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1. Louis XVI
   (i) In 1774, he became the king of France at the age of 20. At that time, he was quite unaware of the problems of the common masses.
   (ii) Upon his accession, the royal treasury was empty. Instead of curtailing his own extravagant lifestyle, he increased taxes. This bought severe dissatisfaction among the French people. Being pleasure- loving, he misused money on wasteful festivities.
   (iii) His wife Marie Antoinette constantly interfered in the administration but the king never objected to it. He lacked far sightedness. This drawback of his personality made him a quite unpopular king.
   (iv) He never took heed to the common man’s demands. Consequently, the French Revolution took place and he and his wife were guillotined.
   Taxation Policy
   (i) The French was divided into First, Second and Third Estates.
   (ii) First and Second Estates which formed 10 per cent of the total population were clergy and nobles and were exempted from all taxes and enjoyed all privileges.
   (iii) The remaining 90 per cent population of the Third Estate paid all kinds of direct or indirect taxes. Members of Third Estate believed that no group in society should be privileged by birth.
2. (i) Jean Locke sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute rights of the rulers in his book ‘Two Treaties of Government’.
   (ii) John Jacques Rousseau was a French philosopher who carried the idea of Locke forward, proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representative.
   (iii) Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. His ideas were proposed in his book, ‘The Spirit of the Law’. According to him, there should be a division of power between the three important organs— the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
   The ideas of these philosophers were discussed by common people in salons and coffee houses and inspired them to struggle for their rights.
3. The system and conditions are as follows:
   (i) First and Second Estate—Clergy and nobility who owned 60% of land and enjoyed all privileges and paid no taxes.
   (ii) Third Estate— 90% of population comprised of peasants, artisans, and landless. They did all work and paid all taxes.
   (iii) Middle Class–New social group of rich educated society, i.e., lawyers, doctors, judges and rich businessmen.
   They had no political rights.
   They dreamt of society based on merit.
   They provided leadership.
4. Following circumstances paved the way for the outbreak for the revolutionary protest:
   (i) Louis XVI ruled like an autocrat and the people had no voice in any decision. The Estates General (French Parliament) had not been convened for many years. The French administration was inefficient, corrupt and dis-organised. It did not give weightage to the common masses.
   (ii) Under Louis XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from Britain. The war added more than a billion livres to a debt that had already risen to more than 2 billion livres.
   (iii) Lenders who gave the state credit, now began to charge 10 per cent interest on loans. So, the French government was obliged to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payment alone.
   (iv) The state finally increased taxes to meet its regular expenses such as the cost of maintaining an army, running government offices or universities.
   (v) The French society was divided into three estates but only members of the Third Estate (peasants, artisans, workers, etc.) had to pay taxes. The members of the first two estates, i.e. the clergy and the nobility belonged to privileged class. Thus, the burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the Third Estate alone.
   (vi) The middle class that emerged in the 18th century France was educated and enlightened. They refuted the theory of divine right of kings and absolute monarchy. They had access to the various ideas of equality and freedom proposed by the philosophers like Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, etc.
5. Marseillaise was a patriotic song composed by the poet Reget de L’Isle. It was sung for the first time by volunteers from Marseille.
   Formation of Marseillaise
   Although Louis XVI signed the constitution, he entered into secret negotiations with the King of Prussia. The emperors of the other neighbouring countries too were worried by the developments in France and made some plans to send troops to put down the events that had been taking place there since the summer of 1789. Before this could happen, the National Assembly voted in April 1792, and declared war against Prussia and Austria. Thousands of volunteers thronged from the provinces to join the army. Marseillaise was sung for the first time by the volunteers from Marseilles as they marched into Paris and so got its name. Now, the Marseillaise is the national anthem of France.
6. Jacobin Club:
   It was a political club formed to discuss government policies and plan their own forms of action. Its members mainly belonged to the less prosperous section of society.
   Their Contribution:
   (i) In 1792, they planned an insurrection of people of Paris.
   (ii) They stormed the palace of the Tuileries, massacred the king’s guards and held the king hostage for several hours.
   (iii) Elections were held, and men of 21 years or above, regardless of wealth, got the right to vote.
   (iv) Convention was formed.
7. Jacobin Clubs belonged mainly to the less prosperous section of society. Measures taken by Robespierre:
   (i) Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and prices.
   Meat and bread were rationed.
   (ii) Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it at prices fixed by the government.
   (iii) The use of more expensive white flour was forbidden. All citizens were required to eat the pain d’ègalite (equality bread), a loaf made of whole wheat.
   (iv) Equality was also sought to be practised through forms of speech and address.
   (v) Instead of the traditional Monsieur (Sir) and Madame (Madam) all French men and women were henceforth Citoyen and Citoyenne (citizen).
   (vi) Churches were shut down and their buildings converted into barracks or offices.
8. Maximilian Robespierre was the leader of Jacobin Club.
   (i) The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror.
   (ii) Robespierre followed a policy of severe control and punishment.
   (iii) All those whom he saw as being ‘enemies’ of the republic—ex -nobles and clergy, members of other political parties, even members of his own party who did not agree with his methods—were arrested, imprisoned and then tried by a revolutionary tribunal. If the court found them ‘guilty’ they were guillotined.
   (iv) Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and prices.
   (v) Meat and bread were rationed. Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it at prices fixed by the government.
9. (i) The philosophers played an important role in the French Revolution. They inspired the common mass of France with their revolutionary ideas and prepared them to fight against injustices.
   (ii) They did not believe in the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch. In his Two Treatises of Government John Locke refuted this doctrine strongly.
   (iii) Rousseau carried the idea forward proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives.
   (iv) In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary.
   (v) The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in saloons and coffee-houses and spread among people through books and newspapers. These were frequently read aloud in groups for the benefit of those who were illiterate. Thus, the philosophers contributed a lot in bringing of the French Revolution.
10. The revolutionary government introduced various laws to improve the lives of women–
    (i) Women were active participants in the events.
    (ii) Most of the women of Third Estate had to work for a living.
    (iii) They worked as seamstresses or laundresses, sold flowers, fruits and vegetables at the market.
    (iv) They were employed as domestic servants in the house of prosperous people.
    (v) They could not get education or job training.
    (vi) Working women had also to take care of their families. i.e. cook, fetch water, queue up for bread and look after the children.
    (vii) Their wages were also lower than men.
    (viii) In order to voice their interests, women began their own political clubs and newspaper.
    (ix) They demanded the right to vote, to be elected to the Assembly and hold political office.
11. Reluctance of Europeans to go and work in new and distant lands meant a shortage of labour on the plantations. So this was met by a triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa and the America. Port cities like Bordeaux and Nantes owed their economic prosperity to the flourishing slave trade.
    The exploitation of slave labour made it possible to meet the growing demand in European markets for sugar, coffee and indigo.
    Steps taken to abolish slave trade:
    (i) In the 18th century, there was little criticism of slavery in France.
    (ii) The National Assembly held long debates about whether the rights of man should be extended to all French subjects, including those in the colonies. But it did not pass any laws, fearing opposition from businessmen whose incomes depended on the slave trade.
    (iii) It was finally the convention which in 1794 legislated to free all slaves in the French overseas possessions.
    (iv) However, this turned out to be a short-term measure. Ten years later, Napolean reintroduced slavery.
    (v) Plantation owners under-stood their freedom as including the right to enslave African Negroes in pursuit of their economic interests.
    (vi) In 1848, Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies.
12. (i) In 1804, Nepoleon Bonaparte declared himself the ruler of France and reintroduced monarchy in France.
    (ii) He conquered his neighbouring countries and made kingdoms, where he kept his own family members.
    (iii) He saw his role as a moderniser of Europe, and introduced a uniform system of weights and measures provided by the decimal system.
    (iv) His ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French Revolution.
    (v) Inspired from these, colonised people reworked the idea of freedom from bondage into their movements to create a sovereign nation-state.
13. The French Revolution proved to be the most important event in the history of the world.
    (i) The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French Revolution. These ideas became an inspiring force for the political movements in the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
    (ii) The French Revolutionary ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity spread from France to the rest of Europe, where feudal systems were finally abolished.
    (iii) Colonised peoples reworked the idea of freedom from bondage into their movements to create a sovereign nation state.
    (iv) The idea of nationalism that emerged after the French Revolution started mass movements all over the world. Now, people began to question the absolute power.
    (v) The impact of the French Revolution could be seen on India too. Tipu Sultan and Raja Ram Mohan Roy got deeply influenced by the ideas of the revolution. In nutshell, we can say that for the first time after the French Revolution, people all over the world became aware of their rights.

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