Course Content
Lesson Plans
The Western Heritage ©2000
by Kagan, Ozment, and Turner
Focus Lesson 11
Chapter 19: "The French Revolution"
AP* Course Description
- Intellectual and Cultural History
- Changes in religious thought and institutions
- Secularization of learning and culture
- Major trends in literature and the arts
- Intellectual and cultural developments and their relationship to social values and political events
- Developments in social, economic, and political thought
- The diffusion of new intellectual concepts among different social groups
- Changes in elite and popular culture, such as the development of new attitudes toward religion, the family, work, and ritual
- Political and Diplomatic History
- The rise and functioning of the modern state in its various forms
- The evolution of political elites and the development of political parties and ideologies
- The extension and limitation of rights and liberties (personal, civic, economic, and political); majority and minority; political persecutions
- The growth and changing forms of nationalism
- Forms of political protest, reform, and revolution
- Relationship between domestic and foreign policies
- Efforts to restrain conflict: treaties, balance of power, diplomacy, and international organizations
- War and civil conflict: origins, developments, technology, and their consequences
- Social and Economic History
- The shift in social structures from hierarchical orders to modern social classes: the changing distribution of wealth and poverty
- Gender roles and their influence on work, social structure, family structure, and interest group formation
- Development of racial and ethnic group identities
Key Components
- Instructor's Manual: pp. 36–38
- Study Guide and Workbook, Vol. II: pp. 62–69
- Test Item File: pp. 100–105
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Always check for updated links.
Key Words and Terms
- Declaration of the Rights of Woman
- gabelle
- Third Republic
- Reign of Terror
- Republic of Virtue
- émigrés
- Society of Revolutionary Republican Women
- cahiers de doleances
- Temple of Reason
- Jacobins
- Girondists
- National Constituent Assembly
- Bastille
- Thermidorian Reaction
- sans-culottes
- Constitution of the Year III
- Directory
- Committee of Public Safety
- levee en masse
- assignats
- refractory priests
- First Estate
- Second Estate
- Third Estate
- Varennes
- constitutional monarchy
- Tennis Court Oath
- Ideologues
- National Assembly
- Law of 22 Prairial
- commune
- Journees
- Mountain
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Suggested Pacing
Chapters 18 through 20 should be combined in a unit on the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Allow four weeks to complete this unit.
Test Strategy
In answering the essay questions, remind students to answer the question asked, not the one they think is being asked. In order to be clear about what is being asked, students need to read the question prompt carefully, underlining, bracketing, or in some way highlighting the core components of the question. They should then restate the question in their own words and check this restatement against the original question prompt to be sure they understand what is being asked. A minute or two spent clarifying the question will reap the reward of a focused essay.
Key Concepts
- Inevitability of revolution
As France entered the last half of the eighteenth century, many factors began to point toward a revolution. Enlightenment thought had taken hold among intellectuals, and a growing middle class desired political power befitting their economic power. The increasingly heavy tax burden imposed by a monarch who chose to live in ignorance of his people's lives affected landowners, peasants, and craftworkers. The two immediate causes of revolution were the calling of the Estates-General and a wheat/bread shortage. Was it inevitable that the convergence of all these factors would cause a revolution, considering the period? This is a question that it is essential for students to tackle in analyzing the French Revolution. - Reaction to revolution
As the revolution progressed, a number of men rose to the top to control the "people's movement." As certain political and economic goals were achieved, but the revolutionary fervor did not abate, the people tired of the terror created by those in control. The Thermidorian Reaction was, then, the end of the power of the most violent revolutionary leaders, especially Robespierre. A second question that students should consider is whether it was inevitable that the French Revolution would end in reaction to the Reign of Terror.
Summing Up Student Understanding
To understand the sweep of history, it is important that students begin to discern patterns. This ability will help them to make connections between events in different periods. In The Anatomy of Revolution, Crane Brinton offers students just that opportunity. Either have students read his book or develop a lecture based on your reading of the book. Afterwards, help students make a chart outlining his ideas on the progression of revolution.
| Brinton's Stages | Brinton's General Description of Each Stage | Stages in French Revolution |
The chart should list the stages that revolutions generally follow: exploring the abusive power of an autocrat, the rise of a moderate government, the violent ascension of a revolutionary underground to power, the fall of the revolutionary government, and the rise of a new autocrat. Then have students compare that evolution with specifics from the French Revolution, such as the government of Louis XVI, the several attempts to create a truly functioning and representative legislative body, the rise of Robespierre and the Jacobins, the Thermidorian Reaction, and the emergence of Napoleon.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
You might also find these additional readings useful to develop students' background knowledge or for DBQ activities:
- Aspects of Western Civilization, Vol. II, edited by Rogers—Chapter 3, Section I
- Sources of the West, Vol. II, edited by Kishlausky—Part IV, "The French Revolution"
- The Global Experience, Vol. II, edited by Schwartz, Wimmer, and Wolfe—Chapter 20, Readings 128 and 133