A Level History chapter 1: AS: France, 1774-1814 MCQs with answers

By Team Megalecture · Updated 4 Nov 2026

49 exam-style questions on AS: France, 1774-1814, each with the answer and a short explanation. Ten of them are below to try. The chapter test draws ten fresh questions each time and is marked the moment you finish, with your score by topic.

49 questions · 4 topics · 10 per test

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What chapter 1 covers

Ten AS: France, 1774-1814 questions with answers

Try each one, then open the answer. These ten stay the same; the test draws new ones every time.

1. Why was the flight to Varennes (June 1791) so damaging to the constitutional monarchy?

  1. A
    it led directly to the king's trial and execution in the summer of 1791
  2. B
    it destroyed trust in Louis XVI and strengthened republican feeling
  3. C
    it caused Austria to declare war immediately
  4. D
    it ended the power of the Jacobin Club
Show answer

Answer: B. The attempted escape suggested the king rejected the Revolution, which undermined the 1791 constitution before it began. Louis was not executed until January 1793.

2. What was the levée en masse of August 1793?

  1. A
    the conscription of the whole nation for the war effort
  2. B
    a forced loan on the wealthy
  3. C
    the mass arrest of suspected counter-revolutionaries in Paris
  4. D
    the recall of émigré officers to the army
Show answer

Answer: A. The levée en masse mobilised all citizens, with unmarried men aged 18-25 conscripted, producing a huge army that turned the war in France's favour.

3. Why did the Two-Thirds Decree of 1795 provoke a royalist rising in Paris?

  1. A
    it banned known royalists from voting in the elections of 1795
  2. B
    it kept two-thirds of seats for members of the Convention
  3. C
    it gave two-thirds of the seats to officers named by the army
  4. D
    it abolished two-thirds of the Paris sections and their assemblies
Show answer

Answer: B. Royalists expected to win the elections, so the decree provoked the Vendémiaire rising of October 1795, which Bonaparte helped to crush.

4. Which institution did Napoleon create in 1800 to help stabilise French finances?

  1. A
    the assignat
  2. B
    the Continental System
  3. C
    the Bank of France
  4. D
    the Legion of Honour
Show answer

Answer: C. The Bank of France helped manage state finance and later received the sole right to issue notes in Paris. The Legion of Honour was a system of awards.

5. Who were the Feuillants, formed in July 1791?

  1. A
    radical sans-culottes from the Paris sections demanding price controls
  2. B
    royalist rebels in the Vendée
  3. C
    deputies who wanted the king put on trial
  4. D
    constitutional monarchists who left the Jacobins after Varennes
Show answer

Answer: D. The Feuillants wanted to keep Louis XVI as a constitutional king after Varennes, while more radical Jacobins moved towards a republic.

6. Who ran Napoleon's Ministry of Police and its network of informers for most of the period?

  1. A
    Talleyrand
  2. B
    Cambacérès
  3. C
    Carnot
  4. D
    Fouché
Show answer

Answer: D. Joseph Fouché built up the police and informers. Talleyrand was foreign minister and Cambacérès, Second Consul, led work on the Civil Code.

7. What is meant by the Thermidorian Reaction?

  1. A
    the dismantling of the Terror after Robespierre's fall in July 1794
  2. B
    the royalist rising in Paris crushed by Bonaparte in October 1795
  3. C
    the coup that ended the Directory in 1799
  4. D
    the sans-culotte rising that expelled the Girondin deputies in June 1793
Show answer

Answer: A. After 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) the Convention closed the Jacobin Club, ended price controls and released suspects. The 1795 rising was Vendémiaire.

8. What role did Lucien Bonaparte play at Saint-Cloud on 19 Brumaire?

  1. A
    as president of the Five Hundred, he called in troops to clear the hall
  2. B
    he commanded the Paris National Guard units that surrounded the Councils
  3. C
    he drafted the new constitution and read it to the Ancients
  4. D
    he negotiated Barras's resignation as a Director on 18 Brumaire
Show answer

Answer: A. When deputies turned on Napoleon, Lucien told the guards that the Council was threatened, and the troops cleared the hall.

9. Which measure of early 1793 triggered the rising in the Vendée?

  1. A
    the September Massacres of prisoners
  2. B
    the Law of Suspects passed by the Convention
  3. C
    the Le Chapelier Law
  4. D
    the levy of 300,000 men for the army
Show answer

Answer: D. Conscription under the levy of February 1793 sparked revolt in a region already angry over the treatment of its clergy. The Law of Suspects came later, in September 1793.

10. How did Bonaparte win the favour of the Thermidorian government in October 1795?

  1. A
    by capturing Toulon from the British
  2. B
    by firing on a royalist rising in Paris
  3. C
    by winning the battle of Rivoli
  4. D
    by crushing the rebels of the Vendée in 1794
Show answer

Answer: B. His 'whiff of grapeshot' against the Vendémiaire rising earned him command of the Army of Italy. Toulon (1793) had made him a general; Rivoli came in 1797.

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AS: France, 1774-1814: questions students ask

How many AS: France, 1774-1814 MCQs are there?

49, each with the answer and a short explanation, across 4 topics: The causes and immediate outcomes of the 1789 Revolution, Why French governments were unstable, 1790-1795, Why Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory in 1799, Napoleon's domestic aims and achievements, 1799-1814. Every chapter test draws ten of them, so you can take it many times.

Is the A Level History chapter 1 test free?

Yes. The test, the answers and the explanations are free and need no sign-up. Sign in only if you want your scores kept across devices.

How is the chapter test marked?

The moment you press Finish: your score, the right answer and an explanation for every question, and the ones you got wrong saved in My mistakes to retry.

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