Free About 1 hr0 learners Rev. 2026-10-28 0

Every time someone calls a politician left wing or right wing, they are describing where a group of deputies happened to sit in a crowded hall at Versailles in the summer of 1789. That is how close the French Revolution still is. In a few years a bankrupt monarchy gave way to a declaration of universal rights, a republic, a reign of terror that killed thousands in liberty's name, and finally an emperor. People who wanted to free humanity built a guillotine, and people who feared chaos ended up living under a general.

You will stand in the tennis court where deputies swore not to go home, read Olympe de Gouges rewriting the rights of man for women, and sit through the arguments that sent a king and then his accusers to the scaffold. You will leave able to explain how a fiscal crisis turned into a revolution, weigh the competing explanations for the Terror, and judge for yourself whether Burke or Paine read the event more truly. You will also have a sharper eye for the moment in any crisis when people start trading rights for safety.

Levels

  1. 1 1. The Old Regime and the Fiscal Crisis 5-question quiz
  2. 2 2. 1789: The Year of Revolution 5-question quiz
  3. 3 3. Constitutional Monarchy, 1789 to 1792 5-question quiz
  4. 4 4. War, the Republic and Radicalization 5-question quiz
  5. 5 5. The Terror 5-question quiz
  6. 6 6. Thermidor, the Directory and Napoleon 5-question quiz
  7. 7 7. Women and the Revolution 5-question quiz
  8. 8 8. Legacy and the Historians' Debates 5-question quiz

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