Page 15 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS

1. Describe the circumstances leading to the outbreak of revolutionary protest in France?
Ans. The following circumstances led to the outbreak of revolutionary protest in France:
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
(i) Louis XVI was an autocratic ruler who could not compromise with his luxurious life.
He also lacked farsightedness.
(ii) When he ascended the throne the royal treasury was empty. Long years of war had
drained the financial resources of France. And the cost of maintaining an extravagant
court at the immense palace of Versailles.
(iii) 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. Credit,
now began to charge 10% interest on loans. So the French government was obliged to
spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payments alone.
(iv) The state finally increased taxes to meet its regular expenses such as the cost of
maintaining an army, running government offices and universities.
(v) The French society was divided into three estates but the members of the first two
estates i.e, the clergy and the nobles were exempted to pay taxes. They belonged to
privileged class. Thus the burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was
borne by the third estate only.
(vi) The middle class that emerged in the 18th century France was educated and enlightened
one. They refuted the theory of divine rights of the kings and absolute monarchy. They
believed that a person’s social position must depend on his merit. They had access to the
various ideas of equality and freedom proposed by philosophers like John Locke, Jean
Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu etc. Their ideas became popular among the common
mass as a result of intensive discussions and debates in saloons and coffee houses and
through books and newspapers.
(vii) The French administration was extremely corrupt. It did not give weightage to the
French Common man.

2. Which groups of French society benefited from the revolution? Which groups were forced to
relinquish power? Which sections of society would have been disappointed with the outcome of
the revolution?
Ans. French society was divided into three estates. The third estate benefitted the most from the
revolution. The third estate consisted of Peasants, artisans, Small peasants, landless labour,
servants, big businessmen, merchants, court officials, lawyers, women etc.
The groups that were forced to relinquish power were the people belonging to the First and
second estate. These people had enjoyed certain privileges by birth.
With the revolution, the people in First and Second estate lost their privileges. Because inequality
was one of the root causes of the revolution, the revolution tried to bring equality to the society.

3. Describe the legacy of the French Revolution for the peoples of the world during the nineteenth
and the twentieth centuries.
Ans. 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 umpiring force for the political movements in the
world in the 19th and 20th centuries.
(ii) The ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity spread from France to the rest of Europe,
and the feudal system was also finally abolished.
(iii) Colonised people reworked on the idea of freedom from bondage into their movements
to create a sovereign nation-state.

History Class IX H-13