Class- 9th History Chapter-1: French Revolution -@pratapsanjaysir

History CH01: The French Revolution

In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon Family

In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon family married the Austrian Princess Marie Antoinette. When he became King, he found an empty treasure.

1774 में शादी की, ऊपर से जब राजा बना तो बेचारे को पता चला की ख़ज़ाना तो पूरा ख़ाली है !

But Why Was France's Treasure Empty?

Ans. - Long years of war and maintenance of the court at the Palace of Versailles were the main reasons for the empty treasure.

• Engaged in wars
• Maintenance of the palace
• Helping America
• Regular expenses

French Society During the Late 18th Century

➥ Under Louis XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies gain their independence from the common enemy, Britain.

➥ This war added a lot of debt to the French government.

➥ To meet these expenses, like maintaining the army, the state was forced to increase taxes.

➥ However, this measure was not sufficient as French society was divided into three estates in the 18th century, and only members of the third estate paid taxes.

A Society of Estates:

➦ This figure shows how the system of estates in French society was organized before 1789.

# 1st Estate:

1. This was the clergy, which included priests, bishops, and other religious leaders.
2. They were part of the church and held a lot of power and influence.
3. They were exempted from paying taxes.

# 2nd Estate:

1. The second estate was made up of the nobility, which included kings, queens, lords, and other aristocrats.
2. They were usually wealthy and had a lot of privileges, including feudal dues, which they extracted from the peasants.

# 3rd Estate:

1. The third estate was the largest group and included common people like farmers, merchants, and workers.
2. The burden of financing the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone.
3. Peasants made up about 90% of the population. However, only a small number of them owned the land they cultivated.
4. About 60% of the land was owned by nobles, the Church, and other richer members of the third estate.
5. They were forced to work in the houses of nobles.

The Struggle to Survive

➥ The population of France rose from about 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in 1789, leading to a rapid increase in the demand for food grains.

• ➥ As the demand increased, price of bread also increased.
• ➥ But wages did not keep pace with the rise in prices.
• ➥ So the gap between the poor and the rich widened.
• ➥ Things became worse whenever drought or hail reduced the harvest. This led to a subsistence crisis, something that occurred frequently in France during the Old Regime.

A Growing Middle Class

• ➥ The middle class of the eighteenth century became educated and therefore believed that no group in society should be privileged by birth.
• ➥ They earned their wealth through expanding overseas trade and from the manufacture of goods such as woolen and silk textiles that were either exported or bought by the richer members of society.
• ➥ Some philosophers also considered that the middle class was solely responsible for the revolution.
• ➥ The ideas of 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 could not read and write.
• ➥ The news that Louis XVI planned to impose further taxes to be able to meet the expenses of the state generated anger and protest against the system, which caused the outbreak of revolution.

The Outbreak of Revolution

• ➥ 5th May 1789 - Louis XVI called together a meeting of the Estates General to pass the proposals for new taxes.
• ➥ The first and second estate sent 300 representatives each, who were seated in rows facing each other on two sides.
• ➥ While the 600 members of the third estate (represented by its most educated and prosperous members) had to stand at the back.
• ➥ 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.
• ➥ King rejected this proposal.
• ➥ Members of the third estate protested and walked out of the assembly, which led to the formation of the National Assembly.

Formation of National Assembly

• ➥ 20th June 1789, members of the third estate assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis court in the ground of Versailles.
• ➥ They declared themselves a National Assembly and swore not to disperse till they had drafted a constitution for France that would limit the powers of the monarch.
• ➥ They were led by Mirabeau and Abbé Sieyés.
• ➥ Mirabeau was born into a noble family while Abbé Sieyés was a priest who wrote a book named “What is the Third Estate”.

Bastille Revolt

• ➥ While the National Assembly was busy at Versailles drafting the constitution, the rest of France was filled with intense unrest.
• ➥ Due to severe winter, there were poor harvests in the country which led to a crisis.
• ➥ Often, bakers exploited the situation by storing the supplies.
• ➥ After spending hours in long queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women stormed into the shops.
• ➥ On 14th July, the agitated crowd stormed and destroyed the Bastille.
• ➥ In the countryside, rumors spread from village to village that the lords of the manor had hired gangs of robbers to destroy the ripe crops.
• ➥ Due to fear, peasants in several districts attacked the castles of nobles, looted stored grains, and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues.
• ➥ Due to all these, Nobles had to flee from their homes and many migrated.
• ➥ The whole country was in the mood of revolt.
• ➥ As a result, Louis XVI finally recognized the National Assembly and accepted the constitution. On the night of 4th August 1789, the assembly demolished the feudal systems of taxes and all the privileges were withdrawn.

France Becomes a Constitutional Monarchy

• ➥ National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution in 1791.
• ➥ Powers were now separated and assigned to different institutions: the legislature, executive, and judiciary. This made France a constitutional monarchy.
• ➥ The National Assembly was elected by a group of electors, who were chosen by active citizens.

France Abolishes Monarchy and Becomes a Republic

• ➥ Louis XVI secretly planned to overthrow the National Assembly with the King of Prussia (Germany).
• ➥ Before this could happen, the National Assembly voted in April 1792 to declare war against Prussia and Austria.
• ➥ Thousands of volunteers joined the army.
• ➥ They saw this as a war of the people against kings and aristocracies all over Europe.
• ➥ The patriotic song sung by volunteers was the Marseillaise, sung by poet Roget de L’Isle, which later became the National Anthem of France.
• ➥ The revolution further demanded greater political equality, i.e., voting rights to the weaker sections.
• ➥ Political clubs became an 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 the Jacobins’.

Jacobin Club

• 1. Got its name from the convent of St. Jacob in Paris.
• 2. Members of this club were mainly people from less prosperous sections of society.
• 3. Leader: Maximilian Robespierre
• 4. Dress Code: Long striped trousers, they came to be known as “sans-culottes” meaning - people without knee breeches.
• 5. These sans-culottes men wore red caps to symbolize Liberty.

Summer of 1792

• 1. Parisians were angered by short supply and high prices of food.
• 2. On the morning of August 10, they (through Jacobin’s Club) attacked the Palace of the Tuileries, killed the King’s Guards, and held the king himself as hostage for several hours.
• 3. Later Elections were held and now all men of 21 years old and above got the Right to Vote.
• 4. The newly elected assembly was called the Convention.
• 5. On 21st September 1792, monarchy was abolished and France was declared as Republic.
• 6. Louis XVI was sentenced to death by a court on the charge of treason (betrayal of one’s country).

Reign of Terror

• 1. The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror.
• 2. This was due to the policy of severe control and punishment by Robespierre.
• 3. Ex-Nobles, Clergy, members of other political parties, even of his own political party who did not agree with his methods were arrested and imprisoned.
• 4. If the court found them guilty, they were “guillotined”.
• 5. Guillotine is a device consisting of two poles and a blade with which a person is beheaded.
• 6. Robespierre pursued his policies to promote equality by banning the use of expensive white flour and forcing people to eat whole wheat bread. All citizens were forced to greet each other as “citizen”. Churches were shut down and their buildings were converted into offices and barracks.
• 7. Finally, Robespierre was convicted by a court in July 1794, arrested, and the next day was sent to the guillotine.

Directory Rules France

• 1. Fall of the Jacobin government allowed the wealthier middle class to seize power.
• 2. A new constitution was introduced which denied the right to vote to non-propertied sections of society.
• 3. It provided for two elected legislative councils and these then appointed a Directory, an executive made up of five members.
• 4. However, the Directors often clashed with the legislative councils, who sought to dismiss them.
• 5. The political instability of the Directory paved the way for the rise of a military dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.
• 6. Through all these changes in the form of government, the ideals of freedom, of equality before the law and of fraternity remained inspiring ideals that motivated political movements in France and the rest of Europe.

Women in Revolution

• Women were active participants in the revolution and brought many changes in French society.
• Most women of the third estate had to work for a living, such as seamstresses or laundresses, sold flowers, fruits, and vegetables, or were employed as household servants.
• Many women did not have access to jobs or education, and only daughters of nobles or wealthy families of the third estate could study.
• Working women also had to care for their families and perform daily household work.
• Women's wages were lower than men's.
• To raise their voices, they started their own political clubs and newspapers, leading to the creation of about 60 clubs in different French cities.
• The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous club.
• They were disappointed by the constitution of 1791 and demanded political rights like men, such as the right to vote, be elected to the assembly, and hold political office.
• The revolutionary government introduced laws to improve their lives:
  • Creation of state schools and compulsory schooling for all girls.
  • They could not be forced to marry against their wishes.
  • Divorce was made legal.
  • Women were allowed to train for jobs, become artists, or run small businesses.
• However, their struggle for political rights continued, and the new government issued laws ordering the closure of women’s clubs and banning their political activities.
• Many prominent women were arrested, and none were executed.
• Their movement for equal political rights continued for the next two hundred years, and women in France finally won the right to vote in 1946.

The Abolition of Slavery

• One of the most revolutionary social reforms of the Jacobin regime was the abolition of slavery in the French colonies.
• The slave trade began in the 17th century.
• The Caribbean colonies like Martinique, Guadeloupe, and San Domingo were important suppliers of tobacco, indigo, sugar, and coffee.
• Reluctance of Europeans to work in distant, unfamiliar lands led to a shortage of labor on plantations.
• This problem was solved by triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
• French merchants bought slaves from local chieftains on the African coast and sold them to plantation owners.
• This exploitation of slaves met the growing demand in European markets.
• Throughout the 18th century, there was little criticism of slavery in France.
• The government did not pass any laws fearing opposition from businessmen whose income depended on these slaves.
• In 1794, they legislated to free all slaves in French colonies, but the legislation was short-lived.
• After 10 years, Napoleon reintroduced slavery.
• Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848.

The Revolution and Everyday Life

• The years following 1748 saw many revolutionary changes, with the government passing laws that translated the ideas of liberty and equality into everyday practice.
• Another important revolutionary change was the abolition of censorship.
• In the old regime, only written materials and cultural activities like books, magazines, newspapers, and plays could be performed after they had been approved by the King's censor.
• The declaration of the rights of man and citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and expression as a natural right.
• Newspapers, books, pamphlets, and printed pictures were now free from censorship, allowing opposing views of events to be expressed.
• Plays, songs, and festive processions attracted large audiences and bridged the gap for those who could not read written materials.

Conclusion

• In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor of France and set out to conquer neighboring European countries.

• He saw himself as a modernizer of Europe and introduced many laws, such as the protection of private property and a uniform system of weights and measures.
• Many saw him as a liberator, but soon his armies were viewed as an invading force.
• He was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815.
• The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important revolutionary contributions of the French Revolution and soon spread throughout Europe.
• Tipu Sultan and Raja Ram Mohan Roy are examples of individuals who responded to the ideas coming from revolutionary France.

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