The Outbreak of the Revolution

The Estates General was called in 1789 after 1614. Link it with the seriousness of financial and political crisis.

The Third Estate had more representatives but one estate one vote reduced its effect. In exams distinguish numbers from voting method.

One person one vote treated the individual as the political unit. It opposed estate based privilege.

National Assembly meant representatives claimed to be the voice of the nation. Link it with a shift in sovereignty.

Representatives swore not to separate until a constitution was made. This was a step toward limiting absolute power.

Going to the tennis court was a refusal to bow before obstruction. Remember it as political resolve.

Mirabeau had noble background but supported the Third Estate. This shows the complexity of old class divisions.

Sieyès was a clergyman but also a political writer. His pamphlet strengthened the claim of the Third Estate.

Necker's dismissal increased fear of repression and anti reform action. Link it with pre Bastille tension.

The bread crisis caused hardship because ordinary people struggled to afford food, especially bread. At the same time, the presence of royal troops in Paris made people fear repression and the possible use of force against the popular movement. These pressures reinforced each other: economic anger became linked with political fear, encouraging mobilisation and revolt. Thus option B gives the combined effect; the other choices contradict the situation.

The governing concept is the symbolic power of political events. On 14 July 1789, the Bastille held only a small number of prisoners, so its importance cannot be explained by the quantity of people released. It was a fortress-prison associated with the arbitrary authority of the Bourbon monarchy; imprisonment there represented the king’s power to detain people without a fair public trial. Its capture by ordinary Parisians demonstrated that popular forces could challenge royal authority and obtain weapons. Thus option C is correct. Option A focuses on an unimportant numerical detail, B describes a physical feature rather than historical meaning, and D has no connection with the event’s political significance.

People needed weapon material and were also challenging a symbol of royal oppression. Keep both sides in a balanced answer.

Souvenirs strengthened the Bastille event in public memory. Treat symbolic sources as historical clues too.

Rumours turned fear into anti feudal action. Link the Great Fear with rural political activity.

Feudal documents recorded the dues, forced services and privileges that nobles claimed from peasants. By burning them, peasants tried to destroy the legal records used to enforce these economic obligations. Therefore, this was a direct attack on noble feudal power, not enlistment in the king's army or an Estates General election. Exam tip: Link the burning of records with opposition to feudal dues and noble privileges.

Under pressure of rural unrest feudal privileges were attacked. Understand it as a relation between pressure and reform.

Feudal privileges were not only dues but also inequality of social status. Link this with social revolution.

The governing concept is the replacement of inherited privilege with universal rights. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen presented liberty, equality before the law, popular sovereignty and protection of basic rights as legitimate principles of government. This gave the Revolution an ideological language that could be used to criticise the king, nobles and the old system of privilege. Option C is correct because it expresses the central principles that made political equality a public standard. Option A supports the old monarchy, B would restore the feudal order that revolutionaries opposed, and D concerns the physical prison rather than the Declaration’s political ideas.

The governing concept is equality before the law and the rejection of privileges based on birth. In the old estate society, the clergy and nobility enjoyed important exemptions and privileges, while the Third Estate carried much of the tax burden and had fewer political advantages. The Declaration challenged this structure by asserting that citizens possessed equal rights and that public offices and law should not be determined by inherited status. Therefore option D is correct. Option A preserves the inequality being challenged, B gives supremacy to one privileged institution, and C contradicts the Declaration’s universal language by excluding ordinary people.

The governing concept is the increasing influence of popular political forces over the monarchy. When the king and his household were brought from Versailles to Paris after the October Days, the king was physically closer to the politically active population and the revolutionary institutions. This made it more difficult for him to act independently of public opinion, demonstrations, and pressure from Paris. The move therefore shifted the practical balance of power toward the people and the National Assembly, even though the monarchy still formally existed. Option B expresses this effect. Option A reverses it, while C and D describe events that did not occur.