Q 01/05

When the Estates-General convened in May 1789, it was the body's first meeting since which year?

A) 1614

B) 1560

C) 1648

D) 1701

Answer · why

A) 1614

1614 was the last time the Estates-General had met; after a 175-year gap nobody alive had seen the three estates sit, so even the voting rules had to ...

Q 02/05

Whom did Louis XVI dismiss as chief minister on 11 July 1789, helping trigger the Bastille unrest?

A) Calonne

B) Necker

C) Brienne

D) Turgot

Answer · why

B) Necker

Necker, the popular Swiss banker, was dismissed on 11 July 1789 under pressure from the court party around the queen and the Comte d'Artois; Paris rea...

Q 03/05

Whose 1786 reforms, including a universal land tax, did the Assembly of Notables reject?

A) Turgot

B) Necker

C) Calonne

D) Brienne

Answer · why

C) Calonne

Calonne's 1786 plan, with a land tax payable by all orders, was rejected by the Assembly of Notables in 1787; the notables insisted only an Estates-Ge...

Q 04/05

Abbé Sieyès's influential 1789 pamphlet posed which question in its title?

A) What Is the Nation?

B) Who Are the People?

C) What Is Liberty?

D) What Is the Third Estate?

Answer · why

D) What Is the Third Estate?

'What Is the Third Estate?' was Sieyès's January 1789 pamphlet; his answer was 'everything', and he argued the commons alone could speak for the natio...

Q 05/05

On 17 June 1789 the deputies of the commons declared themselves to be what body?

A) the National Assembly

B) the Legislative Assembly

C) the National Convention

D) the Committee of Thirty

Answer · why

A) the National Assembly

The National Assembly was the name the commons adopted on 17 June 1789; the deputies also declared existing taxes illegal, a direct challenge to royal...