FRENCH REVOLUTION

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Question 1.
What were reasons behind an empty treasury upon the accession of Louis XVI in
1774?
Answer:
Upon his accession in 1774 the new king Louis XVI found an empty treasury. There
were several reasons behind it:

 Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France. Added to
this was the cost of maintaining an extravagant court at the immerse palace of
Versailles.
 Under Louis XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their
independence from Britain. The war added more than a billon livres to debt
that had already risen to more than 2 billion livres. Lenders who gave the
state credit, now began to charge 10 per cent interest on loans.
 French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estates and
only members of the third estate paid taxes.
Question 2.
How was the system of estates in French society organised?
Answer:
French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estates:

 The first estate was constituted by the clergy, who enjoyed certain privileges
by birth.
 The second estate was constituted by the nobility who enjoyed feudal
privileges.
 The third estate was consisted of big businessmen, merchants, court officials,
lawyers, peasants, artisans, small peasants, landless labour and servants.
Thus, within the third estate some were rich and others poor. Here, it is worth
mentioning that the members of the first two estates were exempted from
paying taxes to the state. Only the members of the third estate had to pay
taxes.
Question 3.
Which factors were responsible for the subsistence crisis in France in 1789?
Answer:
The following factors led to the subsistence crisis in France in 1789:

 The population of France rose dramatically in 1789. This led to a rapid

increase in the demand for food grains. Production of grains could not keep
 pace with the growing demand. So the price of bread which was the staple
diet of the majority rose rapidly.
 Most of the workers were employed as labourers in workshops where owners
fixed their wages. But wages did not keep pace with the rose in price.
 Things became worse due to a severe winter which reduced the harvest.
Question 4.
Why did members of the third estate walk out of the assembly of the Estates
General, called by Louis XVI on 5 May 1789?
Answer:

 On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates

General to pass proposals for new taxes. The first and second estate sent
300 representatives each, while the third estate sent 600 representatives.
 Voting in the Estates General in the past had been conducted according to
the principle that each estate had one vote. This time too the king was
determined to continue the same practice.
 But Members of the third estate demanded that voting now be conducted by
the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote. When
the king rejected this proposal, members of the third walked out of the
assembly in protest.
Question 5.
What was the immediate cause that angered the French people so much so that
they stormed and destroyed the Bastille and started the Revolution?
Answer:
The National Assembly was busy at Versailles in drafting a constitution that would
limit the powers of the monarch. The common people on the other hand, were facing
hardships. The king had nothing to do with their problems.

Meanwhile, there occurred a severe winter in France which aggravated their

problem. Severe winter resulted in bad harvest. So, the price of bread rose. Often
bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies. After spending hours in long
queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women stormed into the shops. At the same
time, the king ordered troops to move into Paris. So, on 14 July 1789, the agitated
crowd stormed and destroyed the Bastille, which stood for the despotic power of the
king. This was the start of the French Revolution.

Question 6.
Under what circumstances did Louis XVI finally accord recognition to the National
Assembly? Mention the changes brought by the Assembly on the night of 4 August
1789.
Answer:
There was agitation all over France due to the short supplies and high prices of
food. Unaware of the common man’s problems, the king decided to suppress it. As a
result the agitation got intensified. Peasants began to attack chateaux. They looted
hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues.
Faced with the power of his revolting subjects, Louis XVI finally accorded recognition
to the National Assembly and accepted the principle that his powers would from now
on be checked by a constitution.
The Assembly passed a decree on the night of 4 August 1789 that brought the
following changes:

 The feudal system of obligations and taxes was abolished.

 Members of the clergy were forced to give up their privileges.
 Tithes were abolished and lands owned by the church were confiscated.
Question 7.
What were the consequences of the uprising led by the Jacobins in 1792?
Answer:

 The Assembly voted to imprison Louis XVI and his family members. Elections
were held. From now on all men of 21 years and above, regardless of wealth,
got the right to vote.
 Monarchy was abolished and France was declared a republic.
 Louis XVI was sentenced to death by a court on the charge of treason. On 21
January 1793 he was executed publicly at the Place de la Concorde. The
queen Marie Antoinette met the same fate shortly after.
Question 8.
Write three points about the Jacobin club in France. Who was its leader?
Answer:
(i) The most successful of the political clubs during the revolutionary France was that
of the Jacobins, which got its name from the former convent of St. Jacob in Paris.

(ii) The members of the Jacobin club belonged mainly to the less prosperous
sections of society. They included small shopkeepers, artisans such as shoemakers,
pastry cooks, watch-makers, printers, as well as servants and daily-wage workers.

(iii) A large group among the Jacobins began to wear long striped trousers to set
themselves apart from the fashionable sections of society, especially nobles, who
wore knee breeches.
The leader of the Jacobin club was Maximilian Robespierre.

Question 9.
What was a Directory? Why was it dismissed?
Answer:
After the fall of the Jacobin government the wealthier middle classes seized the
power. They introduced a new constitution which denied the vote to non-propertied
sections of society. It provided for two elected legislative councils. These then
appointed a Directory, an executive made up of five members. This was meant as
safeguard against the concentration of power in a one-man executive as under the
Jacobins. However, the Directors often clashed with the legislative councils as a
result of which the Directory was dismissed which gave rise to Napoleon.

Question 10.
“Women had been active participants in the events which brought about many
important changes in French society. Still their condition did not improve.” Explain.
Or
Did the French Revolution bring any improvement in the condition of women? How
can you say that their life was full of hardships?
Answer:
Women in France were sure that their involvement in the events would pressurise
the revolutionary government to introduce measures to improve their lives. But they
had to face disappointment. They had to work hard for a living. They worked as
seamstresses or laundresses, sold flowers, fruits and vegetables at the market, or
even employed as domestic servants in the houses of wealthy people. Most women
did not have access to education or job training. They had also to take care for their
own families, that is cook, fetch water, queue up for bread and look after the
children. Their wages were lower than those of men.

Question 11.
Describe the triangular slave trade that was carried on during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries?
Answer:
(i) A triangular slave trade was carried on between Europe, Africa and the Americas.
The slave trade began in the seventeenth century.

(ii) French merchants sailed from the ports of Bordeaux or Nantes to the African
coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains.

(iii) The slaves were branded and shackled and then they were packed tightly into
ships for the three- month long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There
they were sold to plantation owners.

Question 12.
Under what circumstances did the representatives of the third estate form the
National Assembly?
Answer:
Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for
new taxes. The first and second estates sent 300 representatives each while the
third estate sent 600 representatives. Voting in the Estate General in the past had
been conducted according to the principle that each estate had one vote. This time
too the king was determined to continue the same practice. But members of the third
estate demanded that each member would have one vote because it was based on
the democratic principle. But the king rejected this proposal as a result of which
members of the third estate walked out of the assembly in protest.

The representatives of the third estate viewed themselves as spokesmen for the
whole French nation. On 20 June 1789, they assembled in the hall of an indoor
tennis court in the grounds of Versailles. They declared themselves a National
Assembly and began to draft a constitution for France that would limit the powers of
the monarch.

LONG QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Question 1.
Describe how France became a republic?
Answer:
(i) Louis XVI was not happy by signing the Constitution of 1791. So, when he got
opportune moment he entered into secret negotiations with the king of Prussia.

(ii) Rulers of other neighboring countries too were worried by the developments in
France and made plans to send troops to put down the events that had been taking
place there since the summer of 1789.

(iii) Before this could happen, the National Assembly voted in April 1792 to declare a
war against Prussia and Austria. Thousands of volunteers thronged from the
provinces to join the army. The Marseillaise composed by the poet Rouget de L’lsle
was sung for the first time by the volunteers from Marseilles as they marched into
Paris.

(iv) Political clubs became important rallying point for people who wished to discuss
government policies and plan their own forms of action. The most successful of
these clubs was that of the Jacobins

(v) In the Summer of 1792, these Jacobins planned on insurrection of a large

number of Parisians who were angered by the short supplies arid high prices of food
. On the morning of August 10, they stormed the Palace of the Tuileries, malssacred
the king’s guards and held the king himself as a hostage for several hours. Later the
Assembly voted to imprison the royal family. Elections were held. The newly elected
assembly abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. Louis XVI and
his queen were executed publicly at the Place de la Concorde.

Question 2.
Why is Robespierre’s government known as the Reign of Terror? Give reasons.
Answer:
Robespierre’s government remained in power from 1793 to 1794. But this short
period became so infamous that it began to be referred to as the Reign of Terror.
The following reasons were responsible for this:

(i) Robespierre followed a policy of severe control and punishment. All those whom
he saw as being ‘enemies’ of the republic such as ex-nobles and clergy, members of
other political parties, even members of his own party who did not agree with his
methods, were arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary tribunal. If the
court found them ‘guilty’ they were guillotined.

(ii) Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and
prices. Meat and bread were rationed. Peasants were forced to transport their grain
to the cities and sell it at prices fixed by the government.

(iii) The use of more expensive white flour was forbidden. All citizens were required
to eat pain d’e‘galite’ meaning equality bread, made of whole wheat.

(iv) Churches were shut down and their building were converted into barracks or
offices.

(v) Robespierre pursued his policies so relentlessly that even his supporters began
to demand modernisation. Finally, He was arrested and guillotined.

Question 3.
How did the revolution affect the everyday life of the people in France?
Answer:
(i) The years following 1789 in France saw many changes in the lives of men,
women and children. Politics changed the clothes people wore, the languages they
spoke and the book they read.

(ii) The revolutionary governments tool it upon themselves to pass laws that would
translate the ideals of liberty and equality into everyday practice.

(iii) Censorship was abolished. Now the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
proclaimed freedom of speech and expression to be a natural right.

(iv) Newspapers, pamphlets, books and printed pictures flooded the towns of France
from where they travelled rapidly into the country side. They all described and
discussed the events and changes taking place in France.
(v) Freedom of the press also meant that opposing views of events could be
expressed. Each side sought to convince the others for its position through the
medium of print.

(vi) Plays, songs and festive processions attracted large numbers of people. The
system of slavery began to be criticised and finally it was abolished.

Question 4.
Describe how slavery was abolished in France?
Answer:
The abolition of slavery in the French colonies took place under the Jacobin regime.
The colonies the Caribbean were important suppliers of commodities like tobacco,
indigo, sugar and coffee. But the reluctance of Europeans to go and work in distant
lands caused shortage of labour on the plantations.

Hence, a triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas 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. The
slaves were branded and shackled and then packed tightly into ships for the three-
month long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There they were sold to
plantation owners.

Throughout the eighteenth century there was little criticism of slavery in France. The
National Assembly held long debates about whether the rights of man should be
extended to all French subjects including those in the colonies. But it did not pass
any laws due to expected opposition from businessmen whose

incomes depended on the slave trade. It was finally the convention which in 1794
legislated to free all slaves in the French overseas possessions. But this lasted for a
short term. Napoleon reintroduced slavery after he became the emperor of France in
1804. This exploitative system was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848. .

Question 5.
How did the French Revolution impact the world?
Answer:
(i) The ideals of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the
French Revolution.These ideals spread from France to the rest of Europe during the
nineteenth century, where feudal system were abolished.

(ii) Political revolution in Europe began with the French Revolution. This revolution
influenced the people in other European countries and political revolutions raged
through Europe as people fought against the authority of kings.
(iii) Colonised peoples got inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution. They
reworked the idea of freedom from bondage into the movements to create a
sovereign nation state. Pipu Sultan and
Rammohan are two examples of inthviduals who responded to the ideas coming
from revolutionary France.

Question 6.
What was the role of the philosophers in the French Revolution?
Or
Describe the role of the philosophers in the French Revolution.
Answer:
The French philosophers played an important role in preparing the background of
the revolution.
(i) The famous philosophers like John Locke, Rousseau and Montesquieu believed
that no group in society should be privileged by birth. Rather, a person’s social
position must depend on his merit. They inspired the common mass of France with
their revolutionary ideas and mobilised them to raise voice against injustices.

(ii) In his Two Treatises of Government, Locke refuted the doctrine of the divine and
absolute right of the monarch. Rouseau carried the idea forward, proposing a form
of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives.

(iii) In The spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the
government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.

(iv) The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in salons and coffee
houses and spread among people through books and newspapers. These were
frequently read aloud in groups for the benefit of those who were illiterate. The news
that the king planned to impose further taxes generated anger and protest against
the system of privileges.

Question 7.
Why were images and symbols frequently used during the French Revolution? What
did the following symbols convey—The broken chain, The bundle of rods or fasces,
Sceptre, Red Phrygian cap. Blue-white-red, The winged woman, The Law Tablet
and The eye within a triangle radiating light.
Answer:
The majority of men and women in the eighteenth century France were illiterate.
They could not read and write. So images and symbols were frequently used instead
of printed words to communicate important ideas. The following symbols convey the
following ideas:
  The Broken Chain: Chains were used to fetter slaves. A broken chain stands
for the act of becoming free.
 The bundle of rods or fasces: One rod can be easily broken, but not an entire
bundle. It conveys the idea that strength lies in unity.
 Scepter: Symbol of royal power.
 The Phrygian cap: This cap was worn by a slave upon becoming free.
 Blue-White-Red: The national colours of France.
 The winged woman: Personification of the law.
 The Law Tablet: The law is the same for all and all are equal before it.
 The eye within a triangle radiating light: The all seeing eye stands for
knowledge. The rays of the sun will drive away the clouds of ignorance.
 Snake biting its tail to from a ring: Symbol of Eternity. A ring has neither
beginning nor end.
Question 8.
Why did Olympe de Gouges protest against the Constitution and the Declaration of
Rights of Man and Citizen? Mention some of the basic rights set forth in her
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen which came in 1791.
Answer:
Olympe de Gouges was one of the most important of the politically active women in
revolutionary France. She protested against the Constitution and the Declaration of
Rights of Men and Citizen because they excluded women from basic rights that
each human being was entitled to. So, she wrote a Declaration of the Rights of
Women and Citizen. Some of the basic rights set forth in her Declaration are:

 Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights.

 The goal of all political associations is the preservation of the natural rights of
woman and man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to
oppression.
 The source of all sovereignty resides in the nation, which is nothing but the
union of woman and man.
 The law should be the same for all. All female and male citizens are equally
entitled to all honours and public employment according to their abilities and
talents.
 No woman is an exception, she is accused, arrested, and detained in cases
determined by law. Women like men, obey this rigorous law.

Question-9

Which laws were made to improve the status of women in the French society?
Or

Discuss any four steps taken by the revolutionary government of France for
improving the lives of women. .
 In the beginning, the revolutionary government introduced some laws to improve
the status of women in society. These were
(i) Schooling was made compulsory for all girls.
(ii) Their fathers could no longer force them into marriage against their
will. If they did so, they were punished.
(iii) Marriage was made into a contract entered into freely and it was
registered under civil law.
(iv) Divorce was made legal and could be applied for by both men and
women.
(v) Women could train for jobs, could become artists or run small
businesses.

Map-based Questions
Question 1.
On the given outline map of France, locate and label the following:
(a) Bordeaux
(b) Nantes
(c) Paris
(d) Marseilles
Answer:
Question 2.
On the given outline map of France, identify the places marked.
(a) The place not affected by the Great Fear
(b, c and d) The epicentres of main panic movements.
Answer: