A2 Edexcel Unit 3: The challenges of Revolution in France 1787-1830 discussion thread

Im doing the same one.. its a loooot to learn and the terror + directory are quite hard. Buuut... Napoleon is quite straightforward

I hope a question about Napoleon betraying the principles of the revolution comes up...

Ooh, yes. What are you defining the principles of the Revolution as? I'm using the rights stated in the Dec of Rights of Man and the Citizen:

- all men free and equal in their rights
- an end to royal despotism / sovreignity resting with the people
- the right to own property
- the end of feudalism
- freedom of expression and liberty from censorship
- equality before the law

and taking it from there ... :/

I struggled a bit with the first question about absolute monarchy, in the part of the army didn't quite know what to say. I focused more on the lack of cooperation of the privilege orders, basically arguing that if they approved the taxation reforms then the Estates General would not have to be summed (which gave power to the third state) and thereby the creation of the National Assembly, august decrees, DRMC which led to the collapse de facto of the absolute monarchy. Also talked about the economic crisis, bad harvest and the desire of the rich bourgeoisie to be involved in the politics/ruling of the country.. I hope that's ok...

Part B was quite good actually.. I did the Napoleon question. The sources were straightforward except from the last one which I found a bit tricky

1) I defined 'conservative' in the Napoleon question as 'not liberal and reactionary' ---> this is exactly what i wrote in my intro.
However, after the exam I looked up the definition of conversative and realised is means 'maintaining traditional valyes', so does this mean I have done it wrong?

1) I defined 'conservative' in the Napoleon question as 'not liberal and reactionary' ---> this is exactly what i wrote in my intro.
However, after the exam I looked up the definition of conversative and realised is means 'maintaining traditional valyes', so does this mean I have done it wrong?

2) Did anybody talk about the royal vetoes in the Constitutional Monarchy controversy?

I think it was in source 2, where it said something like 'In June the King didn't want to promote civil war' or something like that? So I linked the Royal Vetoes = a mistake of the King

Any thoughts on any of this? Please quote me! How did everyone else find it?

I think as long as you defined your terms you're safe, your definition of conservative doesn't sound too far off the mark anyway. I did the same source question as you. By the veto as a mistake of the king do you mean you put that he had a royal suspensive veto and if he'd really wanted to stop the war happening he could have used it? I think that's fine as an argument as long as you justified it properly and made your meaning clear. Don't panic; I'm sure you did great.

I found the source question pretty good but I found the essay quite difficult. I did the one about the collapse of Absolutism and am worrying because (like you) I think I defined this wrong; I said Absolutism collapsed after the Bastille because the new mayor Bailly took control of Paris, meaning Louis' authority wasn't total, and they started drafting a constitution. But most people seem to have dated its collapse as after the October Days.

Ok, I did think that if I define conservative it'd be okay, but I didnt know if it was more a 'maintaing the ideals of the revolution' kinda conservative!!!

With regards to the Vetoes, I meant the Royal Vetoes of 19 June 1792, where the King vetoed the laws of the Assembly. I citied this as a mistake of Louis' which led to a decline in support as many thought he had too much power. Not sure if thats what the source was getting at, but oh well!!

I didn't read the other essay title but with regards to 'absolutism' -- I agree that drawing up a constitution and the King losing control is a collapse of Absolutism, because his power was undermined and the aim of the constitution was to do away with absolutism -- so don't worry!!!

What are you aiming for in History?

I did the same as you. I said that the army helped with storiming the bastille alongside the San culottes and said that the assembly (which included the privilieged orders) directed the storming of the bastille.
I'm really hoping that's correct.
But then again later, i said that the fact that the monarchy couldnt rely on them anymore was a consequence of other causes such as the financial problems, rather than a cause in the downfall. I'm really worried that i mucked it up by saying that!
:/

I said the latter point too, about how the army officers defecting to the sans-culottes' side were maybe motivated by hunger etc. and maybe the nobles no longer trusted Louis because of the terrible financial state he'd left the country in?

That makes me feel slightly better now.
We'll just have to see. Do you think the grade boundaries for the exam will be high or low?

I don't know, do we get the same boundaries as the people doing questions on other topics like Germany?