WBBSE Chapter 1 Some Aspects Of The French Revolution Long Answer Questions
Question 1. What were the political causes of the French Revolution?
Answer: Political Causes Of The French Revolution:-
The most important event in European history during the 18th century was the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Many and various political, economic, social, and philosophical factors led to the revolution’s outbreak. Political causes of the French Revolution.
The king of France regarded himself as representative of God on earth and believed in the theory of ‘Divine Right’. He did not consider himself responsible to anybody for his actions. This will was law.
The administrative system of France before the revolution was completely rotten and inefficient. Louis XVI as the king of France acted arbitrarily. He spent a lot of money on maintaining his court at Versailles and for his luxuries.
The nobility of France became very powerful. They shamelessly accumulated power in their own hands. The French king became a puppet in the hands of the nobility.
The king had the fullest control over the subjects. He could imprison or punish any person with the help of ‘letters de cachet’. By this, any individual could be imprisoned for an indefinite period. The ‘letters’ were misused by the faithful officials of the king Thousands of persons were imprisoned in the Bastille which became a symbol of autocratic rule.
The administrative system was hopelessly unsatisfactory. The legal system was full of confusion. There was no uniform law for the whole of the country. For all these reasons the Frenchmen naturally became restive to put an end to the autocratic rule in France.
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Question 2.”France was a museum of economic errors.” Discuss. Or, What were the economic causes of the outbreak of the French Revolution?
Answer:
The Economic Structure Of France Was One Of The Causes Of The French Revolution:-
Louis XVI, the ruler of France, had drained the nation’s resources in successive wars.
Due to the rise of population in France, there was more demand for food grains. So the price of food soared and the poor could not afford to buy food. As a result, the gap between the rich and the poor widened.
There was a discriminatory tax system in France. The privileged class or the wealthier section of the total revenue collected by the government was paid by the privileged class and 96% was paid by the unprivileged class paid no tax to the government. On the other hand, the unprivileged class had to bear the burden of taxation. Only 4% of
The Third Estate had to pay different kinds of taxes like taille (land tax), capitation (production tax), vingtiemes (income tax), glabella (salt tax), tithe (Religious tax), corvee (labor tax) aides (tax on wine, tobacco, etc.) and so on.
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Moreover, the method of realizing the revenue was also faulty. The revenue was collected by the contractors who used to realize more than what was due from the farmers but they deposited in the royal treasury only a part of it and thus appropriated a good amount for their use. Thus whereas the peasants were exploited, the royal treasury was also being looted by the revenue officers.
Due to the faulty economic structure of France, Adam Smith has remarked, “France was a museum of economic errors.”
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Question 3. Describe the discriminatory tax system in France before the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Answer: Discriminatory Tax System In France Before The Outbreak Of The French Revolution:-
Before the outbreak of the French Revolution, French society was divided into two classes privileged and non-privileged. The privileged class or the wealthier section of society paid no tax to the government.
On the other hand, the unprivileged class had to bear the entire burden of taxation. Only 4% of the total revenue collected by the government was paid by the privileged class and 96% was paid by the unprivileged class.
Taille or direct land tax and tithes or religious tax were realized by the peasants. Vingtiemes or income tax, Gabella or salt tax, capitation or production tax, were also realized from them.
They had also to pay Aides or taxes on wine, tobacco, etc. The peasants had to work for the reconstruction of roads without any payment. This was known as corvee. Again they had to pay toll tax for using the same roads.
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Thus the French peasantry, which then constituted about 80% of the total population, had to deposit the lion’s share of their income to the king’s treasury as direct or indirect tax. After paying 80% of their income in taxation, the peasants hardly had any money to meet the necessities of life.
WBBSE Chapter 1 Some Aspects Of The French Revolution
Question 4. Describe the social structure of France before the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Answer: Before the outbreak of the French Revolution the society in France was based on a medieval structure. Society was divided into three estates:
First estate:
The clergy belonged to the first estate. They enjoyed certain privileges by birth. They were exempted from paying taxes to the state. They owned 10%-15% of all the land in France. The corrupt lifestyle of the clergy was reflected in its attempts to impose mortuary fees, marriage fees, and succession fees.
Second estate:
The second estate in France was composed of the French aristocracy and the landed class. They were also exempted from paying taxes. They enjoyed a large part of landed resources in the countryside.
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Third estate:
About 90% of the population of the third estate were peasants. They had to work in the fields of their landlords as well as in their houses. They had to pay direct taxes like taille and also several indirect taxes like capitation, vingtiemes, and so on. They also had to pay taxes on articles of everyday use. The third estate was the most exploited social class in 18th-century France.
Question 5. What were the two main classes into which French society was divided? Describe them. much society was divided?
Answer:
French society was divided into two main classes:
- The privileged and
- The unprivileged.
1. The privileged class:
The privileged class comprised the nobles, feudal lords, and the higher clergy. They enjoyed all rights and privileges. All important posts were reserved for them. Apart from high posts in the administration, the sons of the nobles were appointed to lucrative posts in the church. They used to collect various taxes from the commoners while they were free from all sorts of taxation. They led a life of pleasure, luxury, and immorality.
2. The unprivileged class:
The unprivileged class consisted of peasants, tenants, laborers, artisans, small traders, and shopkeepers. They were not given any privileges like the nobles. They had to pay taxes and were not appointed to any lucrative post. The revenue collectors tortured them severely. In case of non-payment of dues, the revenue staff used to torture them. They were greatly discontented with the prevailing system of government and the social system.
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Question 6. What was the role of French philosophers in the outbreak of the French Revolution?
Answer:
Denis Diderot:
Denis Diderot violently opposed all ancient institutions. He attacked the king’s autocracy, the privileges of the nobility and the church, and the defective tax system.
Physiocrats:
The economic thinkers of France criticized the economic policy of the French government. Economic thinkers like the physiocrats strongly criticized the mercantile doctrine and advocated free trade, privatization of trade, and industry. Quesnay and Adam Smith were the spokesmen of the doctrine of free trade and the removal of state control so far prevalent in the field of trade and commerce (Laissez-faire).
WBBSE Chapter 1 Some Aspects Of The French Revolution
Question 7. Did women in France play any role in 1789, the poorest women of France, angered by the Revolution in 1789?
Answer: From the very beginning, the women of France were active participants in the events related to the French Revolution of 1789.
Most women did not have access to education or job training. Only daughters of nobles or the wealthier members of the Third Estate could study at a convent. On 5 October 1789, the poorest Women of France, angered by the price rise and the indifferent attitude of the king to their misery, led a long march of 12 miles on the highway from Paris to Versailles shouting ‘Bread! Bread! Bread!’
To voice their concerns and issues, women started their own. political clubs and newspapers. About 60 women’s clubs came up in different cities in France. The ‘Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women’ was the most famous of these. Olympe de Gouges was one of the most politically active women of the revolutionary period in France.
The Constitution of 1791 reduced the rights of women. So they demanded the right to vote, the right to contest elections, and to hold political office.
During the Reign of Terror, the French government issued laws banning the political participation and activities of women and ordered the closure of women’s clubs. The fight for voting rights and equal wages continued. Finally, in 1946, women won the right to vote.
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Question 8. What were the causes of agrarian revolt (or, the spread of rural unrest) in France in 1789? What is its importance?
Answer: Various causes were responsible for the outbreak of the agrarian revolt in France in 1789.
The immediate cause of the revolt of the peasantry was the ‘Great Fear’. The ‘Great Fear’ was the rumor that spread in villages that criminals and brigands had been sent against the peasantry by the nobility. It was the plan made by the nobility to avenge their defeat in the States-General.
Another cause of the revolt of the peasants was the rise in the price of bread. A time came when higher prices could not procure bread.
The fall of Bastille and other violent incidents in different parts of France provoked the peasants to break out in rebellion.
The peasants who had been suffering for a long under feudal tyranny were disillusioned at the States-General meeting as they realized that it could not bring any change in their material life.
The importance of the agrarian revolt in France is as follows-
- It opened the eyes of the elected representatives of the people in the States-General.
- The violent incidents and the attacks upon the property of feudal lords by the rebel peasants convinced the elected representatives that for the security of their property, some concessions had to be granted.
- On August 14, 1789, the nobility and the clergy voluntarily renounced the privileges they had been enjoying for a long time. As a result, feudalism came to an end in France.
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Question 9. What was the role of the Jacobins? What were the causes of the downfall of the Jacobins?
Answer: After the downfall of the Girondists, the members of the Jacobin party were Danton, Marat, and Robespierre. To terrorize the supporters of the monarchy, they advocated the establishment of the Reign of Terror.
The chief organs of the Reign of Terror were
- The Committee of Public Safety,
- The Committee of General Security and
- Revolutionary Tribunal by which the suspects were put to death after a summary trial.
The chief weapons to establish control over the public of France were the ‘Law of Maximum’ and the ‘Law of Suspects’. Thousands of people were guillotined by the help of the ‘Law of Suspects’ on the grounds of mere suspicion.
Many were punished for non-compliance with the Law of Maximum. Thus during the Reign of Terror, they let loose tremendous atrocities on the people and put an end to the Girondists who opposed their policy.
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Various causes led to the downfall of the Jacobins.
- The differences of opinion among the Jacobins contributed to their downfall.
- The life and property of the people were not safe during the Reign of Terror and so the people opposed it.
- The Jacobin leader Robespierre began to interfere in the religious beliefs of the people which hurt their feelings
- The laborers were annoyed with the party as they had fixed their wages under the Law of Maximum.
- The machinery of the Reign of Terror alienated the sympathy of the people and the Jacobins lost their ground.
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Question 10. What were the results of the French Revolution?
Answer:
The results of the French Revolution of 1789 are discussed below-
- The revolution brought an end to the privileges of the clergy and the nobility.
- It laid down that every nation should be free to choose its form of government.
- It ended the arbitrary rule of the king and developed the idea of a peoples’ republic.
- It emphasized the principle of equality. All men were made equal in the eyes of the law.
- It asserted that each individual should have the liberty of speech, worship, and personal liberty.
- To the liberals, the principle of civil equality and national sovereignty offered a model for an exploitation-free, progressive socio-political system.
- After the revolution, the sovereign will of the people gained importance. No government could justify its existence unless it rested upon the consent of the people.
- The political developments in 1789 in France made the conservatives apprehensive of a further outbreak of revolutionary fervor.
- The ideas of democracy, nationalism, liberalism, and fraternity stirred the minds of European people.
- It inspired revolutionary movements in almost every country in Europe and South and Central America.