Western Civilization II / Unit 7 WC2 0631 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Classifying a Revolutionary Measure: Liberal, Radical, Thermidorian
The idea
The exam describes a measure and asks which phase produced it. Three phases answer three questions: does the measure dismantle privilege while keeping property and a king, does it mobilize and coerce the nation for the republic's survival, or does it undo coercion in favor of property owners. Liberal, radical, Thermidorian.
In practice
Six cases. Feudal dues abolished and offices no longer for sale: privilege dismantled, property kept; liberal, seventeen eighty-nine. Church lands auctioned to pay the state's debt: the same; liberal. Every adult man conscripted and prices fixed by a committee of twelve: coercion for survival; radical, ninety-three. Churches made temples of reason and the calendar restarted: coercion of culture; radical. Price controls rescinded and de-Christianization ended under a government of property owners: coercion undone; Thermidorian, ninety-five. The metric system: begun in the radical phase and kept by every regime since, the exam's exception.
Where people slip
Universal manhood suffrage is the trap: introduced by the radical republic in ninety-two, it was withdrawn by the Directory's property franchise, so a franchise question turns on the year. Classify by what the measure did to privilege, coercion and property.
Your place on the trail
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