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Contextualization
Student version
Era: The French Revolution
Period Start: Period End:

Justification: Justification:

Important Processes/Developments:

5 Key Events:

TEACHER’S RESOURCE M ATERIALS | A History of Western Society for the AP® Course | Ch. 19
© 2017 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers
Based on the Fall 2017 AP® European History Curriculum Framework
 DO NOT POST TO OPEN-ACCESS WEBSITES

Contextualization
Instructor version
Era: The French Revolution
Period Start Period End
1789: The Tennis Court Oath 1799: Napoleon Assumes Power

Justification: This is the beginning of Justification: This is the end of the

the French Revolution because this
action is a coup. The 3rd Estate assumes
power with no legal authority which
effectively begins the process of
overturning the existing, legally
constituted government.
French Revolution as Napoleon rules as
a monarch returning France to the form
of government that preceded the start of
the Revolution as well as returning the
Catholic Church to France.

Important Processes/Developments
 Enlightenment ideals
 Equality, Freedom, brotherhood
 Change
 The General Will
 Secularism

5 Key Events
1. 1776: The American Revolution: France’s involvement increased their debt
as well as exposed parts of the population to the application of Enlightenment
ideals which led to a further questioning of French Absolutism.
2. 1778 July: The Calling of the Estate General Signaled the weakening of
the King’s position in the country. Cahiers written to list complaints by estate
which further increases discontent. Organization of Estates does not match
Enlightenment ideas of representation and will culminate with the “revolution” of
the Third Estate in the Tennis Court Oath and the creation of the National
Assembly.
3. 1790: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy: While the National Assembly had
quelled the concerns of the peasants by outlawing Feudalism with the August
decrees of 1789, the following summer they tried to put the Roman Catholic
Church completely under the auspices of the State with the Civil Constitution.

TEACHER’S RESOURCE M ATERIALS | A History of Western Society for the AP® Course | Ch. 19
© 2017 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers
Based on the Fall 2017 AP® European History Curriculum Framework
 DO NOT POST TO OPEN-ACCESS WEBSITES

This led to the diminishing of support from the peasants as well as put the
Revolutionary government at odds with the Roman Catholic Church as well as
other states aligned with the Church.
4: 1790: Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke. This
work not only accurately sets out the potential for violence in the ideas behind the
French Revolution but also becomes the gospel of the Conservative ideology from
the 19th century up until the modern era.
5. 1794: The execution of Robespierre and the end of the Terror.: The
execution of Robespierre marks the end of the Revolution that sought radical
political, economic and social change in France and commenced a period that
sought to consolidate the gains won by the Revolution. It is the reaction to the
Terror and it’s chaos that will eventually lead to Napoleon and the French
conquest of Europe as well as the beginnings of European Nationalism.

TEACHER’S RESOURCE M ATERIALS | A History of Western Society for the AP® Course | Ch. 19
© 2017 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers
Based on the Fall 2017 AP® European History Curriculum Framework