The French Revolution

This drawing illustrates conditions that contributed primarily to the beginning of the

• Protestant Reformation

• French Revolution

• Napoleonic Wars

• European Renaissance

What the point of view of the author of this drawing?

• One group paid heavy taxes that supported the other two groups.

• Hard work, prayer, and a good example allowed for a stable government in France.

• Peasants and professionals in this society were gaining political and economic power.

• French society emphasized the importance of natural law and social equality.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen—1789

Approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789

Articles:

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible [inalienable] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. . . .

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law. . . .

Which of the following individuals most strongly influenced the ideas in the excerpt of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen above?

• Louis XIV

• Montesquieu

• John Locke

• Thomas Hobbes

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen—1789

Approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789

Articles:

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible [inalienable] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. . . .

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law. . . .

Identify the best use of this document for a historian.

• To determine the actions taken by Louis XVI during his rule of France

• To study how Louis XVI granted natural rights to French citizens

• To evaluate how free and equal the people of France were after the French Revolution

• To understand the hopes of representatives in the National Assembly of France

Based on this map, identify a political impact of Napoleon’s conquests in Europe.

• The French empire directly or indirectly controlled most of western Europe

• The French empire lost colonies

• France controlled Sicily

• Napoleon’s empire grew through peaceful treaties with neighboring powers.