The term sans culottes was related to what?

Correct answer: Those who did not wear noble knee breeches

The direct answer is A: sans-culottes were people who did not wear the knee-length breeches associated with nobles. The French term literally refers to people without “culottes,” the short breeches worn by aristocratic men. Many working people and radical revolutionaries wore long trousers instead. Clothing therefore became a political sign: long trousers showed distance from aristocratic fashion and identification with ordinary citizens and the Revolution. A is correct, although the term referred to a social and political group, not merely to every person who happened to wear trousers. B is wrong because sans-culottes were not defined as the king’s soldiers. C is wrong because the term did not mean Church priests. D is wrong because it did not refer to foreign traders. The name expressed opposition to privilege and support for popular revolutionary action. Memory cue: “sans” means without; sans-culottes means without aristocratic knee breeches.