French Revolution Notes

THE SHISHUKUNJ INTERNATIONAL NORTH CAMPUS CLASS-IX Social Science History Chapter-1 French Revolution Notes-Topic 1 & 2 Very Short Answer Type Questions (1 marks): Q1. Who was the ruler of France during the revolution? Answer: Louis XVI of the Bourbon family was the ruler of France. Q2. Name the three ‘Estates’ into which the French society was divided before the Revolution. Answer: • The First Estate — Clergy • The Second Estate — Nobility • The Third Estate — Common people. Q3. When did the French Revolution occur? Answer: 14th July 1789. Q4. What was tithes? Answer: It was a tax levied by the church, comprising one-tenth of the agricultural produce. Q5. What was taille? Answer: It was a direct tax to be paid to the State. Q6. Who formed the National Assembly in France in 1789? Answer: Third Estate Q7. To whom was the taxes called Tithes payable by the peasants in the eighteenth-century France? Answer: Church. Q8. Which class of society in France was behind the French Revolution? Answer: Middle class. Q9. What was the slogan of the French revolutionaries? Answer: Liberty, Fraternity and Equality.

Q10. Which philosopher had forwarded the principle of voting by the assembly, where each member should have one vote, during the rule of Louis XVI? Answer: Rousseau. Q11. Give the titles of the books written by: (a) Rousseau (b) Charles Montesquieu Answer: (a) The Social Contract, (b) The Spirit of the Laws. Q12. Which book has proposed a division of power within government? Answer: ‘The Spirit of the Laws’. Q13. Why was Bastille hated by the French people? Answer: Bastille was hated because it stood for the despotic power of the king. Q14. When did France abolish the monarchy and became republic? Answer: 21st September 1792. Short Answer Type Questions (3 marks): Q1. “The inequality that existed in the French Society in the Old Regime became the cause of French Revolution”. Justify the statement by giving three suitable examples. Answer: The examples are: • French Society was divided into three Estates. The First Estate comprised of clergy, the Second Estate comprised of nobility and the Third Estate comprised of businessmen, traders, merchants, artisans, peasants, and servants. • The members of Church and nobility enjoyed certain privileges by birth, the most important being the exemption from paying taxes to the State. • Feudal dues were extracted by nobles from peasants and one-tenth of the agricultural produce of peasants, in the form of Tithes came to the share of clergy. All members of the Third Estate including peasants paid taxes, thus, the burden of financing activities of the

state through taxes was borne by the Third Estate alone creating heavy discontentment. Q2. State the events that led to the formation of the National Assembly. Answer: • The Estates General was a political body of France to which the three estates sent their representatives. The voting in it had been conducted according to the principle that each estate had one vote. • This time too when Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General, he decided to continue the same old practice. • But the members of the Third Estate demanded that voting now be conducted on the democratic principle of one person, one vote. • When the king rejected this proposal, the members of the Third Estate walked out of the assembly in protest. • They assembled on 20 June 1789 in the hall of an indoor tennis court in Versailles. These representatives of the Third Estate viewed themselves as spokesmen for whole French nation. They declared themselves a National Assembly. Q3. Write three main features of the French Constitution of 1971. Answer: • Powers of the National Assembly: The Constitution of 1791 vested the power to make laws in the National Assembly, which was indirectly elected. That is, citizens voted for a group of electors, who in turn chose the Assembly. • Right to Vote: Not all citizens, however, had the right to vote. Only men above 25 years of age who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a laborer’s wage were given the status of active citizens, that is they were entitled to vote. The remaining men and all women were classed as passive citizens. • Basic Rights: All the citizens were given some basic rights such as right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality before law. It was the duty of the state to protect `each citizen’s natural rights. Q4. Differentiate between Active and Passive Citizens. Answer: Active Citizens: Only men above 25 years of age who paid taxes

equal to at least 3 days of a labourer’s wage were given the status of active citizens. Only they had the right to vote. Passive Citizens: Whereas the remaining men as well as all the women of France who were not entitled to vote were called Passive Citizens. Long Answer Type Questions (3 marks): Q1. Explain the role of Mirabeau and Abbe’ Sieye’s in the French Revolution. Answer: • Both Mirabeau and Abbe’ Sieye’s were great political thinkers. • They were the leaders of the National Assembly which was formed in 1789 after the failure of the meeting of the Estate General. • Mirabeau was born in a noble family but was convinced of the need to do away with a society of feudal privilege. • He brought out a journal and delivered powerful speeches to the crowds assembled at Versailles. • Abbe’ Sieye’s originally a priest, wrote an influential pamphlet called, ‘What is the Third Estate?’ Q2. Explain any five features of the Constitution drafted in 1791. Answer: • The Constitution of 1791 vested the power to make laws in the National Assembly, which was indirectly elected. • With the new Constitution the powers of govern the country were assigned to different institutions, i.e., the legislature, executive and the judiciary. • The judiciary and the legislature were elected by the people. Only men above 25 years of age who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a laborer’s wage were given the status of active citizens, that is, they were entitled to vote. • Under this system the powers of the monarch were limited. Most of the powers were in the hands of legislatures. • The ministers were also answerable to the legislature. The king enjoyed the veto power.

Topic 3 & 4 Very Short Answer Type Question Answers: Q1. Name any one class that did not belong to Jacobin Club? Answer: Nobles. Q2. Who was the leader of the Jacobin Club? Answer: Maximilian Robespierre. Q3. Which period of France’s history is known as ‘the Terror’. Answer: The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of terror? Q4. Name the most popular political club started by the French women. Answer: Society of Revolutionary Republican women. Q5. What was the national anthem of France? Answer: Marseillaise Q6. What was the newly elected assembly called? Answer: Convention Q7. What was Equality bread? Answer: It was a loaf made of whole-wheat which every citizen was to eat. Q8. What was Directory? Answer: It was an executive made up of five members. Q9. Who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen? Answer: Olympe de Gouges

Short & Long Answer Type Question Answers: Q1. What measures were taken by Robespierre to bring equality in the French Society? Answer: Measures are: • Robespierre government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and prices. • Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it at prices fixed by the government. • The use of more expensive white flour was forbidden; all citizens were required to eat the quality bread, a loaf made of whole wheat. • Equality was also sought to be practiced through forms of speech and address. • Churches were shut down and their buildings converted into barracks or offices. • Equality was also sought to be practiced through forms of speech and address. Q2. What was the Convention? Describe its role in France. Answer: The elected assembly formed in France in 1792 was called Convention. Role in France: • It abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. • Hereditary monarch Louis XVI and his wife were sentenced to death Robespierre was elected President of the National Convention. He followed the policy of severe control and punishment. The French Revolution 19 Q3. Describe the conditions of women during the period of French Revolution. Answer: Conditions of women during the period of French Revolution are: • From the very beginning women were active participants in the events which brought about major changes in the French Society.

• Most women of the Third Estate had to work for a living as seamstresses or laundresses. They even sold flowers, fruits, and vegetables at the market. • They were employed as domestic servants in the house of prosperous people. • They started their own political clubs and newspapers to voice their interests. • They demanded the right to vote to be elected to the Assembly and hold political office. Q4. Describe how abolition of slavery became possible in France. Answer: Abolition of slavery became possible in France by the following ways: • The slave trade began in the 18th century. The National Assembly held long debates about the rights of man should be extended to all French subjects including those in the colonies. • Convention legislated to free all slaves in the French overseas possessions. • However, Napoleon reintroduced slavery. Finally, slavery was abolished in 1848. Q5. Describe the effects of abolition of law of censorship in France. Answer: • France before censorship: In the Old Regime all written material and cultural activities, books, newspapers, plays could be published or performed only after they had been approved by the censors of the king. • Freedom of Speech: Now the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and expression to be a natural right. Newspapers, pamphlets, books, and printed pictures flooded the towns of France from where they travelled rapidly into the countryside. They all described and discussed the events and changes taking place in France. • Debate and Discussion: Freedom of the press also meant that opposing views of events could be expressed. Each side sought to convince the others of its position through the medium of print. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but

they shaped the nature of debate. Plays, songs and festive processions attracted large numbers of people. This was one way they could grasp and identify with ideas such as liberty or justice. Q6. Explain triangular slave trade carried on during 18th and 19th century. Answer: • The triangular slave trade was carried between Europe, Africa, and America. • The slave trade began in the seventeenth century. French merchants sailed from the ports of Bordeaux or Nantes to the African coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains. • Branded and shackled, the slaves were packed tightly into ships for the three-month long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There they were sold to plantation owners. • The exploitation of slave labor made it possible to meet the growing demand in European markets for sugar, coffee, and indigo. • Port cities like Bordeaux and Nantes owed their economic prosperity to the flourishing slave trade.