STD: IX SOCIAL SCIENCE

SUBJECT: HISTORY TOPIC: 1. The French Revolution

Class work - notes

Answer the following :
1. Describe the circumstances leading to the outbreak of revolutionary protest in France?
Answer:
The following circumstances led to the outbreak of revolutionary protest in France:
• Louis XVI was an autocratic ruler who could not compromise with his luxurious life. He
also lacked farsightedness.
• When he ascended the throne the royal treasury was empty. Long years of war had drained
the financial resources of France. Added to this was the cost of maintaining an extravagant
court at the immense palace of Versailles.
• Under Louis XVI France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence
from Britain the war added more than a billion livres to a dept credit, now began to charge
10% interest on loans. So the French government was obliged to spend an increasing
percentage of its budget on interest payments alone.
• The state finally increased taxes to meet its regular expenses such as the cost of maintaining
an army, running government offices and universities.
• The French society was divided into three estates but only members of the first two estates
i.e,, the clergy and the nobles were exempted to pay taxes. They belonged to privileged
class. Thus the burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the
third estate only.
• The middle class that emerged in the 18th century France was educated and enlightened.
They refuted the theory of divine rights of the kings and absolute monarchy. They believed
that a person’s social position must depend on his merit. They had access to the various
ideas of equality and freedom proposed by philosophers like John Locke, Jean Jacques
Rousseau, Montesquieu etc. Their ideas got popularised among the common mass as a result
of intensive discussions and debates in saloons and coffee houses and through books and
newspapers.
• The French administration was extremely corrupt. It did not give weightage to the French
Common man.
The state finally increased taxes to meet its regular expenses such as the cost of maintaining
an army, running government offices and universities.

2. State the election of the national assembly in France.

The Constitution of 1791 vested the power to make laws in the National Assembly, which
was indirectly elected. That is, citizens voted for a group of electors, who in turn chose the
Assembly. Only men above 25 years of age who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a
 labourer wage were given the status of active citizens, that is, they were entitled to vote. The
remaining men and all women were classed as passive citizens. To qualify as an elector and
then as a member of the Assembly, a man had to belong to the highest bracket of taxpayers.
3. Write a short note on the document “ Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizen”.
The Constitution began with a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Rights such
as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality before law, were
established as natural and inalienable rights, that is, they belonged to each human being by
birth and could not be taken away. It was the duty of the state to protect each citizen’s natural
rights.
Now the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and
expression to be a natural right. Newspapers, pamphlets, books and printed pictures flooded
the towns of France from where they travelled rapidly into the countryside. They all
described and discussed the events and changes taking place in France. Freedom of the press
also meant that opposing views of events could be expressed. Each side sought to convince
the others of its position through the medium of print. Plays, songs and festive processions
attracted large numbers of people
4. Who were the Jacobins? What was their contribution to the French Revolution?
Political clubs became an important rallying point for people who wished to discuss
government policies and plan their own forms of action. The most successful of these clubs
was that of the Jacobins, which got its name from the former convent of St Jacob in Paris.
Women too, who had been active throughout this period, formed their own clubs.
The members of the Jacobin club belonged mainly to the less prosperous sections of society.
They included small shopkeepers, artisans such as shoemakers, pastry cooks, watch-makers,
printers, as well as servants and daily-wage workers. Their leader was Maximilian
Robespierre.
In the summer of 1792 the Jacobins planned an insurrection of a large number of Parisians
who were angered by the short supplies and high prices of food. On the morning of August
10 they stormed the Palace of the Tuileries, massacred the king’s guards and held the king
himself as hostage for several hours. Later the Assembly voted to imprison the royal family.
Elections were held. From now on all men of 21 years and above, regardless of wealth, got
the right to vote.
5. Write about the Reign of Terror.

• The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror. Robespierre
followed a policy of severe control and punishment.
• All those whom he saw as being enemies of the republic ñ ex-nobles and clergy,
members of other political parties, even members of his own party who did not agree
with his methods ñ were arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary
tribunal. If the court found them guilty they were guillotined.
• The guillotine is a device consisting of two poles and a blade with which a person is
beheaded. It was named after Dr Guillotin who invented it.
 • Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and
prices. Meat and bread were rationed. Peasants were forced to transport their grain to
the cities and sell it at prices fixed by the government.
• The use of more expensive white flour was forbidden; all citizens were required to eat
the pain díÈgalitÈ (equality bread), a loaf made of wholewheat. Equality was also
sought to be practised through forms of speech and address. Instead of the traditional
Monsieur (Sir) and Madame (Madam) all French men and women were henceforth
Citoyen and Citoyenne (Citizen). Churches were shut down and their buildings
converted into barracks or offices.
• Robespierre pursued his policies so relentlessly that even his supporters began to
demand moderation. Finally, he was convicted by a court in July 1794, arrested and on
the next day sent to the guillotine.
6. How did the Directory ruled France?
• The fall of the Jacobin government allowed the wealthier middle classes to seize
power. A new constitution was introduced which denied the vote to non-propertied
sections of society. It provided for two elected legislative councils. These then
appointed a Directory, an executive made up of five members.
• This was meant as a safeguard against the concentration of power in a one-man
executive as under the Jacobins.
• However, the Directors often clashed with the legislative councils, who then sought to
dismiss them. The political instability of the Directory paved the way for the rise of a
military dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.

7. Write about abolition of Slavery in France.

• The slave trade began in the seventeenth century. French merchants sailed from the ports
of Bordeaux or Nantes to the African coast, where they bought slaves from local
chieftains.
• Branded and shackled, the slaves were packed tightly into ships for the three-month long
voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There they were sold to plantation owners.
The exploitation of slave labour made it possible to meet the growing demand in
European markets for sugar, coffee, and indigo.
• Port cities like Bordeaux and Nantes owed their economic prosperity to the flourishing
slave trade.
• It was finally the Convention which in 1794 legislated to free all slaves in the French
overseas possessions. This, however, turned out to be a short-term measure: ten years
later, Napoleon reintroduced slavery.
• Plantation owners understood their freedom as including the right to enslave African
Negroes in pursuit of their economic interests. Slavery was finally abolished in French
colonies in 1848.