The French Revolution Class 9

 Ch 1- The French Revolution 

Q1.Describe the division of French society before French revolution?

Answer:Before French revolution, French society was divided into three Estates:

• First Estate (Clergy): It comprised of persons who were involved in the functions of church. They were exempted from paying taxes and enjoyed certain privileges by birth.

• Second Estate (Nobility): It comprised those persons who had high social and political rank. They enjoyed certain privileges based on birth and also exempted from paying taxes. They also enjoyed feudal privileges. They extract feudal dues from the peasants.

• Third Estate: It comprises of big businessmen, merchants, court officials, lawyers, peasants, artisans, small peasants, landless labourers and servants. They pay direct tax to state called taille and a number of indirect taxes, levied on articles of everyday consumption. Peasants also pay called tithes to church.

Q2.What were the causes for the empty treasure of France under Louis XVI? Assess any three causes.

Answer

• Under Louis XIV, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from the common enemy, British. The war added more than a billion lives to a debt that had already risen to more than 2 billion livre

• Lenders who gave the state credit began to charge 10 percent interests on loans which made large percentage of French government’s budget on interest payments alone.

• There were also expenses on cost of maintaining army, the court, government officials and universities.

Q3.Explain the emergence of the middle class in the 18th Century.

Answer

• In the 18th Century, social groups termed as middle class emerged who earned their wealth through an expanding overseas trade and from the manufacture of goods such as woollen and silk textiles that were either exported or bought by the richer members of society.

• All of were educated and believed that no group in society should be privileged by birth.

• Rather, a person’s social position must depend on his merit.

Q4.Explain the role of philosophers in the French Revolution.

Answer

• The philosophers presented idea of a society based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all.

• John Locke in his book ‘Two Treatises of Government’, sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch.

• Rousseau carried the idea forward, proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives.

• In ‘The Spirit of the Laws’, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.

• The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in salons and coffee-houses and spread among people through books and newspapers.

Q5.Explain the events that led to the formation of the National Assembly?

Answer

• On 5th May 1789, Louis XVI called together an Assembly of the Estates General to pass proposal for new taxes.

• The First and Second Estates sent 300 representatives each to the assembly while 600 members of the third estate were present. Voting in the Estates General in the past had been conducted according to the principle that each Estate had one vote.

• 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.

• As King rejected the proposal, members of the Third Estate walked out of the Assembly in protest.

• On 20th June in the Tennis Court of Versailles, they declared themselves a National Assembly and swore to draft the constitution and limit the powers of the Estate.

Q6.‘While the National Assembly was busy at Versailles drafting a constitution, the rest of France seethed with turmoil.’ Elucidate.

Answer

• While drafting constitution, a severe winter resulted in bad harvest. The price of bread rose, often bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies.

• Crowds of angry women stormed into the shops after spending hours in long queues at the bakery

• At the same time, the king ordered troops to move into Paris. On 14 July, the agitated crowd stormed and destroyed the Bastille.

• In the countryside rumours spread that the lords of the manor had hired people who were on their way to destroy the ripe crops.

• Due to fear, peasants attacked castles of noblemen and looted hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues.

Q7.What is the significance of ‘The Tennis Court Oath’ in the French Revolution?

Answer

• On 20 June representatives of the third estate assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis court in the grounds of Versailles and declared themselves a National Assembly. They were led by Mirabeau and Abbé Sieyès.

• They swore not to disperse till they had drafted a constitution for France that would limit the powers of the monarch.

• Thus, the ‘The Tennis Court Oath’ ultimately ended all the privileges based on birth and introduces natural and basic rights.

Q8.Describe briefly the contribution of Mirabeau in the formation of National Assembly.

Answer

• Mirabeau was born in a noble family but was convinced of the need to do away with a society of feudal privilege.

• On 20 June, representatives of the third estate led by Mirabeau and Abbé Sieyès, assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis court in the grounds of Versailles.

• Mirabeau brought out a journal and delivered powerful speeches to the crowds assembled at Versailles.

Q9.What was the Estates General? Which demand of the Third Estate did Louis XVI reject?

Answer:The Estates General was a political body to which the three estates i.e., the clergy, the nobility and the third estate sent their representatives.

• In the past, voting in the Estates General had been conducted according to the principle that each estate had one vote.

• But the third estate demanded that voting now be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where each member would have one vote.

Q10.What was the importance of the Declaration of the Rights of Man?

Answer

• The Declaration of the Rights of Man did away all the privileges based on the birth which was prevailing in the old regime.

• It considered rights such as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality before law as basic and natural rights that belonged to each human being by birth and could not be taken away.

• It was the duty of the state to protect each citizen’s natural rights.