer states were placed around France, such as an enlarged Netherlands. The settlement supported conservative order, and the Concert of Europe afterwards helped the great powers cooperate against revolutionary threats.
Question 7: Which statement best describes the Napoleonic Code (1804)?
- It restored feudal privileges and the tithe to French landlords
- It established legal equality for male citizens and protected private property, while limiting the rights of women (Correct answer)
- It granted women full legal and political equality with men
- It established a parliamentary system in which the legislature controlled the emperor
Correct answer: It established legal equality for male citizens and protected private property, while limiting the rights of women
The Code preserved Revolutionary gains such as equality before the law and secure property rights, but placed wives under the legal authority of their husbands.
The Napoleonic Code unified French law and abolished feudal privileges, guaranteeing equality before the law for men, religious toleration, and protection of property. It also strengthened the authority of fathers and husbands, restricting women's property and legal rights. Because it was spread through French conquests, it influenced legal systems across much of Europe and beyond. It is a good example of how Napoleon consolidated some Revolutionary reforms while limiting liberty.
Question 8: What was the purpose of Napoleon's Continental System, established through the Berlin Decree of 1806?
- To create a customs union among German states under Prussian leadership
- To establish a common European currency backed by French gold
- To encourage British investment in French industry
- To weaken Britain economically by closing continental European ports to British trade (Correct answer)
Correct answer: To weaken Britain economically by closing continental European ports to British trade
Napoleon tried to defeat Britain by cutting off its trade with the Continent. Smuggling and resistance undermined it, and Russia's withdrawal from it helped prompt his 1812 invasion.
After the British naval victory at Trafalgar in 1805 ended any hope of invading Britain, Napoleon tried economic warfare. The Berlin Decree of 1806 and later measures forbade states under French control or influence from trading with Britain. The system hurt some continental economies and was widely evaded through smuggling, while Britain could trade with other markets. When Tsar Alexander I resumed trade with Britain, Napoleon launched the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812.
Question 9: The Zollverein, established in 1834 under Prussian leadership, contributed to German economic development primarily by:
- eliminating internal tariffs among many German states, creating a larger market (Correct answer)
- giving Austria control over German industrial production
- abolishing guilds throughout the German Confederation
- providing state subsidies to peasants to leave their farms for factory work
Correct answer: eliminating internal tariffs among many German states, creating a larger market
The Zollverein removed tariffs among member German states and expanded Prussian economic influence. Austria was excluded, which helped lay the groundwork for later unification.
Before the Zollverein, the many German states had separate tariffs, which hindered trade. The customs union allowed goods to move freely across member territories and encouraged railway construction and industrial growth. Austria was not part of it, which increased Prussia's economic leadership within Germany. This economic integration is often cited as an important step toward political unification later in the century.
Question 10: In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued that:
- industrial capitalism would be reformed gradually through cooperation between employers and workers
- history had been driven by class struggle, and that the proletariat would eventually overthrow the bourgeoisie (Correct answer)
- the best way to improve workers' conditions was to return to small-scale artisan production
- the state should avoid involvement in economic life so markets could regulate themselves
Correct answer: history had been driven by class struggle, and that the proletariat would eventually overthrow the bourgeoisie
Marx and Engels viewed history as a series of class conflicts and predicted that industrial workers would overthrow the capitalist bourgeoisie. The proletariat would then establish a classless society.
The Manifesto was written during the social tensions of industrialization, when many workers lived in crowded cities with low wages and long hours. Marx and Engels argued that capitalism had created two main classes, the bourgeoisie who owned the means of production and the proletariat who sold their labor. They predicted that class conflict would lead to revolution and ultimately a classless society. The work became a foundation of socialist and communist movements and a major challenge to liberal economic thought.
AP Euro Revolution and Industrialization
What procedural dispute at the Estates-General in May–June 1789 led the Third Estate to declare itself the National Assembly?
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