French Revolution — Causes, Course & Global Impact

Knowledge Themes

Structural Subtopics

• Social division of the Three Estates and privileges of the Clergy and Nobility
• Impact of Enlightenment philosophers like Rousseau and Montesquieu on political thought
• Financial crisis and the bankruptcy of the Bourbon monarchy
• Meeting of the Estates-General of 1789 and the Tennis Court Oath
• Storming of the Bastille and the Great Fear in the countryside
• Provisions of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
• Rise of the Jacobins and the Reign of Terror under Robespierre
• Role of women in the revolution including the March on Versailles
• Abolition of feudalism and the transition to a Constitutional Monarchy
• Execution of Louis XVI and the establishment of the First French Republic
• Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic Code
• Impact on global anti-colonial movements and the Haitian Revolution
• Spread of nationalism and the collapse of the Old Order in Europe