NCERT Solutions Class 9 Social Science Chapter 1 The French Revolution

1. Describe the circumstances leading to the outbreak of revolutionary protest in France.

Answer:

The circumstances that led to the outbreak of revolutionary protest in France were:

The feudal system:

• French society in eighteenth century was divided into three estates - the clergy, the nobility and the third estate which comprised big businessmen, merchants, court officials, lawyers, peasants and artisans, small peasants, landless labour and servants.

• The members of the first two estates (the clergy and the nobility) enjoyed certain privileges by birth and were exempted from taxes.

•   The Church also extracted taxes called tithes from the peasants. All members of the third estates had to pay taxes. The society of estates (the feudal system) emerged during the middle ages. The society and institutions in France before 1789 was known as the Old Regime.

Subsistence Crisis:

•   The population of France increased from 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in 1789, resulting in a rapid increase in the demand for foodgrains.

•   Prices of bread, staple diet of the majority in France, skyrocketed. Labourers in workshops were underpaid. This led to subsistence crisis.

Economic Problems:

•   In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon family of kings came to power in France.

•   Upon his accession, the king found an empty treasury due to long years of war, maintenance of an extravagant court at the Palace of Versailles, and France’s involvement in the American war of Independence against Britain to liberate thirteen American colonies.

Emergence of a Strong Middle Class:

•   A wealthy social group, the middle class emerged during eighteenth century.

•   Its members were educated, and believed that no group in society should be given privileges by birth. Rather, a person’s social position must depend on his merit.

•   Ideas of equality and freedom were put forward by philosophers from this social group. A society based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all were put forward by philosophers such as John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Immediate Cause:

•   On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes to meet increased expenditure.

•   Traditionally, voting in the Estates General 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.

•   When the king rejected this demand, they walked out of assembly and appealed to the masses to end the monarchy in France; and thus, the French Revolution broke out in 1789.

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

(i)The richer members of the third estate (the middle class) benefited the most from the French Revolution.

(ii)The Clergy and the Nobility were forced to relinquish power.

(iii)The poor sections of society (small peasants, landless labour, servants) and women would have been disappointed with the outcome of the revolution as the promise of equality did not become a reality at the end of the revolution.

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

Answer:

(i)The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French Revolution for the peoples of the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

(ii)These spread from France to the rest of European countries during the nineteenth century, where feudal systems were abolished.

(iii)Colonised peoples reworked the idea of freedom from bondage into their movements to create a sovereign nation state.

4. Draw up a list of democratic rights we enjoy today whose origins could be traced to the French Revolution.

Answer:

We can trace the origin of the following democratic rights we enjoy today to the French Revolution in 1789:

•   Right to life

•   Right to Equality

•   Freedom of free speech

•   Freedom of opinion

•   Equality before law

•   Right to liberty and justice

5. Would you agree with the view that the message of universal rights was beset with contradictions? Explain.

Answer:

(i) No, I do not agree with the view that the message of universal rights was beset with contradictions.