NOTES

Class IX Teacher: Alka Singh Gurung

The French Revolution

1. In 1789, in the wake of early morning, the city of Paris was

in a state of alarm.
2. Rumours spread that the King would open fire upon the
citizens.
3. People started gathering and they started breaking a
number of government buildings in search of arms.
4. The commander of the Bastille was killed in the armed fight
and the prisoners were released.
5. People hated the Bastille as it stood for the despotic power
of the king. People protested against the high price of
bread.
6. A new chain of events began which led to the execution of
the King in France.

French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century

1. Louis XVI, in 1774, ascended the throne of France. Financial
France was drained because of the war.
2. France, Under Louis XVI, helped the thirteen American
colonies to gain their independence from Britain. Taxes
were increased to meet regular expenses, such as the cost of
maintaining an army, the court, running government offices
or universities.
3. The country of France was divided into three estates in the
eighteenth century.
4. The feudal system was part of the society estates dated
back to the middle ages.
5. 90 percent of the population was dominated by peasants
but only a small number of them owned the land they
cultivated.
6. 60 percent was owned by nobles, the Church and other
richer members of the third estate.
7. The clergy and the nobility, members of the first two estates
enjoyed certain privileges by birth. These groups of
members were exempted from paying taxes and enjoyed
feudal privileges.
8. All members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state
which included a direct tax, called taille, and a number of
indirect taxes which were levied on articles of everyday
consumption like salt or tobacco.
The Struggle to Survive
1. Increase in population led to a rapid increase for food
grains.
 2. Production of grains could not keep pace with the demand
due to which the price of bread rose rapidly.
3. Due to low wages paid to the labourers the gap between
the poor and the rich widened.
4. Things became worse whenever drought or hail reduced the
harvest.
A Growing Middle Class Envisages an End to Privileges
• Peasants used to participate in revolts against taxes and food
scarcity.
• Group of the third estate had become prosperous and had access
to education and new ideas.
• In the eighteenth century, new social groups emerged, termed the
middle class, who earned their wealth through expanding overseas
trade and by manufacturing woollen and silk textiles .
• The third estate included professions such as lawyers or
administrative officials. A person’s social position was dependent
on their merit.
• All these groups 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.
FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS
• A new form of government was proposed by Rousseau based on a
social contract between people and their representatives.
• Montesquieu French political philosopher best known for his book
The Spirit of Laws (1748), . He proposed a division of power within
 the government between the legislative, the executive and the
judiciary. In the USA, this model of government was put into force.

• Two Treatises of Government' was written by John Locke. In this

book, he sought to refute the doctrine of divine and absolute right
of monarch.

The Outbreak of the Revolution

• In France, the monarch didn’t have the power to impose taxes.
• They had to call a meeting of the Estates-General, a political body
to which the three estates sent their representatives, to pass
proposals for new taxes
• Louis XVI, on 5 May 1789, called an assembly to pass proposals for
new taxes. Representatives from the first and second estates were
present and the third estate was represented by its prosperous and
educated members.
• According to the principle each estate had one vote. But,
representatives from the third estate demanded each member
would have one vote.
• The demand was rejected so members of the third estate walked
out to protest. They swore not to disperse till a constitution
drafted for France that would limit the powers of the monarch.

France Abolishes Monarchy and Becomes a Republic

• In April 1792, the National Assembly voted for a war against
Prussia and Austria. Marseillaise became the national anthem of
France.
 • While men were away fighting at the war, women took care of
their families.
• Large sections of the population demanded that the revolution had
to be carried further, as the Constitution of 1791 gave political
rights only to the richer sections of society.
• Political clubs were formed and among them, Jacobins became the
most successful club.
• Members of the Jacobin club included small shopkeepers, artisans
such as shoemakers, pastry cooks, watch-makers, printers, as well
as servants and daily-wage workers.
• Jacobin members started wearing long striped trousers similar to
those worn by dockworkers. These Jacobins were called the
sansculottes, literally meaning ‘those without knee breeches’.
• On August 10 1792, Jacobins stormed the Palace of the Tuileries
and held the king hostage for several hours.
• Elections were held and all men of 21 years and above got the right
to vote. Monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792 and
France was declared a republic. Louis XVI was sentenced to death
by a court on the charge of treason.
The Reign of Terror
• The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror
• . People whom Robespierre saw enemies of the republic were
arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary tribunal.
• If they were declared guilty by the court then they were
guillotined.
 • The guillotine is a device consisting of two poles and a blade with
which a person is beheaded, named after Dr Guillotin.
• Laws were issued to place a maximum ceiling on wages and prices.
Meat and bread were rationed.
• Expensive white flour was forbidden to use. Equality was practised
through forms of speech and address.
• All French men and women were addressed as Citoyen and
Citoyenne (Citizen).
• In July 1794, he was convicted by a court arrested and the next day
sent to the guillotine.
A Directory Rules France
• Fall of the Jacobin government allowed the wealthier middle
classes to seize power.
• According to the new constitution, non-propertied sections of
society denied voting.
• It provided for two elected legislative councils. The government
appointed a Directory, consisting of executives made up of five
members.
• Political instability paved the way for a military dictator, Napoleon
Bonaparte.

Did Women have a Revolution?

• Women were active participants from the beginning which brought
important changes in the country France.
• Women from the third estate had to work for a living and they
didn’t have access to education or job training.
 • Daughters of nobles of the third estate were allowed to study at a
convent.
• Working women also had to care for their families. Compared to
men, their wages were lower.
• Women also started their political clubs and newspapers. The
Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was one of the
most famous women’s clubs.
• They demanded equal political rights as men, the right to vote and
to hold political office.
• The revolutionary government introduced laws to improve the
lives of women.
• Schooling became compulsory, divorce made legal and they could
run small businesses.
• During the Reign of Terror, the government closed women’s clubs
banning their political activities. After much struggle, women in
France in 1946 won the right to vote.

The Abolition of Slavery

• Jacobin regime’s most revolutionary social reform was the
abolition of slavery in the French colonies.
• In the seventeenth century, slavery trade began. Slaves were
brought from local chieftains, branded and shackled and were
packed tightly into ships for the three-month-long voyage across
the Atlantic to the Caribbean.
• Slave labour met the growing demand in European markets for
sugar, coffee, and indigo.
 • Throughout the eighteenth century, there was little criticism of
slavery in France. In 1794, the Convention legislated to free all
slaves in the French overseas possessions.
• Napoleon introduced slavery after ten years.
• In 1848, slavery was abolished in French colonies.

The Revolution and Everyday Life

• France during 1789 saw changes in the lives of men, women and
children.
• Abolition of censorship happened in the summer of 1789.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed freedom
of speech and expression to be a natural right.
• Freedom of press meant opposing views of events could be
expressed.
• Plays, songs and festive processions attracted large numbers of
people.

Conclusion
• Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France, in 1804
and introduced many laws such as the protection of private
property and a uniform system of weights and measures provided
by the decimal system.
• Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815. The ideas of liberty
and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the
French Revolution.
• Colonized peoples reworked on the idea of freedom to create a
sovereign nation-state