THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Very Short Answer:

1.Who was the ruler of France during the revolution?Answer:Louis XVI of the Bourbon family
was the ruler of France.
King Louis XVI memorabilia

2.Name the three ‘Estates’ into which the French society was divided before the
Revolution.Answer:
The First Estate — Clergy
The Second Estate — Nobility
The Third Estate — Common people.

3.When did the French Revolution occur?

Answer:14th July, 1789.

4.What was tithes?

Answer:It was a tax levied by the church, comprising one-tenth of the agricultural produce.

5.What was taille?

It was a direct tax to be paid to the State.

6.Who formed the National Assembly in France in 1789?

Third Estate

7.To whom was the taxes called Tithes payable by the peasants in the eighteenth century
France?
Answer:Church.
8.Which class of society in France was behind the French Revolution?
Answer:Middle class.

9.What was the slogan of the French revolutionaries?

Answer:Liberty, Fraternity and Equality.

10.On what charges was Louis XVI of France sentenced to death?

Answer:Treason.

11.What was feudal system?

Answer:It was a system under which land was granted to landlords in return for military or
labour services.

12.Which philosopher had forwarded the principle of voting by the assembly as a whole,
where each member should have one vote, during the rule of louis XVI?
Answer:Rousseau.

13.In which book did Rousseau mention the idea of one person, one vote?
Answer:
The Social Contract.

14.Give the titles of the books written by :(a) Rousseau(b) Charles Montesquieu
Answer:(a) The Social Contract,(b) The Spirit of the Laws.
15.What was the theme of the book ‘The Spirit of the Laws’ written by Montesquieu?
Answer:Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the
legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

16.Which book has proposed a division of power within government?

Answer:‘The Spirit of the Laws’.

17.Who proposed a division of power within government?

Answer:Montesquieu.

18.Name any four French philosophers who inspired the French people to Jean Jacques
Answer:Rousseau
Montesquieu
Voltaire
Maximilian Robespierre.

19.Why was Bastille hated by the French people?

Storming of the Bastille souvenirs
Answer:Bastille was hated because it stood for the despotic power of the king.

20.Which Battle sealed the Fate of France in 1815?

Answer:Battle of Waterloo.

21.When did France abolish the monarchy and became republic?

Answer:21st September, 1792.

22.Name any one class that did not belong to Jacobin Club?
Answer:Nobles.

23.Who was the leader of the Jacobin Club?

Answer:Maximilian Robespierre.

24.Which period of Famce’s history is known as ‘the Terror’.

Answer:The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign cn terror.

25.Name the most popular political club started by the French women.
Answer:Society of Revolutionary Republican women.

26.Which law was introduced by revolutionary government in France as help to improve the
lives of women?
HOTSAnswer:Schooling was made compulsory for girls.

27.Who abolished slavery in France?

Answer:The Jacobin Clubs.

28.‘The National Assembly completed the draft of the Constitution in 1791’. Mention any two
features of the Constitution .
Answer:
It vested the power to make laws in the hands of National Assembly,
It limited the powers of the monarch. Now powers were decentralised and assigned to
different institutions.

29.Who wrote the ‘Two Treatises of Government’?

Answer:John Locke.
 30.What does the Red Cap worn by Sans-Culottes in France symbolize?
Answer:Liberty.

31.Name the political body to which the three estates of the French society sent their
representatives?
[HOTS ]Answer:The Estates General was a political body to which the three estates sent their
representatives.

Short Answer
1.Name the three ‘Estates’ into which the French society was divided before the
Revolution.

Answer:

 The First Estate — Clergy

 The Second Estate — Nobility
 The Third Estate — Common people.

2. “Ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French
Revolution”. Explain the statement in the light of French Revolution.
Answer:

 People of Third Estate demanded a society based on freedom and opportunities to all.
 The National Assembly was formed in 1791 with an object to limit the powers of the
monarch.
 The Constitution framed in 1791 began with a Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizens.
 Censorship was abolished in 1789.

3. Describe how abolition of slavery became possible in France.

Answer:
Abolition of slavery became possible in France by the following ways :

 The salve trade began in the 18th century. The National Assembly held long debates
about the rights of man should be extended to all French subjects including those in the
colonies.
 Convention legislated to free all slaves in the French overseas possessions. .
 However, Napoleon reintroduced slavery. Finally slavery was abolished in 1848.

4.Explain triangular slave trade carried on during 18th and 19th century.
Answer:

 The triangular slave trade was carried between Europe, Africa and America.
 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.
5. Explain any five features of the Constitution of 1791 framed by the National Assembly in
France.

Answer:
Features of the Constitution of 1791 :

 It declared France a constitutional monarchy.

 Powers of the king separated and assigned to the executive, the legislature and the
judiciary.
 Laws to be made by the National Assembly.
 Only men above 25 years of age, who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a labourer’s
wage, were entitled to vote.
 Many rights were given to the people.
 To qualify as an elector and as member of the Assembly, a man had to belong to
highest bracket of taxpayers.

6. Compare the political, economic and social conditions of France before and after the revolution.
Answer:

Before Revolution After Revolution

Political Conditions : France was under the rule of a France became a Republic.
monarch, Louis XVI.
1.
2. All the political powers were in Political powers were given to
the hands of the first two the Third Estate.
Estates.
Economic Conditions : All the taxes were paid by the Taxes were levied according
people .of the Third Estates. the to income and wealth. The
1. right to votewas linked to
taxes.
2. The government was under The economic condition of
heavy debt. government improved.
Social Conditions : People of Third Estate were All were given equal rights
discriminated. irrespective of the Estate.
1.
2. All the written materials and The censorship on written
cultural activities could be materials and cultural activities
published or performed only was lifted. Now all were free to
after an approval from the write and speak.
king.

LONG ANSWER
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:
1. When King Louis XVI was anointed as the new king, he found an empty treasury. Long
years of war had drained the financial resources of France.
2. The war added more than a billion lives to a debt that had already risen to more than 2
billion lives. Lenders who gave credit began to charge 10 per cent interest on loans. So the
French Government had to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest
payments alone.
3. To meet its regular expenses, such as cost of maintaining an army, the court,
governmental offices and Universities were increasingly becoming difficult. Raising taxes did
not suffice, because the French society was divided into 3 estates and only the 3rd estate
had to pay taxes.
4.In addition was the cost of maintaining an extravagant court at the Palace of Versailles.
5. The population of France was also growing massively. This led to a rapid increase in the
demand for food grains. Production of grains could not keep pace with demand. So the price
of bread, which was the staple diet of the majority rose rapidly.
6. Most workers were employed as labourers in workshops, whose owner fixed their wages.
But the wages did not keep pace with the rise in prices. So the gap between the rich and the
poor widened.
All these factors led to the outbreak of the French Revolution.

2. Which groups of French society benefited from the revolution? Which groups were
forced to relinquish power? Which sections of society would have been disappointed
with the outcome of the revolution?
Answer:

1. The wealthy class of the third estate which came to be known as the new middle
class of France benefited the most from the revolution. This group comprised of big
businessmen, petty officers, lawyers, teachers, doctors and traders. Previously,
these people had to pay state taxes and they did not enjoy equal status. But after the
revolution they began to be treated equally with the upper sections of the society.

2. With the abolition of feudal system of obligation and taxes, the clergy and the
nobility came on the same level with the middle class. They were forced to give up
their privileges. Their executive powers were also taken away from them.

3.The poorer sections of the society, i.e. small peasants, landless labourers,
servants, daily wage earners would have been disappointed with the outcome of the
revolution. Women also would have been highly discontented.

3. Describe the legacy of the French Revolution for the peoples of the world during
the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries.

Answer:

1. The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of
the French Revolution. These ideas became an umpiring force for the political
movements in the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.
2. The ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity spread from France to the rest of
Europe, where feudal system was finally abolished.
3. Colonised people reworked on the idea of freedom from bondage into their
movements to Create a sovereign nation-state.
4. The idea of Nationalism that emerged after the French Revolution started
becoming mass movements all over the world. Now people began to question
the absolute power.
5. The impact of the French Revolution would be seen in India too. Tipu Sultan
and Raja Rammohan Roy got deeply influenced by the ideas of the revolution.
In the end, we can say that after the French Revolution people all over the
world became aware of their rights.
4. Draw up a list of democratic rights we enjoy today whose origins could be
traced to the French Revolution.

Answer:

The list of democratic rights are

1. Freedom of speech
2. Freedom of expression
3. Freedom of press
4. Abolition of censorship
5. Right to vote
6. Abolition of slavery
7. Right to liberty
8. Right to property
9. Right to security
10. Right to education
11. Divorce laws

5. Would you agree with the view that the message of universal rights was beset
with contradictions? Explain.
Answer:
1.Though it says ‘Universal Rights’, women were unfortunately left out from the basic
rights that were promised.
2.They did not have equal rights that men enjoyed. They did not have the right to
liberty, property, security and above all, the resistance to oppression. In the
formulation of laws, women did not have any representation.
3.Women were not entitled to all the honours and public employment, according to
their abilities.
4. The French Revolution could not bring economic equality and it is the fact that
unless there is economic equality, real equality cannot be received at any sphere.

5. Slavery existed in France until the first half of the 19th century.

6. How would you explain the rise of Napoleon?

Answer:

1.Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France. He started conquering

neighbouring countries by waging wars against them.

2.He saw himself as a moderniser of Europe. He introduced many laws, such as the
protection of private property and a uniform system of weights and measures provided
by the decimal system.

3.Many of his measures carried the revolutionary ideas of liberty and modern laws to
the other parts of Europe.

4. This had a positive impact on people long after he was dethroned as an emperor
when he was finally defeated in the Battle of Waterloo.