HISTORY

FRENCH REVOLUTION WORKSHEET

1. What were the causes for the empty treasure of France

under Louis XIV? Assess any three causes.

Answer: (a) Long years of war had drained the financial

resources of France. 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 lives.
(b) Lenders who gave the state credit began to charge 10
percent interests on loans. So the French government was
obliged to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on
interest payments alone.
(c) The cost of maintaining the army, the court, government
officials and universities was very high.

2. ‘‘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: (a) Peasants constituted about 90 per cent of the

population but about 60 per cent of the land was owned by
nobles, the church and richer members of the Third Estate.

(b) The members of the First Estate and the Second Estate, that
is the clergy and the nobility, enjoyed certain privileges by
birth. The most important of these was exemption from paying
taxes to the state.
The nobles further enjoyed feudal privileges. These included
feudal dues, which they extracted from the peasants, peasants
were obliged to render services to the lord–to work in his house
and fields, to serve in the army or to participate in building roads.

(c) The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes

was borne by the Third Estate alone. Taxes included tithes
collected by the church from the peasants and taille, a direct
tax, and a number of indirect taxes which were levied on
activities of everyday consumption like salt and tobacco.
Thus the members of the Third Estate groaned under heavy
taxation with no privileges whatever. This led to a deep sense of
resentment among the members of the Third Estate who
galvanised and led the revolution.

3. Explain the features of the constitution of France

drafted in 1791.

Answer: (a) The constitution of 1791 was the first written

constitution in France, created after the collapse of absolute rule.
(b) Its main aim was to limit the powers of the monarch.
(c) Powers were then divided/separated and assigned to different
institutions like legislative, executive and judiciary.
(d) According to this, active citizens of France elected electors
who in turn voted to elect the National Assembly.
(e) Not all citizens had the right to vote. Only men of 25 years of
age who paid taxes equal to at least three days of a
labourer’s wage. They were called active citizens.
(f) The remaining men and all women were called the passive
citizens.
(g) The National Assembly controlled the king. France became a
constitutional monarchy.

4. Explain the circumstances under which Louis XVI finally

accorded recognition to the National Assembly.

Answer:
(i) Assembly of the Estates: On 5th May, 1789 Louis XVI
called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass
proposals for new taxes. Voting in the Estates General in the past
had been conducted according to the principle that each estate
had one vote. This time too, Louis XVI was determined to continue
the same practice. But members of the Third Estate demanded
that voting now should 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 Estate walked out
of the assembly in protest.
(ii) National Assembly : The representatives of the Third Estate
viewed themselves as spokesmen for the whole French nation. On
20th June, they assembled in the hall of an indoor tennis
court in the grounds 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 Abbe’ Sieye’s.

(iii) Turmoil in France : While the National Assembly was busy

at Versailles drafting the Constitution, the rest of France seethed
with turmoil. Due to bad harvest, there was shortage of food,
and there was also rumour that bands of brigands were on their
way to destroy the ripe crops. Caught in a frenzy of fear,
peasants started attacking nobles. Under all these
circumstances, Louis XVI finally accorded recognition to the
National Assembly.

(iv) Storming the Bastille : On the morning of 14th July, 1789

the agitated crowd stormed and destroyed the Bastille. Under all
these circumstances, Louis XVI finally according recognition to the
National Assembly.

(v) France became a Republic : In 1792 the Jacobians held the

king hostage and declared to form a new government. The newly
elected Assembly was called the Convention. On 21st September,
1792 it abolished the monarchy and declared France as a
republic.

5. Explain the role of Jacobins in the French Revolution.

(i) Middle Class: The members of the Jacobins 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. Their leader
was Maximilian Robespierre.
 (ii) Different Clothes: A large group among the Jacobins
decided to start wearing long striped trousers similar to
those worn by dock workers. This was to set themselves
apart from the fashionable sections of society, especially
nobles, who wore knees breeches. It was a way of
proclaiming the end of the power wielded by the wearers of
knee breeches.

These Jacobins came to be known as the sansculottes,

literally meaning — those without knee breeches.
Sansculottes men wore in addition the red cap that
symbolised liberty.

(iii) Carrying the Revolution: They were the people who

believed that the revolution had to be carried further, as the
Constitution of 1791 gave political rights only to the richer
sections of society.

(iv) Storming the King’s Palace: In the summer of 1792 the

Jacobins planned an insurrection of a large number of
Parisians who were angered by the short supplies and high
prices of food. On the morning of August 10 they
stormed the Palace of the Tuileries, massacred the
king’s guards and held the king himself as hostage for
several hours. Later the Assembly voted to imprison the
royal family.

(v) France became a Republic: Elections were held. From

now on all men of 21 years and above, regardless of
wealth, got the right to vote. The newly elected assembly
was called the Convention. On 21 September, 1792 it
abolished the monarchy and declared France a
republic.

6. Explain the “Reign of Terror” in detail.

Answer: The following points explain the Reign of Terror:

(a) The period from 1793 to 1794 is called the Reign of
Terror because Robespierre followed a policy of severe control
and punishment. Ex-nobles, clergy, members of other
political parties and even the members of his own party,
who did not agree with his methods, were arrested,
imprisoned and guillotined.
(b) Laws were issued by Robespierre’s government laws were
issued by placing a maximum ceiling of wages and prices.
Meat and bread were rationed.
(c) 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 equality bread.
(d) Equality was also sought to be practiced through forms of
speech and address. Instead of the traditional Sir and Madam,
French men and women were addressed as citizen.
(e) Churches were shut down and their buildings converted
into barracks or offices. Finally, Robespierre was convicted by
a court in July 1794, arrested and the next day, sent to the
guillotine.

6. Explain triangular slave trade carried on during 18th

and 19th century.

 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 labour 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.

7. 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
in order to voice their interests.
 They demanded the right to vote to be elected to the
Assembly and hold political office.
 They did not have access to education or job training.
Only daughter wealthier members of the Third Estate could
stay at convent.
 Working women had also to take care of their families.
Their wages were lower than those of men.

8. Explain the role of thinkers and philosophers in the

French Revolution.

In his Two Treatises of Government, Locke 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. This model of government
was put into force in the USA, after the thirteen colonies
declared their independence from Britain. The American
constitution and its guarantee of individual rights was an
important example for political thinkers in France.