The French Revolution saw the rise of newspapers describing the events of each day and week. Collect information and pictures on any one event and write a newspaper article.

Find out more about any one of the revolutionary figures you have read about in this chapter. Write a short biography of this person.

How would you explain the rise of Napoleon?

Would you agree with the view that the message of universal rights was beset with contradictions? Explain.

Draw up a list of democratic rights we enjoy today whose origins could be traced to the French Revolution.

Describe the legacy of the French Revolution for the peoples of the world during the nineteenth and the twentieth century.

Which groups of French society benefited from the revolution? Which groups were forced to relinquish power? Which sections of society would have been disappointed with the outcome of the revolution?

Describe the circumstances leading to the outbreak of revolutionary protest in France?

Describe the picture(fig. 15) in your own words. What are the images that the artist has used to communicate the following ideas: greed, equality, justice, takeover by the state of the assets of the church?

Record your impressions of this print(fig.14). Describe the objects lying on the ground. What do they symbolise? What attitude does the picture express towards non-European slaves?

Imagine yourself to be one of the women in the given figure formulating a response to the arguments put forward by Chaumette (Source G).

Compare the manifesto drafted by Olympe de Gouges (Source F) with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Source C).

Describe the persons represented in the given figure 12– their actions, their postures, the objects they are carrying. Look carefully to see whether all of them come from the same social group. What symbols has the artist included in the image?

Compare the views of Desmoulins and Robespierre. How does each one understand the use of state force?

Look carefully at the painting(Fig.10)and identify the objects which are political symbols you saw in Box 1 (broken chain, red cap, fasces, Charter of the Declaration of Rights).

(E) Imagine the impact of the events in France on neighbouring countries such as Prussia, Austria-Hungary or Spain, all of which were absolute monarchies.

(D) Which groups of French society would have gained from the Constitution of 1791? Which groups would have had reason to be dissatisfied? What developments does Marat (Source B) anticipate in the future?

(C) Compare the political rights which the Constitution of 1791 gave to the citizens with Articles 1 and 6 of the Declaration (Source C). Are the two documents consistent? Do the two documents convey the same idea

(B) Explain the meaning of the painting of the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (Fig. 8) by reading only the symbols.

(A) Identify the symbols in Box 1 which stand for liberty, equality and fraternity.

Representatives of the Third Estate take the oath raising their arms in the direction of Bailly, the President of the Assembly, standing on a table in the centre.

What message is Young trying to convey here? Whom does he mean when he speaks ‘of slaves’? Who is he criticising? What dangers does he sense in the situation of 1787?

Explain why the artist has portrayed the nobleman as the spider and the peasant as the fly.