Lesson 2 - Long-term causes of the French Revolution - How useful are documentary films?
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Understanding causes is central to what history is about. Historians like to link different events together that share something in common. For example, as we saw previously, historians use categories like political, economic, social and cultural (PESC) to explain clearly why things happen.
Another way of organising causes (and consequences) is to divide them into long-term and short-term. Long-term causes take place a long-time before the event and are not an obvious, direct cause of the event. They often provide the context in which the event is more likely to happen. Short-term causes happen immediately before the event and are obviously and directly linked to the event. |
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Activity - Watch the film 'French Revolution - Long term causes'. Then in your OneNote: 1. Identify examples of political, economic, social or cultural causes of the French Revolution as mentioned in the film. 2. The documentary film focuses on the life of the king Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette. Why do you think this is? 3. How useful is the documentary film as evidence about the long-term causes of the French revolution. Remember to identify strengths and weakness of the film and try to use the IB OPCVL approach. |
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OPCVL = Origin - Purpose - Content - Value - Limitation
Origin is all about the provenance of the source. It refers to the 'w' questions: who produced the source, when and where was it made? This information is usually included in the attribution underneath the source. Purpose follows on from the 'w' questions and is concerned with the biggest 'w' question on all, why was the source produced? Content is not concerned with the provenance and attribution of the source, but rather the nature of the source and information the source conveys: is the source factual and complete, is the language objective and is the information corroborated by other sources? Origin, purpose and content can (and often should) be considered as both a positive value and negative limitation. For example, the origin of the Bayeux Tapestry as rare visual evidence of war from the 11th century is obviously a value. But the fact it was made for Norman nobility means it is unlikely to be objective. |
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