WBBSE Solutions for Class 9 History and Environment Chapter 1 Some Aspects of the French Revolution

Chapter 1 Some Aspects of the French Revolution Introduction

The French Revolution of 1789 is a landmark event in the history of the world. It took place during the reign of the Bourbon king Louis XVI who believed in an absolute monarchy. Faulty taxation, social injustice, the tax burden on 3rd estate, etc. were the main causes of the French Revolution.

During the reign of Louis 16, there was an acute economic crisis in 1788 in Frace. To tide over the crises, the finance minister proposed that taxes should be imposed on the aristocracy and clergy. As a result, the aristocratic class broke into rebellion. Louis 16 summoned the meeting of the States General, the representative assembly after a long 174 years.

French Revolution Class 9 Notes WBBSE

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Louis XVI wanted the support of the members to impose taxes. But he failed in his mission and closed the meeting room of the states-general of the representative of the 3rd estate assembled at the nearby tennis court and took an oath not to disperse till drafting a new constitution for France.

While the new constitution was being drafted, a large mob attacked the Bastille, the state prison on 14 July 1789 and set the prisoners free. The states-Gsneral a new name of constituent Assembly and declared the Rights of the man and citizen. The king was made a constitution at the head and his absolute power was taken away. The king tried to escape from France but he was brought back as a virtual prisoner.

In 1792 a body known as the National Convention met and drew up a revised constitution, abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. The king was found guilty in 1793 and was guillotined.

French Revolution Class 9 Notes WBBSE

To save France from external invasion and internal rebellion of monarchy, the Jacobin republican Govt introduced the Reign of Terror, which was linked from Sept 1793 to July 1794. More than 2,00,000 people were executed. With the execution of Robespierre, the Reign of Terror came to an end. In 1795, a new Govt known as Directory came to power. Its authority was vested in a body of five directors later on Napolean Bonaparte Overthrer was the directory and assumed supreme power.

Some Aspects of the French Revolution Very Short Answer Type :

WB Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 1. Name a foreign country which participated in the American War of Independence.
Answer: France participated in the American War of Independence.

Question 2. Most of the burden of taxation fell on which estate in France?
Answer: The entire burden of taxation fell on the Third Estate in France.

Question 3. Who were sans culottes?
Answer: The sans-culottes were urban workers and wage earners.

Question 4. Who was the Finance Minister of Louis XVI?
Answer: Calonne was the Finance Minister of Louis XVI.

Question 5. Who was Diderot?
Answer: Denis Diderot was a French Encyclopaedist.

Question 6. Who was the spokesman for the laissez-faire doctrine?
Answer: Quesnay, the greatest among the physiocrats, was the spokesman of the aissez-faire doctrine.

Question 7. Who is the author of the “Persian Letters”?
Answer: Montesquieu wrote the ‘Persian Letters’.

Question 8. Name a composition by Voltaire.
Answer: A work by Voltaire is ‘Letters on the English’.

Question 9. Who is the author of “The Social Contract”?
Answer: Jean Jacques Rousseau is the author of ‘The Social Contract’.

Question 10. Which Estate of the States General demanded the introduction of a vote per individual?
Answer: The Third Estate of the States-General demanded the introduction of a vote per individual.

Question 11. When did the Tennis Court Oath take place?
Answer: The Tennis Court Oath took place on 20th June 1789.

WB Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 12. When did the French Constituent Assembly issue a declaration which abolished feudalism in Europe?
Answer: In 1789 the French Constituent Assembly issued a declaration which abolished feudalism in Europe.

Question 13. What was taken as a model to prepare the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen?
Answer: The Bill of Rights of England (1689) was taken as a model to prepare the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

Question 14. The members of the Jacobin Club belonged to which Estate?
Answer: The members of the Jacobin Club belonged mainly to the Third Estate.

Question 15. Name one merit of the Reign of Terror.
Answer: One of the positive outcomes of the Reign of Terror was the abolition of slavery.

Question 16. Who was the author of Candide?
Answer: Voltaire wrote Candide.

Question 17. What is a guillotine?
Answer: It is a device consisting of two poles and a blade with which a person is beheaded.

Question 18. Name some people who took part in drafting the Constitution of 1791.
Answer: Some important leaders who took part in drafting the Constitution of 1791 were Mounier, Barneve, Lafayette, Mirabeau and Talleyrand.

Question 19. Who said, “After me the deluge”?
Answer: Louis XV, the king of France said, “After me the deluge”.

Question 20. Who was the King of France when the French Revolution broke out?
Answer: Louis XVI was the King of France when the French Revolution broke out.

Question 21. What was the period of rule of Louis XVI?
Answer: The period of rule of Louis XVI was 1774-1793.

Question 22. What was the States-General?
Answer: The States-General was the Assembly of France which consisted of the representatives of the three estates of the French society that passed legislations.

Question 23. When was the States-General summoned by King Louis XVI?
Answer: The states general was summoned by King Louis XVI on 5 May 1789.

Question 24. What were the three estates into which French society was divided?
Answer: The Three Estates into which French society was divided were the First Estate, the Second Estate and the Third Estate.

Question 25. What was ‘Vingtiemes7?
Answer: ‘Vingtiemes’ was the income tax paid by the peasants of France during the old regime.

Question 26. What is ‘Tithe7?
Answer: ‘Tithe’ was a tax on religion imposed on the members of the Third Estate by the Church.

WB Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 27. What is ‘Corvee7?
Answer: The French peasants during the old regime were forced to render free labour for the renovation of roads and buildings. This was known as ‘corvee’.

Question 28. What is ‘The contract of Poissey7?
Answer: The Church of France controlled 1/5 of the landed property of France and paid a voluntary tax to the Government by a contract known as the Contract of Poissy.

Question 29. Name two philosophers of the French Revolution.
Answer: Two philosophers of the French Revolution were Rousseau and Montesquieu.

Question 30. Who were the physiocrats?
Answer: The physiocrats were economists who demanded free trade, free enterprise and privatisation of industry and trade.

Question 31. Who was the leader of the physiocrats of France?
Answer: Francois Quesnay was the leader of the physiocrats of France.

Question 32. Why was the Bastille hated by the people of France?
Answer: The Bastille was hated by the people of France because it stood for the despotic power of the monarch and also symbolised the oppression of the people by the autocratic French kings.

Question 33. What was the ‘assignats7?
Answer: The Constituent Assembly confiscated all properties of the church and keeping those as security, issued a kind of paper note called ‘assignats’.

Question 34. Who was the founder of the Patriotic Party?
Answer: The founder of the Patriotic Party was Abbe Sieyes.

Question 35. What do you mean by the Civil List introduced by the Constituent Assembly?
Answer: The Civil List was introduced by the Constituent Assembly to determine the royal expenditure which could not exceed the amount allotted in the list.

Question 36. Name two leaders of the Jacobin Party.
Answer: Two leaders of the Jacobin Party were Danton and Robespierre.

Question 37. What was the law enforced by the Revolutionary Tribunal?
Answer: The law enforced by the Revolutionary Tribunal was the ‘Law of Suspects’.

Question 38. What was the new system of administration introduced by the National Convention?
Answer: The new system of administration introduced by the National Convention was the Directory.

Question 39. When did Napoleon become the First Consul?
Answer: Napoleon became the First Consul in 1799.

Question 40. Name some French thinkers who influenced the French Revolution.
Answer: Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot, Quesney, D’ Alembert, and Turgot were
some philosophers of the French Revolution.

Question 41. Name some of the well-known Physiocrats.
Answer: Quesnay and Turgot.

Question 42. Who compiled the famous Encyclopaedia or the Universal Dictionary in France?
Answer: Diderot and D’ Alembert

Question 43. Name the dynasty which ruled in Austro-Hungary at the time of the French Revolution.
Answer: Hapsburg.

Wb Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 44. What were the functions of the Parliament in Pre-Revolutionary France?
Answer: The functions of the Parliament in Pre-Revolutionary France were to sanction
new taxes and enact new laws.

Question 45. What class of people led the Revolution in its early stage?
Answer: The Revolution in its early stage was the work of the bourgeoisie and not of the peasantry.

Question 46. Name at least two of the Finance Ministers of Louis XV who wanted to reform the state of finance of France.
Answer: Turgot and Necker.

Question 47. What is the period of the history of Europe just preceding the French Revolution of 1789 known as?
Answer: The Age of Enlightened Despotism or the Age of Repentance of Monarchy.

Question 48. What are the characteristics of the Age of Enlightened Despotism?
Answer: The main characteristics of enlightened despotism are rationalism and humanity.

Question 49. Name some of the prominent thinkers of the age of Enlightened Despotism.
Answer: Montesquieu, Rousseau and Voltaire are some of the famous thinkers of the Age of Enlightened Despotism.

Question 50. What do you mean by the old Regime (Ancien Regime)?
Answer: The form of Government prevailing throughout Europe before the outbreak of the French Revolution is known as the old Regime.

Question 51. Name the dynasty which ruled in Prussia at the time of the French Revolution.
Answer: Hohenzollern dynasty ruled in Austria at the time of the French Revolution.

Question 52. Name the dynasty which ruled in Russia at the time of the French Revolution.
Answer: Hanoverian dynasty.

Question 53. Name the dynasty which ruled in France at the time of the French Revolution.
Answer: The Bourbon dynasty ruled in France at the time of the French Revolution.

Question 54. Who was the ruling prince in France when the Revolution started in 1789?
Answer: Louis 14 was the ruling king of France when the Revolution started in 1789.

Question 55. What was the name of the property tax in France?
Answer: The name of property tax in France is Taille.

Question 56. What were the main principles of the French Revolution?
Answer: The main principles of the French Revolution were liberty, equality and fraternity.

Question 57. What was the nature of the French Revolution?
Answer: The nature of the French Revolution was more social than political.

Question 58. In which year did Louis XVI succeed to the throne of France?
Answer: Louis 16 succeeded to the throne in 1774 A.D.

WB Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 59. What were the causes of the fall the of monarchy in France?
Answer: The weakness of the king, the intrigues of the emigres and the foreign war destroyed the monarchy of France.

Question 60. What was the first step of the National Convention of France that met in 1792?
Answer: The first act of the National Convention was the abolition of the monarchy and the declaration of France as a Republic.

Question 61. When was the Committee of Public Safety formed?
Answer: In 1793, during the Reign of Terror, the Committee of Public Safety was formed.

Some Aspects of the French Revolution 2 Marks Questions And Answers

Question 1. What do you know of Voltaire?
Answer:

Louis Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire was the most powerful writer of the Age of Enlightened Despotism. His farcical and brilliant pen touched every field—social, political and religious. His wit and satire as well as the humanity of his appeal made an irresistible impression upon men and focussed their attention on the glaring evils and abuses of the time.

His Letters and Philosophiques made him popular in Europe and this popularity remained unchanged till his death in 1778.

Question 2. What do you know of Jean Jacques Rousseau ?
Answer:

Russian was a great French philosopher who prepared the mental climate for the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. In his epoch-making work, The Social Contract, published in 1762, he summarizes his ideas on social and political organisation.

He holds that the State owes its origin to the contact of people among themselves, and so its Government should be the expression of the general will of the people. His insistence on the rights of the people was a stout blow to the prevailing autocratic system of Government and his book soon became the gospel of democracy.

WB Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 3. Name some French thinkers who influenced the French Revolution.
Answer:

Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot, Quesnay, D’Alembert, and Turgot were some of the thinkers who influenced the French Revolution.

Question 4. Who were the Physiocrats?
Answer:

The idea of enlightenment also influenced the economic thoughts of the time. In France there arose a new school of economists known as Physiocrats who attached the prevalent mercantile system with the insistence of the State control over trade and commerce. Their slogan was laissez-faire or let alone.

Question 5. Name some of the Enlightened Despots of Europe in the second half of the 18th century.
Answer:

Frederick 2 of Prussia, Catherine II of Russia, Maria Theresa Joseph 2 of Austria and Charles 3 of Spain.

Joseph 2 of Austria is considered the best of the Enlightened Despots.

Question 6. What was the condition of France on the eve of the Revolution?
Answer:

France on the eve of the Revolution was decadent and devastated. Fler’s military prestige was shattered when she was crushed in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). The disaster caused the loss of her colonies, loss of her trade and almost irreparable damage to her finances.

The French monarchy which owed its strength to the military glory it had given to the nation, became discredited. Murmurs of discontent became increasingly vocal and the monarchical organisation of France became the target of bitter criticism.

Question 7. What were the causes of the initial success of the French Revolution?
Answer:

Most of the Governments of Central Europe were hopelessly decadent. Germany’s two leading powers, Austria and Prussia, were generally enemies and always rivals. Italy was a country always divided against itself.

Besides, three of the chief continental monarchs (Russia, Austria and Prussia) had their eyes fixed more upon the plunder obtainable in Poland than on the rush of the events in France. This, to a large extent, contributed to the initial success of the French Revolution.

WB Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 8. Why was the relationship between the lord and the vassal an anachronism in France?
Answer:

In France, the feudal system had become worn out and defective and feudal privileges had outlived the duties which had gone hand in hand with them. Hence the feudal rights were more irritating in France because, in return for them, the French nobles owed no duty to their tenants. So the relationship between the lord and the vassal in France was an anachronism.

Question 9. What part did the serfs and peasants take in the French Revolution?
Answer:

In France, the peasants or serfs were under the influence of the middle-class leaders imbued with new and progressive ideas and they actively participated in the Revolution.

Question 10. What was the main difference between the privileged and unprivileged classes on the eve of the French Revolution, 1789?
Answer:

The privileged class enjoyed a total or partial exemption from taxation and had also the monopoly of honours and emoluments. On the other hand, the Third Estate practically bore the whole burden of taxation and was sometimes excluded from all places of authority.

The differential treatment accorded to the two classes may be summed up in these words: The privileged classes had rights but were free from obligations, whereas the unprivileged classes had no rights but were saddled with galling obligations.

Question 11. What was the main cause of the Revolution?
Answer:

The financial question was the main cause of the Revolution. The revolution was precipitated by the economic factor, the train which had been laid by philosophy was firmed by finance.

Class 9 History West Bengal Board

Question 12. How far was Louis XVI responsible for the French Revolution?
Answer:

Louis 14, though well-intentioned, was weak-willed and irresolute. He sincerely desired to introduce necessary reforms but failed because did not have the gift to overcome the obstinate resistance of the privileged classes whose vested interests were threatened by any scheme of reform.

Question 13. What foreign ideas did influence the French people on the eve of the Revolution of 1789?
Answer:

The flow of ideas which directed French people towards the Revolution was composed of two streams—one English the other American. The intellectual antecedents of the French Revolution were largely derived from English inspiration. The philosophy of John Locke and the example of the English Revolution of 1688 were influential factors discrediting the Regime in France.

Question 14. Why did Louis XVI summon the States General? When did it meet?
Answer:

Louis 16 was compelled to summon the States General to meet the financial difficulty. The States General met on May 5, 1789.

Question 15. What was the nature and composition of the States General?
Answer:

The States General or the Feudal Parliament of France was a three-chambered body composed of the elected representatives of the three orders or ‘estates’- the clergy, the nobles and the commons or the Third Estate.

In 1789, when the States-General met after 176 years the Third Estate was allowed to send as many members as the two other orders combined. However, the voting rights were to be by orders and not by individuals. So the privileged orders were sure to win the game.

Question 16. What were the demands of the Third Estate about the system of voting in the States General? Or, What was the procedure of voting at the States General? What changes were brought into it at the Constituent Assembly?
Answer:

The Third Estate demanded that the three orders were to meet as a single Chamber in the States General in which each individual should have one vote. As the Third Estate had been permitted to send twice as many members as either the clergy or the nobility, the substitution of individual votes for a vote by order meant the transfer of votes from the privileged classes to the commons.

So the nobility and the clergy offered a stubborn resistance but the commons remained firm. At last, after much contention, the Third Estate took the momentous decision of declaring itself the National Assembly on June 17, 1789.

Question 17. Who was Marie Antoinette? Why was she hated by the people of France?
Answer:

French Emperor Louis 16’s dominating Queen Marie Antoinette was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria. She was beautiful and gracious, but strong, willful and intriguing.

She lavished public money on her friends and amusements. Huge estates and pensions were conferred on her worthless friends. For this, she became the most hated member of the royal family.

Question 18. What was Bastille? When was it stormed? What was its significance?
Answer:

The Bastille was the State prison in France. It was stormed by the populace of Paris on July 14, 1789. The fall of Bastille was everywhere regarded in France as a triumph of liberty and produced widespread enthusiasm.

Question 19. What is the Tennis Court Oath?
Answer: When the Third Estate declared the States General as a National Assembly and arrogated to itself the right of granting proposals for taxation and recasting the Constitution, Louis XVI closed the doors of the Assembly on June 20, 1789. The deputies of the Third Estate found the gates of the hall of their meeting place closed by the royal order.

Indignation ran high among the deputies of the Assembly. At the suggestion of Dr Guillotine, the deputies assembled at the nearby Tennis Court and took the famous Tennis Court Oath of 1789. By this Oath, the members of the National Assembly promised not to separate till they had drawn up a Constitution for France and established it on a firm foundation

Class 9 History West Bengal Board

Question 20. What do you know of the rising of the Communes?
Answer:

Following the Parisian Revolution, every city and country township was seized with revolutionary zeal. In every town, National Guards were elected. The whole administration was grabbed by the municipalities. The municipalities formed compacts with one another so that France became a federation of communes and the royal authority may vanish.

Question 21. How did the Constituent Assembly of France meet?
Answer:

Having destroyed the feudal privileges of the nobles as well as the old Constitution, the National Assembly set about framing the future Constitution of France. Henceforth, the body came to be known as the Constituent Assembly and its chief work was the making of the Constitution.

Question 22. When was the first Constitution of revolutionary France framed? Who took the leading part in framing it?
Answer:

The Constituent Assembly of France worked out a Constitution which was finally adopted in 1791. By it, France was to be governed by a king and a Parliament known as the Legislative Assembly. Mirabeau took the leading part in framing this Constitution.

Question 23. What were the basic principles of the new Constitution of France? Or, When was the Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen adopted?
Answer:

The Assembly in imitation of the American usage formulated the principle on which the new Constitution of France was to be based. These were enshrined in the famous ‘Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, which proclaimed “Men are born free and remain free and are equal in rights”, and the sovereignty resides in the people.

The Declaration was adopted on August 26, 1789, to protect the liberty of the nation against the crown and its ministers.

Question 24. What was the Civil Constitution of the clergy?
Answer:

By the Civil Constitution of the clergy, the old dioceses were abolished and each of the new departments or provinces was made a bishopric. Bishops and priests were to be elected by popular vote and were to be paid by the State. The Pope lost all his authority over the clergy and the clergy were turned into so many salaried State officials.

Question 25. What do you know of Mirabeau?
Answer:

A noble by birth, Mirabeau was rejected by his order but he was elected to the States General by the Third Estate and threw himself, heart and soul, into the revolutionary movement. He was the only practical statesman of the day. He wanted to harmonize Monarchy and the Revolution. But he died in 1791 and with him perished the greatest man of the revolutionary epoch and the last hope of the French Monarchy.

Class 9 History West Bengal Board

Question 26. What do you know of the Jacobin Club?
Answer:

The Jacobin club was at first moderate and offered a meeting place for the Constitutional and educational elements. But with the progress of the revolution, it became more and more radical, especially with the ascendency of Robespierre as the leader. The Jacobin club had its daughter societies spread all over France and soon it developed into a great power of organisation and concerted action.

Question 27. What do you know of the Girondists?
Answer:

The Girondists, so-called from the district from which many of their leaders come, were moderate Republicans. They were a group of eloquent youngmen, sincerely enthusiastic about establishing a republic in France. But they were quite unpractical in their conduct Theirs was their leader.

Question 28. What is the Declaration of Pillnitz?
Answer:

The Declaration of Pillnitz issued on August 27, 1791, declared that the cause of the French King was the cause of all the monarchs of Europe and expressed the willingness of Austria and Prussia to undertake armed intervention if other monarchs of Europe would join them.

Question 29. When was the first coalition against France organised? How many coalitions were formed against France at this time?
Answer:

In 1793, the European powers formed the first coalition against France. Its members were England, Holland, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia and Spain. Four coalitions were formed against France in this period.

Question30. What do you know of the Reign of Terror?
Answer:

With the expulsion of the Girondists from the Convention, leaders of the moderate republican party disappeared from the Assembly and the phase of the Revolution, known as the Reign of Terror began under Jacobin It was the darkest and the most terrible period of the Revolution. It lasted from June 2, 1793, to July 1794. Robespierre became virtually the dictator of France during the period.

Question 31. What was the chief machinery of the Reign of Terror?
Answer:

The chief machinery of the Reign of Terror was:

(1) The Committee of Public Safety;
(2) The Law of Suspects;
(3) The Revolutionary Tribunal and
(4) The Square of Revolution.

Question 32. Name some of the prominent persons who were guillotined during the period of the Reign of Terror.
Answer:

The most prominent victims of the Reign of Terror were Marie Antoinette, the captive queen, Madam Roland, the guiding spirit of the Girondists, the Duke of Orleans, Danton, etc.

WBBSE Class 9 History Chapter 1 Questions And Answers

 Question 33. What do you know of Danton?
Answer:

Danton was one of the ablest leaders of the first period of the French Revolution. It was only owing to his splendid energy that France was saved from the Prussian invasion in 1792 and got a strong Government In the very end he protested against needless severity in France and the reckless policy which branded and armed the whole of Europe against her. With his fall France lost a statesman who could possibly have dominated the course of events.

Question 34. What do you know of Robespierre?
Answer:

Though not the author of the Reign of Terror, Robespierre was undoubtedly the most active promoter of it. His great ambition was to set up a reign of virtue, through the medium of democracy and he regarded terror as the best means of establishing it. But at last, the opposition was organised against Robespierre and the Convention outlawed him and his adherents. They were arrested on July 27, 1794, and Robespierre was executed the very next day.

Question 35. Who were the Physiocrats? Who propounded the new economic idea?
Answer:

The ideas of enlightenment also influenced the economic thoughts of that time. In France there arose a new school of economics known as the Physiocrats who attached the prevailing mercantile system with the insistence on the state control of trade and commerce.

Their slogan was laissez-faire or let alone. In other words, they pleaded for the non-interference of the state with trade and commerce, which they held, should be lent to the free operation of economic laws. Quesnay was the originator of this new idea.

Question 36. How many divisions wass French society divided when the French Revolution began?
Answer:

French society was divided into two classes. The privileged and the unprivileged. The privileged class included the nobility and the higher clergy and the unprivileged class included the bourgeoisie or the middle-class citizens, the labourers and the peasants. They formed what was called the Third Estate.

Question 37. What do you know of the Cordelier Club?
Answer: The Cordelier Club, led by Danton, was radical from the very beginning. Its members were recruited from the lower orders of society, so it was the hotbed republicanism.

Question 38. What was the nature of monarchy in France before the outbreak of the French Revolution?
Answer:

The despotic monarchy prevailed in France before the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. The French monarchs believed in the divine right of kingship and regarded themselves to be the representatives of God on earth. He did not consider himself responsible to anybody for his actions and ruled willfully. His word was the law of the country.

Question 39. Who was Turgot?
Answer:

Turgot was appointed by Louis XVI to the post of Finance Minister to improve the economic condition of France. He wanted to minimise the state expenses and so he chalked out a detailed programme to improve the economic condition of France. He also intended to impose taxes on the priests and the nobles who were exempted from all sorts of taxes. He was opposed by the queen and the nobles and was removed from his office.

Question40. Who was Necker?
Answer: Necker was the second finance minister appointed by Louis XVI to improve the economic condition of France. At that time, due to the participation of France in the American War of Independence, the treasury of France became empty. Necker proposed equal taxation on all classes to fill the treasury. Queen Antoinette criticised him as a miser and the King removed him from his office due to the excessive influence of the Queen.

WBBSE Class 9 History Chapter 1 Questions And Answers

Question 41. Who was Calonne?
Answer:

Calonne was appointed by Louis XVI to the office of Finance Minister after Necker was removed. Calonne did not wish to displease the King’s family. So he took huge loans to compensate for the deficit of the royal treasury. Soon he realised that the Government could not work based on his policy so he called a meeting of the Assembly of Notables and the King accepted his proposal.

Question 42. Who was Brienne? ‘
Answer:

Louis 16, the king of France, appointed Brienne as his Finance Minister. He did not succeed in solving the economic problems in France. He proposed some new taxes which were opposed by the Parliament of Paris.

Question 43. Why was the treasury of France empty when Louis 16 ascended the throne of France?
Answer:

Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France. Along with this was the constant cost of maintaining an extravagant court at Versailles. So, the treasury of France was almost empty when Louis 16 ascended the throne of France.

Question 44. How did the American War of Independence affect France’s debt situation?
Answer:

The French Government supported the thirteen colonies of America in their war of independence against Great Britain. This added more than one billion lives (units of currency in France) to the national debt which increased to more than two billion lives with interest

Question 45. What was the ‘Assembly of Notables’?
Answer:

The Assembly of Notables was the assembly of the nobles, priests and magistrates who were appointed by the King himself. The Assembly lacked the representation of the general public because all the members were appointed by the King.

Question 46. What was the ‘States-General’?
Answer:

The ‘States-Gsneral’ was a political and legislative body to which the three estates of French society sent their representatives. In France during the Old Regime, the king did not have the power to impose taxes. Rather he had to call a meeting of the States-General to pass the proposals for new taxes.

Question 47. Who was John Locke?
Answer:

John Locke was a popular and progressive French philosopher who prepared the mental atmosphere for the outbreak of the French Revolution. He refuted the doctrine of the divine and the absolute right of the monarch in his book ‘Two Treatises of Government’.

 Question 48. What was the significance of the fall of the Bastille?
Answer:

(1) The fall of the Bastille (14 July 1789) proved that the king had no longer any control over Paris, France’s capital
(2) The attack and destruction of the Bastille was a moral victory for the people of France over the autocratic monarchy.
(3) It was a victory of liberal values over the absolute monarchy.
(4) It created an atmosphere of horror and terror among the absolute monarchs of Europe.

Question 49. Differentiate between active and passive citizens of France.
Answer:

Men who were above 25 years of age and who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a labourer’s wage were given the status of active citizens and they had the right to vote. The remaining men and women of France who could not fulfil the above criteria and did not have the right to cast their vote were called passive citizens.

Question 50. Which estates of the French society gained from the Constitution of 1791? Which estates were dissatisfied and why?
Answer:

Members of the Third Estate of French society gained from the Constitution of 1791. Members of the First and Second Estate were dissatisfied because their privileges were abolished and instead they had to pay taxes in proportion to their means.

Question 51. What do you mean by ‘Cahiers’?
Answer:

All the delegates who came from different parts of France to attend the session of the States-Gsneral in the grand hall of the Royal Palace of Versailles on 5 May 1789 brought with them their complaints, memorandums and demands of their respective areas. These were known as Cahiers.

Question 52. What were the different political parties in the National Convention?
Answer:

The four different political parties in the National Convention were :

(1) The Constitutionalists,
(2) The Girondins,
(3) The Jacobins and
(4) The Moderates.

Question 53. Which incident is known as the ‘Second French Revolution’?
Answer:

On the morning of 10 August 1792, the members of the Jacobin Club stormed the Palace of Tuileries, massacred the king’s guards and held the king hostage for several hours. Later, they voted to imprison the king’s family. The dethronement of the king virtually made France a ‘Republic’. Historians have called this incident of 10 August 1792 the ‘Second French Revolution’.

WBBSE Class 9 History Chapter 1 Questions And Answers

Question 54. Who were the members of the Jacobin Club?
Answer:

The members of the Jacobin Club were from poor classes. They included small shopkeepers, artisans like shoemakers, watchmakers, pastry cooks and daily wage earners.

Question 55. Why were the Jacobins so named?
Answer:

The members of the old Breton Club began to hold their meetings in the • church named ‘Jacob’. The members of this club came to be called the Jacobins.

Question 56. Who were the Girondins?
Answer:

The Girondins, one of the four political parties in the National Convention, played a prominent role in the French Revolution. The significant leaders of the party were Brissot, Condorcet, Petain and Madam Rolland and their chief aim was to establish a republican form of Government in France. Though they were staunch revolutionaries, they did not support violence, lawlessness and anarchy.

Question 57. Describe the incident of the storming of the Palace of Tuileries.
Answer:

On the morning of 10 August 1792, the members of the Jacobin Club stormed the Palace of Tuileries, massacred the king’s guards and held the king hostage for several hours. Later, they voted to imprison the king’s family.

Question 58. Why was the Reign of Terror introduced?
Answer:

On 21 January 1793 when King Louis XVI of France was executed, there were outbursts of rebellion from the king’s supporters. Besides, monarchical countries such as Britain, Holland, Prussia and Austria formed a coalition and declared war against the republican Government of France.

The National Convention tried to protect the country from internal threats and external aggression by setting up an emergency Government and following a strategy of terror where all opposition was ruthlessly suppressed. This period from September 5, 1793 – July 27, 1794, is called the Reign of Terror.

Question 59. What was the ‘Thermidorian Reaction’?
Answer:

The reaction which took place in France after the death of Robespierre, the leader of the Reign of Terror, is known as the ‘Thermidorian Reaction’. By this time the terrorists were put to death and the Reign of Terror and Paris Commune were dissolved.

All the subordinate machinery of the Reign of Terror was abolished. The prisoners whose guilt was in doubt were released and the National Guards were reorganised. All this stemmed from the reaction of the middle class.

WBBSE Class 9 History Chapter 1 Questions And Answers

Question 60. What was Tipu Sultan’s relationship with the Jacobin Club?
Answer:

The Jacobin Club, the largest and most powerful political club of the French f Revolution, had an Indian ruler, Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore, among its associates. He was the founder-member of the Jacobin club in India.

He actively supported the proposal of the French soldiers at Seringapatam to set up a Jacobin club in 1797 and when it was established, he ordered a salute of 2300 cannons and 500 rockets to celebrate the occasion.

Question 61. What was the Brunswick Manifesto?
Answer:

King Louis XVI tried to restore the monarchy in France with foreign help. When the Parisian mob attacked the Tuileries Palace and humiliated the king, the king tried to flee to Austria along with his wife.

In August 1792, the Duke of Brunswick, the general appointed by the Austro-Prussian Government, issued a manifesto and warned France that any injury or insult to any member of the royal family would be severely dealt with. This is known as the Brunswick Manifesto.

Question 62. What was the Directory? Why was it dismissed?
Answer:

After the fall of the Jacobins, a new Constitution was formed that denied the right to vote to citizens without property. It provided two Legislative Councils which appointed a Directory with five members. However, the Directors often clashed with the Legislative Councils and were finally dismissed. Political instability resulted which led to the rise of a military dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Question 63. What laws were made to improve the status of women in French society?
Answer:

The revolutionary Government in France introduced some laws to improve the lives of women in France.

(1) Schooling was made compulsory for all girls.
(2) Women could be trained for jobs, could run small businesses or become artists.
(3) Fathers could no longer force their daughters to marry against their will.
(4) Divorce was made legal and could be applied for by both men and women.

Some Aspects of the French Revolution 4 Marks Questions & Answers

Question 1. What do you mean by ‘ancient regime’?
Answer:

The term ‘ancient regime’ (old system) is used to describe the conservative society and institutions of France before the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1789. Before the revolution, France was ruled by the autocrats of the Bourbon dynasty. They believed in autocratic rule, centralised administration, inherited privilege of the nobility, exploitation of commoners and the support of corrupt churches, etc. The rights of the king were absolute.

He was not accountable to the nobility, the church or any institution of the state. All these were the features of the ‘ancient regime’. The ‘ancient regime’ was thus based on a medieval social structure. The French Revolution marked the end of the ‘ancient regime’.

Question 2. How far were the Bourbon monarchs responsible for the outbreak of the French Revolution?
Answer:

France was ruled by the Bourbon dynasty at the time of the French Revolution. The Bourbon monarchs believed in an absolute monarchy. There was, however, the States-General which was a representative assembly but its session was never summoned after 1614. Louis 14 carried the autocracy of the French monarchy to the highest pitch by declaring that the state, is itself.

The next king, Louis 15, enforced arbitrary legislation and involved France in foreign wars at his whims. The next king, Louis 16, was fickle-minded and failed to introduce necessary reforms. He failed to control corruption or remove the privileges of the aristocracy. Thus the Bourbon monarchs were responsible for the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Question 3. What was the role of Voltaire in the outbreak of the French Revolution?
Answer:

Voltaire was one of the most important French philosophers who played a very significant role in the outbreak of the French Revolution. He wrote satirical articles against the evils and defects of the French Government. He was twice imprisoned for his satirical writings. He rejected the supremacy of the church outright and held the clergy responsible for spreading blind faith among the people.

He protested against the corrupt and luxurious life of the clergy and denounced the church as an ‘infamous thing’. He was against the religious dogmas of the priests. He vehemently criticised all kinds of oppression, exploitation, blind beliefs and evil practices. He was an advocate of individual freedom.

WBBSE Class 9 History Chapter 1 Questions And Answers

Question 4. Who was Diderot?
Answer:

Diderot was an important philosopher of France who contributed greatly to the outbreak of the French Revolution. He violently opposed all ancient institutions. In 1792, he edited an Encyclopaedia which had twelve volumes. Between 1751 and 1772 seventeen editions of this book were published.

This encyclopaedia gave birth to rationalism in France. He attacked the king’s autocracy, the privileges of the nobility and the church, the defective tax system, the slave system and the blind faith of the French people. He was imprisoned by the French Government because of his fearless thoughts and writings.

Question 5. How did the economic thinkers criticize the economic policy of the French Government?
Answer: The. economic thinkers of France criticized the economic policy of the French Government. They came out with new economic ideas. Economic thinkers like the physiocrats strongly criticized the mercantile doctrine and advocated free trade, free enterprise, and privatization of trade and industry.

Quesnay, the most outstanding of the physiocrats, and his professor Adam Smith were the spokesmen of the doctrine of free trade (Laissez-faire) and the removal of state control so far prevalent in the field of trade and commerce. They came forward with a rational exposition of economic laws.

Question 6. What was the influence of the Glorious Revolution and the American War of Independence on the outbreak of the French Revolution?
Answer:

The constitutional monarchy and the sovereignty of the people that were established in England by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deeply inspired the French. In addition, the American War of Independence also influenced the French. The war of independence continued for eight years from 1775 to 1783.

France took part in it to help America and crush England, its old enemy. France’s participation proved very harmful for France itself because it caused a severe financial blow to France. The French soldiers who took part in the war returned to their own country after the end of the war and brought back revolutionary thoughts.

The people of France realised that no reform would be effective in France as long as the nobles and priests were present in the country. They lost faith in the administrative machinery for bringing about a change. So they resorted to revolution.

Question 7. Who were the ‘sans-culottes’?
Answer:

The ‘sans-culottes’ belonged to the third estate of French society. They included small shopkeepers, artisans such as pastry cooks, shoemakers, printers, watchmakers as well as daily wage-earners and servants. They used to wear long-striped trousers.

This was to differentiate them from the fashionable groups in French society, especially nobles who wore knee breeches. They wore, in addition, the red cap that symbolised liberty. Food riots were started by them. On 10 August 1792, they attacked and entered the Royal Palace at Tuileries.

Question 8. What was the position of the bourgeoisie in French society?
Answer:

French society was divided into two classes :

(1) The privileged and

(2) The unprivileged. The ‘bourgeoisie’ belonged to the unprivileged class. The bourgeoisie or the middle class was rich and consisted of physicians, lawyers, philosophers and professors. Heavy taxes were levied on them by the Government but they did not enjoy any privileges such as those enjoyed by the aristocracy. They were not appointed to any high posts despite their capability and so they were discontented. They were determined to go to any extreme limit to bring liberty and equality in society and the way they chose was to bring down the aristocratic privileges. The French Revolution was really led by the bourgeoisie because it was they who organised the people and inspired them to revolt.

Question9. What was the ‘Tennis Court Oath’?
Answer:

The States-Gsneral, an assembly that drafted and passed legislation in France, was summoned by Louis XVI on 12 June 1789. The conflict started with the voting system of the States-Gsneral. The nobles and the priests wanted voting by order while the members of the Third Estate demanded that votes should be counted individually and the States-Gen era I should be recognised as the National Assembly of France.

On 20 June 1789, the king closed the meeting room of the Third Estate and posted armed soldiers at the entrance. When the representatives of the Third Estate reached the meeting hall, they were stunned to see the doors shut. So they ’assembled at the nearby tennis court and took an oath not to move from there until they had prepared a new constitution for the country. At last, the king agreed to the proposal of one vote per head.

Question 10. What rumour spread in Paris on the morning of 14 July 1789? What was the reaction of the people?
Answer:

On the morning of 14 July 1789, rumours spread among the people that the king would soon order his army to open fire upon the citizens. As a result, about 7000 men and women gathered in front of the town hall and decided to form a people’s militia. A group of several hundred people marched towards the eastern part of the city of Paris and stormed the fortress prison, the Bastille in the hope of finding hoarded ammunition.

Question 11. Give an account of King Louis XVI’s attempt to escape from France.
Answer:

Mirabeau, the ablest leader in the National Assembly, had a good relationship with King Louis 16. Mirabeau died in 1791 and the king became very perturbed. In the meantime, other European monarchs were preparing to attack France. Louis 16, to reestablish autocracy in France, tried to escape to Austria along with his family on the night of 21 June 1791.

Class 9 History Question Answer

Question 12. How did the French Constituent Assembly limit the powers of the king?
Answer:

The Constituent Assembly declared France to be a constitutional monarchy.

(1) The king lost his divine right of kingship. He was treated as the ‘first servant of the state’ and became a salaried head of the state.

(2) He became the head of the administrative or executive department according to the doctrine of separation of powers.

(3) He did not have any power to wage war or to make treaties with any country.

(4) He lost control over the provincial Governments as well.

Question 13. What was said in the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen’?
Answer:

On 26 August 1789, the French Constituent Assembly drew up a ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen’. It said :

(1) All men are born free, remain free and have equal rights.

(2) All citizens are equal in the eyes of the law.

(3) The source of all sovereignty resides in the nation.

(4) Liberty consists of the power to do whatever is not injurious to others.

(5) property right is a sacred law. The property of any person cannot be usurped without payment of proper compensation.

(6) Rights consist of expressing a free opinion, freedom of the individual and freedom of religious belief.

(7) No individual shall exploit others. (8) No one can be arrested or imprisoned by the police unless proven guilty in the eyes of the law. In short, the declaration emphasized the three basic principles of the French Revolution-Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Question 14. When and how was the feudal system abolished in France?
Answer:

On 4 August 1789, the French Constituent Assembly issued a declaration which abolished feudalism from France. The declaration was as follows :

(1) Henceforth feudalism with all its privileges would be abolished.

(2) The feudal class would lose all its inherited social and political privileges.

(3) The church taxes like tithes and other ecclesiastical privileges were to be renounced.

(4) The serf system, all forms of feudal taxes, forced labour or corvee and manorial system were to be abolished.

Question 15. Describe the revolt of the peasants in rural France after the failure of the Bastille.
Answer:

After the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, the peasants of France who had been suffering under feudal tyranny rose in revolt. They burnt the houses of the landlords as well as the churches. They destroyed the manor houses and burnt the documents containing records of manorial dues.

Manor officials were also murdered. Manorial lands were forcibly occupied and rich peasants were driven out. There were rumours that the landlords of the manors had hired people to destroy the ripened crops.

This caused panic among the peasants who attacked the castles of noblemen. They looted hoarded grains from the market As a result a large number of nobles fled their homes and migrated to neighbouring countries.

Question 16. What is the ‘September Massacre’?
Answer:

The leaders of the Jacobins including Marat and Danton began the hunt for the enemies of the French Revolution. They began to kill the royalists who were in jail. Every house was searched. Any person suspected to be a supporter of the king was at once put to death.

This massacre continued from 2 September to 6 September 1792. About 1600 people were murdered during this period. This act of murder by the Jacobins was extremely hateful and unjust

Question 17. What do you mean by ‘The Revolutionary Tribunal’ introduced during the Reign of Terror?
Answer:

One of the instruments of the Reign of Terror was the Revolutionary Tribunal. The function of the Revolutionary Tribunal was to punish persons held under the Law of Suspects. Nobody could appeal against the decision of this court. Justice was almost always denied as the judges were directed to make their decisions hastily without going deep into the case.

Question 18. Mention two leaders of the French Revolution.
Answer:

The leaders of the French Revolution mostly came from the middle classes in France. The first man who distinguished himself in the States Assembly was Comte de Mirabeau who, however, belonged to the nobility. He persuaded King Louis 16 to set up a constitutional monarchy in France.

Another distinguished leader of the early nineties was Robespierre. He played the most important part in bringing Louis XVI to trial, declaring that the king ‘must die so that the country may live’.

Class Ix History Question Answer

Question 19. What was the ‘Law of Suspects’?
Answer:

The Law of Suspects was one of the instruments through which the Committee of Public Safety executed the Reign of Terror. This law empowered the police to arrest any individual on mere suspicion of anti-revolutionary activities. The suspected persons were then sent for trial. Not one of the persons sent for trial by the Revolutionary Tribunal was declared innocent—every one of them was sent to the guillotine.

Question 20. How far were the evils of absolutism responsible for the French Revolution? Or, How the Bourbon monarchy was responsible for the French Revolution?
Answer:

The Government of France was a highly centralised monarchy. The representative institutions that France had at one time possessed, had either been destroyed or brought under King’s control. The States-Genera I (the feudal Parliament of France) had ceased to exist.

Hence the king ruled as an absolute monarch. His function was to command and that of the people was to obey. All the functions of Government being absorbed by the King required a ruler of exceptional ability to carry on the duties of the royal office. Louis XIV, whatever might have been his defects, was never wanting in assiduity and anxious care for the good of his country.

But his successor, Louis XV, was weak and frivolous, enjoying the sweets of the royal office while shirking the responsibilities attached to it. The consequences of a centralised Government under an incapable ruler soon manifested themselves. The office of governing fell to a greedy horde of courtiers, who sacrificed every interest of the State to advance their selfish ends.

To the evils of corrupt administration were added the evils of oppression. Anybody might be imprisoned by the mere issue of warrants called letters de cachet, one of the most odious features of the Old Regime. A Government at once corrupt and arbitrary could not but produce widespread discontent and the people remained in absolute silence.

Question 21. What was the condition of the third estate in France?
Answer:

Below the two privileged orders, there was the vast majority of the population called the Third Estate. It was not a homogeneous body. It comprised the bourgeoisie or the upper middle class, the artisans and the peasants.

(1) The Bourgeoisie or the upper middle class formed the well-to-do, intelligent and energetic section of the community. They were practical businessmen who had piled up wealth and secured a monopoly of municipal appointments. Conscious that they were as good as the nobles, they keenly resented the existing system under which they were made to feel in numerous ways their social inferiority. Although their interests differed from those of the other members of the Third Estate, they were a discontented class and wanted political and social reforms.

(2) The artisans and labourers, although belonging to the Third Estate, were much worse off than the bourgeoisie. They were completely at the mercy of the rich middle class which controlled commerce and industry through guilds and similar close corporations.

(3) The condition of the peasantry, which formed by far the largest section of the population, was deplorable in the extreme. The peasant had to pay rent to his feudal lord, tithes to the Church and taxes to the king. The whole burden of taxation fell with a crushing weight upon him, especially since the privileged orders were more or less exempted from taxation.

To crown his misery, he was subjected to the most galling feudal obligations. He had to submit to compulsory labour for making or repairing roads (Corvee), had to grind his corn in the lord’s mill, and had to calmly endure the sight of his young crops being trampled by his lord’s hunting party. He could not erect fences to shut out the game from the fields. In a word, what with unjust taxes, with feudal obligations, the peasant lived on the verge of disaster with starvation often staring him in the face.

Class Ix History Question Answer

Question 22. Were the bourgeoisie the makers of the French Revolution?
Answer:

The French Revolution originated with the Third Estate but there is some difference of opinion as to which of the Third Estate, the bourgeoisie or the peasantry, took the initiative in bringing about the Revolution. Some writers believe that the oppressed peasantry of France, guided by the extremity of their sufferings, was driven to make this revolution. This view, according to Prof. Hearnshaw, is not correct. He points out that the French peasants were distinctly better off than the peasants of Germany, Spain, Russia and Poland.

Their main grievance was not exclusion from political power but the disproportionately heavy burden of national taxation which they had to bear. They had no idea of participating in the affairs of the state and had neither the capacity nor the inclination for heroic action.

Hence, Hearnshaw thinks that the Revolution in its early stages was especially the work of the enlightened bourgeoisie. This class held most of the wealth of France, bore the main burden of taxation and supplied the bulk of the loans to the Government Moreover, this class suffered more directly than any other through maladministration and would be the greatest losers in the event of the threatened national bankruptcy.

Lastly, the bourgeoise formed the most educated and intelligent section of the community and had drunk deep the new ideas taught and spread by the French philosophers. Hence, it is quite natural that the revolutionary movement should originate with the enlightened bourgeoisie for this class had the greatest stake in the country and was more profoundly convinced than any other, of the injustice and anomaly of the Old Regime.

Question 23. Compare the French Revolution with the English Revolution.
Answer:

From the foregoing review of the condition of France, it will be easy to perceive that the French Revolution was quite unlike the English Revolution of the seventeenth century. The aims of the English revolutions (the Puritan Revolution of 1641 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688) were in the main political. The movement in England was directed against the illegal exercise of the royal prerogative.

It was the arbitrary power claimed and exercised by the Stuart kings on the strength of the theory of divine-right monarchy, that roused the hostility of the people and Parliament In a result, the people were satisfied when their rights and privileges were safeguarded by constitutional checks imposed upon the royal power. The motive force of the French Revolution, on the other hand, was social in the first instance and political in the second.

Long unaccustomed to self-government, the French people complained not so much of centralised despotism as of the despotism imposed on them by the existing social system. In France, the cleavage between class and class was wider than in England, and the privileged classes enjoyed exemptions and advantages wholly disproportionate to their services to the State. The result was that there existed in France invidious distinctions at once irritating and oppressive.

It was this social inequality which pinched the people most. So they wanted to abolish all privileges and throw careers open to talent. It is noteworthy that when Napoleon secured social equality the people did not grudge when he trampled down upon liberty.
Secondly, the English Revolution of 1688 was largely defensive and conservative in character.

One of its leading features is the vindication of the ancient rights of the people against the crown. The people made practical attempts to deal with these particular grievances. They did not set before them the task of framing a new constitution under the influence of new-fangled theories. Thus, there is little new in the Bill of Rights. There was no violent breach in the past.

The ancient laws were re-established and made more efficient. The French Revolution, on the other hand, was destructive in character. Intoxicated by the new ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity the French people sought to abolish the Old Regime root and branch and to bring about a new order of things.

They aimed at the wholesale reconstruction of the social and political systems on the principle of the absolute sovereignty of the people. Thus the movement was democratic while the English movement was parliamentary.

Question 24. Write a note on the Jacobin Club.
Answer:

The most conspicuous were the Jacobin Club and the Cordelier Club. These had originated at the very beginning of the Revolution but it was under the Legislative Assembly and its successor that they showed their power. The Jacobin Club was at first moderate and offered a meeting place for the constitutional and educated elements.

But, with the progress of the Revolution, it grew more and more radical, and conservative members like Lafayette and Mirabeau were dropped out or displaced. This left the room clear for the ascendency of Robespierre, a radical democrat, and he skilfully used the club as a means of binding together the radical opinion of the country.

The Jacobin Club had its daughter societies spread all over France and soon it developed great power for organisation and concerted action. It gradually became the rival of the Legislative Assembly itself, so great was its influence.

Class Ix History Question Answer

Question 25. Why did the French Monarchy collapse?
Answer:

The French people were by tradition attached to the Monarchy, and the Revolution, in the beginning, was not a republican movement. The target of the attack was not the Bourbon monarchy but privilege in all its forms. But circumstances combined first to discredit the monarchy and then to end it The intrigues of the emigres who sought to rouse Europe against the Revolution, made the king suspect For it was generally believed that their conduct was inspired by the king’s machinations.

This suspicion was heightened by the attempted flight to the king, as also by the threat of foreign intervention. The revolutionists believed, and that rightly, that the king was looking beyond the frontiers for help. The menacing manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick confirmed their suspicion. It identified the king with the enemies of the Revolution. Hence followed mob violence—the sack of the Tuileries-and the suspension of the king.

War and initial failure worsened the situation. The people realised the extreme anger which menaced the Revolution and all that it stood for. Hence a resolute minority, the Jacobins, determined to overthrow the king who served as the focus of foreign intervention. It was ‘under their pressure’ that the newly elected convention abolished kingship and set up a republic.

The foreign war was thus the immediate cause of the fall of the monarchy in France. Hence it has been remarked that the republic in France in 1792 was the result of two factors—the Prussian invasion and Parisian Jacobinism. Lastly, the weakness of Louis XVI and his wavering policy did much to bring about the collapse of the monarchy.

Question 26. Write an essay on the Girondins.
Answer:

They were a revolutionary party consisting of a group of ardent young orators, enthusiastically republican in sentiment They were so called because some of their prominent leaders were deputies representing the Department of Gironde. Their leader was Brissot, a journalist and a lawyer. In Vergniaud they had a polished and convincing orator and in Condorcet a brilliant scholar and philosopher. The inspiring genius of the party was Madame Roland whose beauty and enthusiasm made her salon the charming centre of their political discussion.

The Girondins were mostly recruited from the provinces. They were men of culture, full of noble zeal and lofty ideas but were more theorists than practical men of business. Their ardent republicanism was based upon classical models.

The Girondins were a strong party in the Legislative Assembly and soon they captured the ministry. Their policy was to consummate the Revolution by adopting a war policy. War, they thought, would expose the bad faith of the king by revealing his treasonable relations with the emigrant nobles who, from their safe position on the frontiers, were trying to seek foreign aid in order to destroy the revolution. Hence, from the first they did everything in their power to provoke a breach between France and her neighbours.

War came soon enough and the initial reverses of the French and the menacing proclamation of Brunswick led to the insurrection of the 10th of August, the deposition of the king and the summoning of the Convention to frame a new constitution for France.

The September massacre followed, which the Girondins did nothing to stop, though they denounced them later on. Henceforth the mob of Paris whose stronghold was the recently established revolutionary commune became all-powerful and dominated the course of the Revolution. The Jacobins who worked through and by the people came to the front and became the rivals of the Girondins.

In the Convention, the two parties soon fell out with one another. Both parties were republicans but they differed in methods and morality. The Girondins were more radical in thought than in deed. The Jacobins, on the other hand, were ready and determined enough to adopt extreme measures to save the Revolution. The rift between the two parties became manifest on the question of the trial of the king. The Girondins were a provincial group and so they resented the supremacy of Paris.

To the Jacobins, the domination of Paris was necessary for the organisation of the national resources in the face of foreign invasion. Thus the cleavages between the two went on widening. But the military reverses of France sealed the political doom of the Girondins. As unpractical idealists, they were unequal to the stern realities of the war and the desertion of Dumouriez to the enemy was their deathly blow, for he had been one of them.

The Girondins fell because they had not organized themselves and so could not organize France. They have been variously described as “tragic idealists” and “sentimental windbags”; but there is no doubt that they expressed with singular eloquence the high ideals of 1789 and left behind imperishable memories as they mounted the scaffold chanting the Marseillaise, until, one by one, death stilled their voices.

Question 27. Write a short note on Robespierre.
Answer: A barrister of Artois and an inflexible exponent of Rousseau’s ideas, Robespierre had skilfully kept his name before the people and became the leader of the Jacobins. He opposed the war policy of the Girondins as he was clear-sighted enough to realise that war would lead to military dictatorship. To an ardent republican like him, this prospect was alarming. In 1793 the position of Paris was extremely critical on account of the revolt of the provinces and the invasion of the allied armies, and so the Committee of Public Safety had to be reconstructed, Danton being left out and Robespierre elected. Henceforth Robespierre’s influence was supreme and he became the virtual dictator of France. His rule was signalised by the increased activity of all the machinery of Terror.

It culminated in the enactment of that infamous law of the 10th June 1794, which increased the murderous efficiency of the Revolutionary Tribunal by dispensing with the formality of proof of guilt. Robespierre hilted alike the anarchical excess and revolting atheism of the Hebertists, as well as the policy of moderation advocated by the Dantonists or Indulgents, as they were called. He sent them all to the guillotine. He next inaugurated the worship of the Supreme Being and became the arch-priest of the new religion. His general aim was to found a republic of virtue and he thought that it could be done only by Terror. Robespierre is a curious and interesting study. He was a man of virtue, a hater of women, and incorruptible in the midst of bribers and the bribed.

At the same time, he was a narrow-minded egoist and an unimaginative fanatic who took everything which Rousseau wrote. Purity in appearance and uninspiring in speech, his power was due to an honest nature, intense conviction, and sincerity of purpose.

Question 28. Write a note on the calling of the States General.
Answer:

During the years 1787 and 1788, France was undergoing a serious crisis. The han/tests were bad and brought extreme social distress. But that this would develop rapidly into a revolution was anticipated by no one. Faced with this crisis, the King consented to summon the States General on 1 May 1789, the national Parliament of France which had not met since 1614. According to old custom, each Estate had voted as a unit, and two out of the three could carry any measure.

The members of the third estate demanded that the three orders were to meet as a single chamber in which each individual should have a vote. Their deputies numbered 621 against 285 for the nobles and 308 for the clergy, giving the third estate a slight majority.

When the States-General met at Versailles on 5 May 1789, the deputies were uncertain how to proceed. No reform programme was offered to them. The king ordered the deputies to vote as three separate bodies so that nobles and clergy together would be able to outvote the third estate.

The third estate refused to yield. For five weeks they urged members of the nobility and the clergy to join them in one great assembly. The commoners’ determination soon split the clergy, some of whom crossed over to join the third estate on 15, June. Two days later this already mixed group assumed the title of the National Assembly and invited the other orders to work together for the reform of France. With this step, the constitutional history of France took a decisive turn.

On 20 June 1789 when the members of the third estate went to the assembly hall, they found the entrance blocked by soldiers. Returning to the indoor tennis court nearby they solemnly swore not to separate until they had drawn a new constitution.

The ‘Tennis Court Oath’ was the actual beginning of the French Revolution as it marked defiance of the king. On 23rd June the king announced many important reforms in finance and administration but insisted that the three orders should meet separately. The nobility, triumphant, withdrew from the hall. But the third estate remained in gloomy silence.

Question 29. What was the immediate cause of the French Revolution?
Answer:

Immediate cause: The States General and the Tennis Court Oath :

Unable to face the financial crisis, Louis XVI was forced to summon the States General of France in 1789 which had not met for 175 years. Necker, who was earlier dismissed was recalled to head the ministry. The States General attempted to put an end to the arbitrary rule of the king.

Louis tried to abolish it and blocked its way to the meeting with soldiers. Thereupon, the members gathered in the adjoining tennis court and took the famous Tennis Court Oath, never to separate until the Constitution of the kingdom was established. In the Royal Session of June 23, the king ordered the Third Estate to withdraw. The Third Estate proclaimed itself the National Assembly.

Dismissal of Necker and the storming of the Bastille: On July 11, Necker was dismissed. The next day Paris flew to arms. On July 14, 1789, the Bastille was stormed by a mob. Thus began the French Revolution that involved Europe for 23 years of warfare, which was only to terminate with the fall of Napoleon.

Question 30. Make a critical estimate of the National Assembly during the French Revolution.
Answer:

(1) Criticism :
The new Constitution did not work well and did not last long. The king’s Veto, although not strong enough to protect aim was enough to irritate the legislature, if used.

(2) Estimate: The work of reform carried out by the National Constituent Assembly was on an enormous scale. Much of its constructive work, however, proved very weak. The members of the Constituent Assembly were guided more by logic and abstract principles than by knowledge and insight. Hence many of them were speedily destroyed. The Constitution, as framed by them, had serious defects. It showed a fatal distrust of executive authority.

The power left to the king was too weak to be efficient. The executive and the legislature were so sharply separated that communication between the king’s ministers and the representatives of the people was well-high impossible. Hence much room was left for mutual suspicion, and in case of divergence of aims, a deadlock or a revolution might be ensured. Secondly, the franchise was limited by property qualification.

This went against the principle of equality so grandiloquently proclaimed by the Declaration of Rights. The plan of a unicameral legislature and the system of election was in case judges proved unsatisfactory and had to be given up before long. But no error of the Constituent Assembly was so disastrous into effect as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. It produced a schism in the church and divided the people of France in their attitude towards the Revolution.

A large number of lower clergy who had greatly favoured the Revolution so far now turned against it for conscience’s sake. The seeds of division were sown and they produced civil war before long. Secondly, it estranged the King who had accepted the Revolution, although very reluctantly. The religious fibre in his nature was very strong and the denunciation of the Civil Constitution by the Pope made him very uneasy.

Notwithstanding these defects, the work of the Assembly was not a complete failure. The most abiding part of its work was the sweeping away of the old social system of privilege and inequality and the partial building up of a new social order based upon equality. Secondly, the department which it created to supersede the old provinces proved permanent and salutary. Provincial privileges and local traditions were swept away and this made for national unity.

Question 31. What were the efforts of Turgot Land Necker to improve finances?
Answer:

When France faced an acute financial crisis Louis XVI appointed Turgot to improve the country’s finances. Turgot adopted two strong measures to better the economic condition. Firstly he sought to affect the national economy and to develop public wealth to double the receipts.

He took steps to suppress useless expenditures and introduced free trade in corn by removing all customs barriers to internal commerce. Secondly, he also abolished trade guilds. These guilds restricted protection by limiting the number of workers in each line. Turgot’s measures had good results and promoted both the production and exchange of wealth.

Turgot did away with corvee and also special land tax payable by all proprietors was proposed to be substituted in its place. All these measures, if effectively carried out, would have made the taxation burden on the rich and the poor

at least equal. But Turgot met with fierce opposition from the nobles and courtiers, for the measures meant the curtailment of their privileges and some outdated rights. The nobles clamoured for Turgot’s dismissal. Louis 16 had to yield to their demand when it was forcefully backed by the Queen. After Turgot came to Necker, a Genevan banker, as the Director of Finance. But he had also to go because his measures were against the wishes and interests of the nobles and the courtiers.

It was nothing but the weakness of Louis 16 because of which two good financiers failed to improve the fast-deteriorating economy of France. Due to his weakness and unstable nature, the King failed to adapt himself to the needs of the time. He lacked the quality to take firm decisions on measures which could steer clear the ship of the French economy of the impending disaster.

Question 32. Critically estimate the achievements of the convention.
 Answer:

(1) Achievements of the Convention: Even amid the Terror, the Convention found time to make many significant contributions to the progress of revolutionary France. It introduced many social, political and religious reforms and paved the way for further necessary reforms. Its educational reforms are especially noteworthy.

Certain famous institutions were created such as the National School, the Polytechnic School, the Law and Medical School of Paris, the Consent/storey of Arts and Crafts, the National Archives, the Museum of Louvre, the National Library and the Institute.

Another achievement of the Convention was the framing of a new Constitution for France. The policy of the Convention following the Reign of Terror came to be summed up in the cry, “Death to the Terror and the Monarchy”. With this end in view, the Convention drew up a new Constitution, the third in six years.

The Constitution of 1795 was eminently the result of experience, not of abstract theorising. It established a bourgeois republic, as the Constitution of 1795 had established a bourgeois monarchy. The Republic was, therefore, in the hands of a privileged class, property being the privilege.

(2) Estimate: On October 26, 1795, the Convention declared itself dissolved. The Convention despite the notoriety on account of the Reign of Terror did imperishable service to civilisation. In the words of Hazen, “The Republic had its glorious trophies, its honourable records, from which later times were to derive inspiration and instruction.”

Question 33. Why did the French Revolution break out in France only and not in any other country?
Answer:

Different historians have put forward different theories as to why the Revolution broke out in France and not in any other country. However, it is possible to find out some common factors which made the Revolution in France inevitable.

(1) The miserable economic condition of the people of France and the poor management of finances by the Government of France contributed to the outbreak of the Revolution in France. The tottering economic structure of France was a very important cause for the outbreak of the Revolution.

(2) The burden of tax on the common people was much higher than anywhere else in Europe. So the intensity of discontent was much higher among the peasants in France than in other parts of Europe.

(3) The feudal system in France became worn out. In different European countries, feudal lords enjoyed privileges and performed their duties but in France, the feudal lords enjoyed rights and privileges without rendering any services to the king. The French people resented this system of unequal privileges and wanted to do away with this inequality in society.

(4) Backward agricultural and industrial conditions in France resulted in production which led to an excessive rise in food prices. This made the people of France burst into rebellion.

(5) The presence of the French philosophers who resented the privileges of the nobles and the absolutism of the French monarchy contributed to the outbreak of the Revolution only in France.

(6) Unlike in other countries, France had an enlightened middle class. It was they who organized the people and taught them to revolt.

Question 34. Describe the social structure of France before the outbreak of the French Revolution. 
Answer:

Before the outbreak of the French Revolution, the society in France was based on a medieval structure. Society was divided into three estates :

(1) First Estate: The clergy belonged to the First Estate. They enjoyed certain privileges by birth. They were exempted from paying taxes to the state. They owned 10%-15% of all the land in France. The corrupt lifestyle of the clergy was reflected in its attempts to impose mortuary fees, marriage fees and succession fees.

(2) Second Estate: The Second Estate in France was composed of the French aristocracy and the landed class. They were also exempted from paying taxes. They enjoyed a large part of landed resources in the countryside.

(3) Third Estate: About 90% of the population of the Third Estate were peasants. They had to work in the fields of their landlords as well as in their houses. They had to pay direct taxes like taille and also several indirect taxes like capitation, victims and so on. They also had to pay taxes on articles of everyday use. The Third Estate was the most exploited social class in 18th-century France.

Question 35. What were the two main classes into which French society was divided? Describe them.
Answer:

French society was divided into two main classes :

(1) the privileged and

(2) the unprivileged. The privileged class comprised the nobles, feudal lords and the higher clergy. They enjoyed all rights and privileges. All important posts were reserved for them. Apart from high posts in the administration, the sons of the nobles were appointed to lucrative posts in the church. They used to collect various taxes from the commoners while they were free from all sorts of taxation. They led a life of pleasure, luxury and immorality.

The unprivileged class consisted of peasants, tenants, labourers, artisans, small traders and shopkeepers. They were not given any privileges like the nobles. They had to pay taxes and were not appointed to any lucrative posts. The revenue collectors tortured them severely. In case of non-payment of dues, the revenue staff used to torture them. They were greatly discontented with the prevailing system of Government and the social system.

Question 36. “France was a museum of economic errors”. Discuss. Or, What were the economic causes of the outbreak of the French Revolution?
Answer:

The economic structure of France was one of the causes of the French Revolution.

(1) Louis 16, the ruler of France, drained the resources of the nation in successive wars.

(2) Due to the rise of population in France there was more demand for foodgrains. So the price of food soared and the poor could not afford to buy food. So the gap between the rich and the poor widened.

(3) There was a discriminatory tax system in France. The privileged class or the wealthier section of society paid no tax to the Government On the other hand, the unprivileged class had to bear the burden of taxation.

Only 4% of the total revenue collected by the Government was paid by the privileged class and 96% was paid by the unprivileged class. The Third Estate had to pay different kinds of taxes like taille (land tax), capitation (production tax), vingtiemes (income tax), glabella (salt tax), the tithe (religious tax), corvee (labour tax), aides (tax on wine, tobacco), and so on.

(4) Moreover, the method of realising the revenue was also faulty. The revenue was collected by the contractors who used to realise more than what was due from the farmers but they deposited in the royal treasury only a part of it and thus appropriated a good amount for their use. Thus whereas the peasants were exploited, the royal treasury was also being looted by the revenue officers. Due to the faulty economic structure of France, Adam Smith has remarked, “France was a museum of economic errors.”

Question 37. Describe the discriminatory tax system in France before the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Answer:

Before the outbreak of the French Revolution, French society was divided into two classes—the privileged and the non-privileged. The privileged class or the wealthier section of society paid no tax to the Government. On the other hand, the unprivileged class had to bear the entire burden of taxation. Only 4% of the total revenue collected by the Government was paid by the privileged class and 96% was paid by the unprivileged class.

Taille or direct land tax and tithes or religious tax were realised from the peasants. Vingtiemes or income tax, Gabella or salt tax, capitation or production tax were also realised from them. They had also to pay Aides or taxes on wine, tobacco, etc. The peasants had to work for the reconstruction of roads without any payment. This was known as corvee.

Again, they had to pay toll tax for using the same roads. Thus the French peasantry, which then constituted about 80% of the total population, had to deposit the lion’s share of their income to the king’s treasury as direct or indirect tax. After paying 80% of their income in taxation, the peasants hardly had any money to meet the necessities of life.

Question 38. Did women in France play any role in the Revolution in 1789?
Answer:

From the very beginning, the women of France were active participants in the events related to the French Revolution of 1789. Most women did not have access to education or job training. Only the daughters of nobles or the wealthier members of the Third Estate could study at a convent On 5 October 1789.

The poorest women of France, angered by the price rise and the indifferent attitude of the King to their misery, led a long march of 12 miles on the highway from Paris to Versailles shouting ‘Bread! Bread! Bread!’ To voice their concerns and issues, women started their political clubs and newspapers.

About 60 women’s clubs came up in different cities in France. The ‘Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women’ was the most famous of these. Olympe de Gouges was one of the most politically active women of the revolutionary period in France.

The Constitution of 1791 reduced the rights of women. So they demanded the right to vote, the right to contest elections and hold political office. During the Reign of Terror, the French Government issued laws banning the political participation and activities of women and ordered the closure of women’s clubs. The fight for voting rights and equal wages continued. Finally, in 1946 women won the right to vote.

Question 39. What were the causes of agrarian revolt (or, the spread of rural unrest) in France in 1789? What is its importance?
Answer:

Various causes were responsible for the outbreak of the agrarian revolt in France in 1789. These are enumerated as follows :

(1) The immediate cause of the revolt of the peasantry was the ‘Great Fear’. The ‘Great Fear’ was the rumour that spread in villages that criminals and brigands had been sent against the peasantry by the nobility. It was the plan made by the nobility to avenge their defeat in the States-General.

(2) Another cause of the revolt of the peasants was the rise in the price of bread. A time came when higher prices could not procure bread.

(3) The fall of Bastille and other violent incidents in different parts of France provoked the peasants to break out in rebellion.

(4) The peasants who had been suffering for a long under feudal tyranny were disillusioned at the States-General meeting as they realised that it could not bring any change in their material life.

The importance of the agrarian revolt in France is as follows:

(1) It opened the eyes of the elected representatives of the people in the States-General.

(2) The violent incidents and the attacks upon the property of feudal lords by the rebel peasants convinced the elected representatives that for the security of their property, some concessions had to be granted.

(3) On August 14, 1789, the nobility and the clergy voluntarily renounced the privileges they had been enjoying for a long time. As a result, feudalism came to an end in France.

Question 40. Why did the aristocrats rebel in 1788?
Answer:

During the reign of Louis XVI, there was an acute economic crisis in France. To overcome the crisis, Finance Minister Briand proposed that taxes should be imposed on the aristocracy and the clergy. The king tried to force the Parlement of Paris to implement his new tax proposal by a special session called ‘lit de justice’.

However, according to the prevailing tax system in France, the aristocrats were exempted from paying any tax. This proposal of imposing taxes on the aristocrats enraged them. They broke out into revolt. They declared that the King could impose his new tax proposal only with the consent of the States-General.

They pointed out that if the king could abolish the long-established privileges of the nobility, privileges being the other side of prerogative, the King must be ready to part with his prerogative right. They insisted on summoning the States-General. This is known as the revolt of the aristocracy. In 1788, the aristocratic revolt served as the first step of the French Revolution. It was the first attack upon monarchical absolutism in France.

Question 41. What was the role of the Jacobins? What were the causes of the downfall of the Jacobins?
Answer:

After the downfall of the Girondins, the Jacobins captured power. The prominent members of the Jacobin party were Danton, Marat and Robespierre. To terrorise the supporters of the monarchy, they advocated the establishment of the Reign of Terror. The chief organs of the Reign of Terror were :

(1) The Committee of Public Safety

(2) The Committee of General Security

(3) Revolutionary Tribunal by which the suspects were put to death after a summary trial.

The chief weapons to establish control over the public of France were the ‘Law of Maximum’ and the Law of Suspects. Thousands of people were guillotined by the help of the law of Suspects’ on the grounds of mere suspicion. Many were punished for non-compliance with the Law of Maximum. Thus during the Reign of Terror, they let loose tremendous atrocities on the people and put an end to the Gironde who opposed their policy.

Various causes led to the downfall of the Jacobins.

(1) The differences of opinion among the Jacobins contributed to their downfall.

(2) The life and property of the people were not safe during the Reign of Terror and so the people opposed it

(3) The Jacobin leader Robespierre began to interfere in the religious beliefs of the people which hurt their feelings.

(4) The labourers were annoyed with the party as they had fixed their wages under the Law of Maximum.

(5) The machinery of the Reign of Terror alienated the sympathy of the people and the Jacobins lost their ground.

Question 42. What were the results of the French Revolution?
Answer:

The results of the French Revolution of 1789 are discussed below :

(1) The revolution brought an end to the privileges of the clergy and the nobility.

(2) It laid down that every nation should be free to choose its form of Government.

(3) It ended the arbitrary rule of the king and developed the idea of a people’s republic.

(4) It emphasised the principle of equality. All men were made equal in the eyes of the law.

(5) It asserted that each individual should have the liberty of speech, worship and personal liberty.

(6) To the liberals, the principle of civil equality and national sovereignty offered a model for an exploitation-free, progressive socio-political system.

(7) After the revolution, the sovereign will of the people gained importance. No Government could justify its existence unless it rested upon the consent of the
people.

(8) The political developments in 1789 in France made the conservatives apprehensive of a further outbreak of revolutionary fervour.

(9) The ideas of democracy, nationalism, liberalism and fraternity stirred the minds of the European people.(10) It inspired revolutionary movements in almost every country in Europe and in south and Central America.