France Abolishes Monarchy and Becomes a Republic

The Tuileries attack shows popular pressure. Exam tip: connect the republic not only with institutional decision but also public pressure.

Option A is the most balanced summary because it includes both important causes and the political result. Military danger and fear of royal collusion increased suspicion of the monarchy; popular pressure and revolutionary mobilisation weakened the king’s position; and the National Convention formally abolished the monarchy before declaring France a republic in September 1792. The new system claimed to represent citizens rather than hereditary royal authority. Option B is incorrect because the king did not restore absolutism, option C wrongly gives the Church sole responsibility, and option D describes neither the decisive political process nor its outcome. A good summary links causes, institutional action, and result.

The foreign threat increased mistrust of the king among people. Exam tip: connect external threat with internal politics.

After the Tuileries attack the royal family was imprisoned. Exam tip: connect 10 August with monarchy crisis.

The red cap symbolised liberty and ordinary revolutionary identity. Exam tip: connect dress with political message.

Clothing became a political language during the French Revolution. Aristocrats commonly wore knee-breeches, while revolutionary working people who rejected aristocratic privilege preferred long trousers and were often called sans-culottes, meaning “without knee-breeches.” The Jacobins did not adopt the aristocratic style because they wanted to identify with ordinary citizens and express opposition to the old social order. Option A is correct. The king did not impose a general ban, breeches were not reserved only for soldiers, and they were not Church clothing. The choice of dress therefore communicated political allegiance, social equality, and hostility to aristocratic privilege.

Women remained active in the Revolution but suffrage in 1792 was for men. Exam tip: distinguish participation and rights.

The National Convention abolished monarchy and declared a republic. Exam tip: remember the nature and function of the institution.

The charge of treason against Louis XVI meant that the king could be held accountable to the nation and its laws. It therefore weakened the old monarchical belief that a king stood above the law. Option C refers to unlimited royal powers, but the direct implication of the trial was the king’s legal accountability. Exam tip: link the king’s trial in the French Revolution with the decline of absolute monarchy and the rise of popular sovereignty.

La Marseillaise was linked with volunteers and national defence. Exam tip: treat the song as a political symbol.

The republic emerged through both popular movement and representative institution. Exam tip: write the roles of street and assembly.

The constitution limited the king's absolute power. In exams link it with constitutional monarchy.

In constitutional monarchy the king's power is controlled by rules. Remember it with the Constitution of 1791.

Under the Constitution of 1791, only men who paid a specified amount of taxes were classified as active citizens. Only they could vote and elect representatives; women and many poorer men were excluded. Therefore, suffrage was not universal or equal. The closest distractor is the claim that the king had no power: his powers were limited, but not completely removed. Exam tip: link “active citizens” with property- or tax-based limited suffrage.

Passive citizens did not get political voting rights. They included women and many poor men.

Separation of powers was a way to check absolutism. Link it with legislature executive and judiciary.

In 1791 political rights were not given to all citizens. In exams write both rights and limits.

Placing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen at the beginning established the principles that were meant to guide the new political order. It asserted ideas such as liberty, equality before law, popular sovereignty, and protection of basic rights. Thus option C is correct: the declaration provided the ideological foundation of the 1791 Constitution. The other options support old privileges or taxes rather than revolutionary constitutional principles.

Natural and inalienable rights meant that every human being possessed certain basic rights by birth; these did not depend on rank, estate, or birth-based privilege. This directly challenged the old French social order, in which the clergy and nobility enjoyed special privileges because of birth. Option B is incorrect because this idea supported recognition of citizens’ rights and limited arbitrary royal power. Exam tip: Link natural rights with equality and opposition to birth-based privileges.

The war was against foreign monarchies and distrust of the king increased. Link it with the fall of monarchy.