History

CHAPTER 1 THE FRECH REVOLUTION

In 1789, in the wake of early morning, the city of Paris was in a state of alarm. Rumors spread that
the King would open fire upon the citizens. People started gathering, and they started breaking down
several government buildings in search of arms. The commander of the Bastille was killed in the
armed fight, and the prisoners were released. People hated the Bastille as it stood for the king's
despotic power. People protested against the high price of bread. A new chain of events began,
which led to the execution of the King in France.

French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century

Louis XVI, in 1774, ascended the throne of France. Financial France was drained because of the
war. France, under Louis XVI, helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence
from Britain. Taxes were increased to meet regular expenses, such as maintaining an army, the
court, and running government offices or universities. The country of France was divided into three
estates in the eighteenth century. The feudal system was part of society’s estates and dates back to
the Middle Ages. Peasants dominated 90 percent of the population, but only a small number of them
owned the land they cultivated. 60 percent was owned by nobles, the Church and other richer
members of the third estate. 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. All members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state, which included a
direct tax, called taille, and several indirect taxes, which were levied on articles of everyday
consumption like salt or tobacco.

The Struggle to Survive

The increase in population led to a rapid increase in the requirement for food grains. Production of
grains could not keep pace with the demand, due to which the price of bread rose rapidly. Due to the
low wages paid to the labourers, the gap between the poor and the rich widened. 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. The 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 that were either exported or bought by
the richer members of society. 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. A new form of government was
proposed by Rousseau based on a social contract between people and their representatives.
Similarly, Montesquieu 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. Louis
Louis XVI planned to impose further taxes to meet the expenses.

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 was drafted for France that would limit the powers of the monarch.
Due to the severe winter, bread prices rose, and people had to spend hours in long queues. Rumours
spread that the lords of the manor hired bands of brigands to destroy the ripe crops. In fear, peasants
started looting hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues.
Nobles fled from their homes. Louis XVI accorded recognition to the National Assembly and
accepted the principle that his powers would, from now on, be checked by a constitution. The
Assembly passed a decree abolishing the feudal system of obligations and taxes on 4 August 1789.
Tithes were abolished, and lands owned by the Church were confiscated.

France Becomes a Constitutional Monarchy

In 1791, The National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution, and its main object was to
limit the powers of the monarch. These powers were now separated and assigned to different
institutions – the legislature, executive and judiciary. France became a constitutional monarchy.
Citizens voted for a group of electors, who in turn chose the Assembly, but unfortunately, not every
citizen had the right to vote. Men above 25 years of age who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a
labourer’s wage were entitled to vote. The Constitution began with a Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen. Rights such as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, and
equality before the law were established as ‘natural and inalienable’ rights; that is, they belonged to
each human being by birth and could not be taken away.

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 in 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 sans-culottes,
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. The 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
as 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

The fall of the Jacobin government allowed the wealthier middle classes to seize power. According
to the new constitution, non-propertied sections of society were 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.

The Abolition of Slavery

Jacobin’s regime’s most revolutionary social reform was the abolition of slavery in the French
colonies. In the seventeenth century, the slavery trade began. Slaves were brought from local
chieftains, branded and shackled and 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. The 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 the 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. Colonised peoples reworked the
idea of freedom to create a sovereign nation-state.
 CH 2 SOCIALISM IN EUROPE AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
The Age of Social Change

• The French Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a dramatic change in the way in
which society was structured.
• Not everyone in Europe, however, wanted a complete transformation.
• Some were ‘conservatives’, while others were ‘liberals’ or ‘radicals’.

Who were Conservatives?

• They resisted change.
• After the revolution, they started accepting change provided it was slow and had links and
respected the past.

Who were Liberals?

• They wanted a nation which tolerated all religions.
• They argued for an elected parliamentary government, subject to laws interpreted by a well
trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and officials.
• They were not Democrats.

Who were Radicals?

• They wanted a nation in which government was based on the majority of a country’s
population.
• They disliked concentration of property in hands of a few, not the existence of private property.

Industrial Society and Social Change

• This was the time of economic and social change.
• Men, women and children were pushed into factories for low wages.
• Most of the factory owners were often liberals and radicals and they felt that workers’ efforts
must be encouraged.

The Coming of Socialism to Europe

• Socialists were against private property.
• They had different visions of the future.
• Some believed in cooperatives.
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels added that industrial society was capitalist.

Support for Socialism

• By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe.
• Workers in England and Germany began forming associations to fight for better living and
working conditions.

The Russian Revolution

• In 1914, Nicholas II ruled the Russian empire.
• The Russian Empire included territory around Moscow, current-day Finland, Latvia, Lithuania,
Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.
 Economy and Society during Russian Empire
• About 85 percent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from agriculture.
• The industry was limited in number.
• Workers were divided into groups but they did unite to strike work when they were dissatisfied.
• Peasants had no respect for nobility, very unlike the French peasant.
• Russian peasants were the only peasant community which pooled their land and their commune
divided it.

Socialism in Russia

• All political parties were illegal in Russia before 1914.

• In 1900, the Russian Socialist Democratic Labour Party was formed.
→ It struggled to give peasants their rights over land that belonged to nobles.
→ As land was divided among peasants periodically and it was felt that peasants and not workers
would be the main source of the revolution.
• But Lenin did not agree with this as he felt that peasants were not one social group.
→ The party was divided into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
→ Lenin led Bolshevik group.

A Turbulent Time: The 1905 Revolution

• Liberals wanted to end of the autocracy of the Tsar.
• They worked towards demanding a constitution during the Revolution of 1905.

Bloody Sunday
• In 1904, Prices of essential goods rose so quickly that real wages declined by 20 percent.
• When four members of the Putilov Iron Works were dismissed, there was a call for industrial
action.
• Over 110,000 workers in St. Petersburg went on strike demanding a reduction in working hours
and increase in wages.
→ This procession was attacked by the police and Cossacks.
→ Over 100 workers were killed.
→ Strikes took place as a reaction.
→ People demanded a constituent assembly.
• The Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma.
→ The Tsar dismissed the first Duma within 75 days and announced the election of a second
Duma.
→ Tsar constituted the third Duma with conservative politicians.

The First World War and the Russian Empire

• In Russia, the first world war was initially very popular but later the support grew thin.
• Anti-German sentiments ran high.
• Russian armies lost badly in Germany and Austria.
• The war also affected the industry.
• There was labour shortage.
• By 1916, railway lines began to break down.
• The small workshops were closed down.
• There was shortage of grain and hence of bread.

The February Revolution in Petrograd

Events

• In the winter of 1917, Petrograd was grim.

→ There was a food shortage in the quarters of workers.
• On 22th February, a lockout took place at a factory.
→ Workers of 50 other factories joined in sympathy.
→ Women also led and participated in the strikes. This came to be called the International
Women’s Day.
• The government imposed a curfew.
• On the 24th and 25th, the government called out the cavalry and police to keep an eye on them.
• On 25th February, the government suspended the Duma and politicians spoke against this
measure.
• On 27th February, the police headquarters were ransacked.
→ Cavalry was called out again.
→ An officer was shot at the barracks of a regiment and other regiments mutinied, voting to join
the striking workers gathered to form a Soviet or council. This was the Petrograd Soviet.
• A delegation went to meet the Tsar, military commanders advised him to abdicate.
• On 2nd March, the Tsar abdicated.
• Soviet leaders and Duma leaders formed a Provisional Government to run the country.

Effects

• Restrictions on public meetings and associations were removed.

• Soviets were set up everywhere.
• In individual areas, factory committees were formed which began questioning the way
industrialists ran their factories.
→ Soldiers' committees were formed in the army.
• The provisional government saw its power declining and Bolshevik influence grow.
→ Therefore, it decided to take stern measures against the spreading discontent.
• It resisted attempts by workers to run factories and arrested leaders.
• Peasants and the socialist revolutionary leaders pressed for a redistribution of land.
→ Land committees were formed and peasants seized land between July and September 1917.

The Revolution of October 1917

Events

• On 16th October 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and Bolshevik Party to agree to a
socialist seizure of power.
→ A Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet to organise seizure.
• Uprising began on 24th October.
→ Prime Minister Kerenskii left the city to summon troops.
→ Pro-government troops were sent to take over telephone and telegraph offices and protect the
Winter Palace.
• In response, Military Revolutionary Committee ordered to seize government offices and arrest
the ministers.
→ The 'Aurora' ship shelled the Winter Palace.
→ Other ships took over strategic points.
→ By night the city had been taken over and ministers had surrendered.
• All Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd approved the Bolshevik action.
• By December, the Bolsheviks controlled the Moscow - Petrograd area.

Effects
• Most industry and banks were nationalised in November 1917.
• The land was declared social property and peasants were allowed to seize the land of the nobility.
• Use of old titles was banned.
• New uniforms were designed for the army and officials.
• Russia became a one-party state.
• Trade unions were kept under party control.

The Civil War

• When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army began to break up.
• Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the Bolshevik
uprising. → They were supported by French, American, British and Japanese troops.
→ All these fought a war with the Bolsheviks.

Making a Socialist Society

• The Bolsheviks kept industries and banks nationalised during the civil war.
• Rapid construction and industrialisation started.
• An extended schooling system developed.

Stalin and Collective Farming

• Stalin believed that rich peasants and traders stocked supplies to create shortage of grains. Hence,
collectivisation was the need of the hour.
• Those farmers who resisted collectivisation were punished, deported or exiled.

Global Influence
• In many countries, communist parties were formed.
• By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, the USSR had given socialism a global
face and world stature.
• By the end of the twentieth century, the international reputation of the USSR as a socialist
country had declined.
 CH 3 NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER
Birth of the Weimar Republic

First World War

• Germany was defeated in the First World war.
• After the war was over, the monarchy in Germany quits.

The Weimar Republic

A National Assembly met at Weimar to wrote a constitution.

Working
• Deputies were elected to the German Parliament or Reichstag.
Structure
• Democratic constitution with a federal structure. Universal Adult Franchise (all adults have right
to vote including women).
Defects
• Proportional representation: Made achieving a majority by any one party a near impossible task,
which led to a rule by coalitions.
• Article 48: Gave the President the powers to impose emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by
decree.
• The republic was not received well by its own people largely because of it had to accept the
peace treaty of Versailles after Germany's defeat at the end of the First World War.

Treaty of Versailles

→ Germany lost its overseas colonies. → 13 percent of its territories.

→ 75 percent of its iron. → 26 percent of its coal.
→ Allied Powers demilitarised Germany. → Pay compensation of £6 billion.
Lost resource-rich Rhineland.

• Many Germans held the new Weimer Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the war but
the disgrace at Versailles.

The Effects of the War

• The war had a devastating impact on Europe both psychologically and financially.
• From being a creditor, Europe became a debtor.
• The supporters of the Weimer Republic were criticised and became easy targets of attack in the
conservative nationalist circles.
• Soldiers came to be placed above civilians.
• Aggressive war propaganda and national honour became important.

Political Radicalism and Economic Crisis

 • The Spartacist League was established on the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
• The Spartacists founded the Communist Party of Germany.
• The Weimar Republic crushed the uprising with the help of a war veterans organisation called
Free Corps.
• In 1923, Germany refused to pay the war compensations so, France occupied its leading
industrial area, Ruhr.
• To counter this, Germany started printing paper currency recklessly.
→ The value of the mark collapsed and the prices of goods rose. There was hyperinflation.

The Years of Depression

• Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929.
• Between 1929 and 1932, the national income of the USA fell by half.
• The effects of this recession in the US economy were felt worldwide.

Effects on Germany
• Germany received short-term loans largely from the US.
• Industrial production reduced.
• Workers lost their jobs.
• Youth took to criminal activities.
• Small businessmen and self-employed suffered as their businesses got ruined.
• People lost confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which seemed to offer no
solutions.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

• Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. He acted as a messenger, corporal in the First World War.
• He joined the German Workers Party and renamed it National Socialist German Workers' Party.
→ This later came to be known as the Nazi Party.
→ By 1932, it had become the largest party with 37 percent votes.

PROMISE?
• Nazism became a mass movement only during the Great Depression.
• By 1932, it had become the largest party with 37 percent votes.

The Destruction of Democracy

• On 30 January 1933, Hitler achieved the highest position in the cabinet of ministries.
• Hitler now set out to dismantle the structures of democratic rule.
• The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and
assembly.
• Communists were hurriedly packed off to newly established concentration camps.
• All political parties were banned.
• Special surveillance and security forces were created to control the people and rule with
impunity.

Reconstruction

• Hjalmar Schacht took over the responsibility of economic recover.

 • The state funded project produced the famous German superhighways and the people’s car, the
Volkswagen.
• Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936.
• He integrated Austria and Germany in 1938.
• Acquired German-speaking Sudentenland.
• Hitler chose war to recover from economic crisis.

World War II

• On September 1939, Germany invaded Poland

• Started a war with France and England.
• In September 1940, a Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy and Japan.
• In June 1941, Germany attacked Soviet Union.
• Germany exposed through both sides.
→ From the western front – to Britishers.
→ From the eastern front – to Soviet Armies.
• Soviet Army defeated Germany at Stalingrad.
• Japan bombed the US base at Pearl Harbor.
• US entered the war.
• US drops atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
• The war ended in May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat.

The Nazi World View

• According to Nazi ideology there was no equality between people, but only racial hierarchy.
→ Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were at the lowest while all other races are
between them.
• New territories had to be acquired for settlement of Nordic German Aryans race.

The Racial Utopia

• Hitler divided and occupied north-western Poland.

• Poles were forced to leave their homes.
• Educated Polish classes were murdered.

Youth in Nazi Germany

• All schools were cleansed and purified means Jews teachers were dismissed.
• Jews, the physically handicapped and Gypsies were thrown out of schools and later sent to the
gas chambers.
• A prolonged period of ideological training for good German students.
• School textbooks were rewritten.
• Racial science was introduced to justify Nazi ideas of race.
• Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews, and worship Hitler.
• Ten-year-olds had to enter Jungvolk.
• At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation – Hitler Youth.
• They joined the Labour Service at 18.

The Art of Propaganda

 • Mass killings were termed special treatment, final solution, euthanasia, selection and
disinfection.
• Nazi ideas were spread through visual images, films, radio, posters, catchy slogans and leaflets.
• In posters, enemies of Germans such as Jews were shown as evil.
Crimes against Humanity
• Many people were influence by the idea of Nazi.
• They believed Nazism would bring prosperity and improve general well-being.
• Every German was not a Nazi.
• Large majority of Germans were passive onlookers.

The Holocaust

• Jews collected and preserved documents wrote diaries, kept notebooks, and created archives
which are called the Holocaust.

• Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the
Nazi killing operations.