AP EUROPEAN HISTORY: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON, AND THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA
PRACTICE ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Contrast and compare the stages of the French Revolution
The contrast part of this question is easy since the various stages of the Revolution have significant differences: the groups, personalities, and methods are glaringly different in each. The tough part of this question is to detail what they had in common, whatt their similarities were. Each had a form of government, a type of leadership, a constitution, a legislative body, goals. Sort them out and stress their similarities.
2. Analyze he way Louis XVI’s attempt to raise taxes to pay off his government’s debts precipitated the French Revolution.
To answer this question, you must apply all the meanings of the term “analyze.: You must “determine the relationship” between Louis’s attempt to raise taxes and the Revolution. The calling of the Estates General for the first time in over 150 years started the chain of events. You must “examine” the sequence oof events “in detail.” Class factionalism in the Estates Genera,l led to the creation of the National Assembly. And you must “explain” why this particular attempt to raise taxes was significantly different from previous attempts. Louis wanted to tax the Frst and Second Estates, which had been exempt since the Middle Ages.
3. “Napoleon’s very successes in battle awakened the nationalistic forces that defeated him.” Assess the validity of this statement.
In this case “assess the validity” means to “determine the truth” of the statement. Almost inevitably, the statement itself is the easiest to argue for in “assess” questions. The strategy is simple: Show how his victories over a specific state led to the awakening of nationalism there. Remember that Napoleon deliberately consolidated parts of Italy and Germany, and this had the samae effect.
4. To what extent and in what ways did the Congress of Vienna restore the Old Order in Europe?
“How and how much” did the Congress restore the Old Order. What had the Old Order been? How had the Revolution and Napoleon changed it? What provisions of the Congress dealt with it? Hat was the overall result - immediately and in the long term
5. “The accomplishments of the French Revolution were not worth the violence, instability, and war it led to.” Defend or refute this statement.
Argue for or against or a little of each. What were the accomplishments - an end to the Old Regime, the spread of democratic ideals? What were the costs - the Terror, the Wars of the Revolution, the rise of Napoleon? Beware of simplistic moralizing. Great developments in human history arre riddled with rights and wrongs on all sides.
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