Quiz: The Class Struggles in France, 1848–1850

All 32 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What does Marx call revolutions in Part III?

   The fevers of nations The graves of empires The midwives of history The locomotives of history
2. 2. What does Engels admit about his and Marx’s expectations of 1848?

   History proved them right: only the betrayal of the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie prevented victory History proved them wrong: the Continent was not economically ripe for the abolition of capitalism The peasants proved them wrong: their votes for Bonaparte alone saved capitalism They had expected only a bourgeois republic, and events bore them out in every detail
3. 3. For which socialism, according to Marx, has the bourgeoisie itself invented the name of Blanqui?

   Revolutionary socialism, or communism Christian socialism State socialism Utopian socialism of Fourier
4. 4. What does Engels say about the street fight behind barricades?

   It has become antiquated It is still the decisive method It is the only legal method It was never used in 1848
5. 5. What does Engels say the parties of order cry out in despair, with Odilon Barrot?

   “Vive la République” “La légalité nous tue”: legality is our death “L’État, c’est moi” “Après nous le déluge”
6. 6. What does Engels say about revolutions carried out by small conscious minorities?

   They must now be organised in secret, since open agitation is forbidden by law Their time is past; the masses themselves must understand what is at stake They are needed more than ever, since universal suffrage has corrupted the masses They are still the only kind that succeeds; the masses follow a resolute lead
7. 7. What does Engels say the book represents in his 1895 introduction?

   Marx’s first attempt to explain a segment of contemporary history by his materialist conception Marx’s first attempt at a history of the Great French Revolution of 1789 A collection of Marx’s speeches to the Communist League and its London members on the events of 1848 Marx’s last finished work, a history of France written in London after the fall of the Paris Commune
8. 8. Where did the commission on the workers’ question, under Louis Blanc and Albert, hold its sessions?

   The Luxembourg palace The Hôtel de Ville The Tuileries The Bourse
9. 9. From whom was the Mobile Guard mostly recruited?

   The National Guard of the wealthier Paris districts The Lumpenproletariat, youths between 15 and 20 The peasantry The regular army’s veteran regiments of the line
10. 10. Who dictated the decree promising to secure workers’ livelihood through labour?

    Ledru-Rollin Louis Blanc, the socialist Marche, a workingman Lamartine
11. 11. How does Part I end?

    “Workers of the world, unite!” “The Republic is saved” “Order reigns in Paris” “The revolution is dead!—Long live the revolution!”
12. 12. Who made this first English translation (1924)?

    Ernest Untermann Daniel De Leon Henry Kuhn Samuel Moore
13. 13. What does Marx call 10 December 1848, the day of Louis Bonaparte’s election?

    The day of national unity The day of the workers’ victory The day of the peasant insurrection The day of the bankers
14. 14. Which economic events does Marx say hastened the outbreak of 1848?

    The potato blight and crop failures of 1845–46, and the commercial crisis of 1847 The cholera epidemic of 1846 and the bankruptcy of the Paris municipal treasury The discovery of gold in California and the speculation that followed it The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, which ruined the French grain growers
15. 15. What were the national “ateliers” (workshops) in reality, according to Marx?

    Model farms in the provinces where the unemployed were set to till the soil Schools of trade where unemployed workers were trained in new crafts “English workhouses in the open air”: unproductive excavation work at 23 sous Cooperative factories run by the workers themselves, on Louis Blanc’s plan
16. 16. How many representatives did the working class have in the Provisional Government?

    A majority of the eleven members None; the workers were left out entirely Two: Louis Blanc and Albert Five, chosen by the Paris clubs
17. 17. How many Social Democratic votes does Engels report for Germany in 1890?

    763,000 52,000 5 million 1,427,000
18. 18. How does Marx describe doctrinaire (utopian) socialism?

    It is the most scientific form of socialism, deriving the new society from the laws of political economy It is the socialism of the peasants, who dream of restoring small property free of mortgage debt It puts pedants’ reasoning in place of collective production and wishes away class struggle It is identical with revolutionary communism, differing from it only in its plans for organising production
19. 19. Which revolutionary party in the Roman empire does Engels use as an analogy at the end of his introduction?

    The Stoic philosophers The Christians The followers of the Gracchi The Spartacists
20. 20. Which banker did Bonaparte appoint Minister of Finance?

    Fould Laffitte Pereire Rothschild
21. 21. What conclusion about crisis and revolution does Engels draw from the 1850 Review?

    Crises and revolutions are unrelated A new revolution is possible only as the consequence of a new crisis Crises make revolution impossible, since hungry workers cannot organise or fight Revolutions break out in prosperous times, when the workers are strongest
22. 22. What changed the situation in France in 1849–50, according to Part IV?

    A new commercial prosperity: Paris industries fully employed, the mills of Rouen and Mulhouse active A new famine: crop failures in the provinces, high bread prices and bread riots in Paris and Lyons A war scare: Prussia mobilised its armies on the Rhine and the Assembly voted new levies of troops A financial crash: the Bank of France suspended its payments and credit dried up in every trade
23. 23. Which law of 6 September 1850 does Part IV mention?

    Free trade with England and lower duties on iron The abolition of the Senate The resumption of cash payments by the Bank of France The emancipation of slaves
24. 24. How does Engels describe the June fighting of 1848 in Paris?

    A rising of peasants and artisans against the new forty-five centime tax A royalist plot to overthrow the Republic, disguised as a workers’ revolt The first great battle for dominance between proletariat and bourgeoisie A minor riot of unemployed workers, easily put down by the National Guard
25. 25. How does Marx define revolutionary socialism (communism) at the end of Part III?

    The organisation of labour through state-funded cooperatives, as a means of gradually reconciling capital and wage labour The founding of model communities on a rational plan, whose example would in time win over every class to the new society The peaceful conquest of a parliamentary majority, as a means of gradually transforming bourgeois property into common property The revolution declared in permanency, and the class dictatorship of the proletariat as a transition to the abolition of classes
26. 26. What would every new proletarian insurrection in France coincide with, according to Marx?

    A world war A financial boom A peasant revolt A royal restoration
27. 27. Which two parties split the Paris Commune, according to Engels?

    Marxists and Lassalleans Jacobins and Girondins Anarchists and monarchists The Blanquists (the majority) and the Proudhonists
28. 28. Which foreign expedition does Part II describe?

    The intervention in Mexico against the republic The French army’s attack on the Roman Republic The Crimean campaign The invasion of Algeria
29. 29. Who ruled under Louis Philippe, according to Marx?

    The industrial bourgeoisie, led by the mill-owners of Rouen and Lyons The whole bourgeoisie, united at last behind the July Monarchy Not the whole bourgeoisie but one faction: the aristocracy of finance The landed aristocracy, restored to power after the fall of Napoleon
30. 30. How does Part IV say Bonaparte tried to purchase the soldiers?

    With grants of land in Algeria after their service With medals With sausages, champagne and cigars With higher pay voted by law in the Assembly
31. 31. Whom did the Provisional Government’s extra 45-centime tax hit above all?

    The Paris workers, through new duties on wine and bread The large estates The bankers The peasants, the great majority of the French
32. 32. What does Marx call “the most comprehensive contradiction” of the 1848 constitution?

    It proclaims the sovereignty of the people while reserving all real power to the president and his ministers It gives political power to the peasants while denying the vote to the urban workers who made the revolution It gives political power through universal suffrage to the classes whose social slavery it is to perpetuate It abolishes property qualifications for voting while keeping them for all who would hold public office