HISTORY NOTES CLASS 10[CBSE] CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Introduction
14th July 1789 - City of Paris was alarmed - King Commanded troops to move into the city - rumours spread that the army would open fire upon the citizens - 7,000 men and women formed people's militia in front of town hall - they broke into a number of government buildings in search of arms - A group of several hundred people stormed the fortress - prison, the Bastille - Hoped to find hoarded ammunition - Commander of the Bastille was killed and seven prisoners released - It stood for the despotic power of the king - Fortress was demolished - Stone fragments were sold in the market - Most people were protesting against the high price of bread.
Part 1: French Society During the Late 18th Century
👉🏻 1774 - Louis XVI of Bourbon family ascended the throne of France - 20 years of age - married to the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette - empty treasury due to long years of wars and cost of maintaining an extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles
👉🏻 Under Louis XVI, France helped 13 American colonies to gain independence from Britain, added more than 1 billion livres to the debt - total debt - more than 2 billion livres - lenders charged 10% interest on loans.
👉🏻 To meet this interest and its regular expenses, the state increased taxes, and the feudal system added to the problems.
👉🏻 Feudal System, Old Regime, Society of Estates
First Estate (Church clergy) — Second Estate (Nobility) — Third Estate (Big businessmen, merchants, court officials, lawyers, peasants, artisans, small peasants, servants)
A: 90% of the population - peasants, mostly landless.
B: 60% of the land was owned by nobles, the church, and richer members of the Third Estate.
C: 1st and 2nd estates enjoyed privileges by birth - exemption from paying taxes to the state - collection of feudal dues from peasants - peasants were obliged to render services to the lord.
D: Church extracted tax from peasants.
E: All members of the Third Estate had to pay the Taille (direct tax) and various indirect taxes.
1.1 The Struggle to Survive
👉🏻 Population in France - from 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in 1789.
👉🏻 Rapid increase in the demand for food grains, but production could not keep pace.
👉🏻 The price of bread rose rapidly.
👉🏻 Most workers were employed as laborers with fixed wages, but the wages were not up to the mark.
👉🏻 So, the gap between the poor and the rich widened.
👉🏻Drought or hail reduced the harvest and worsened the situation.
👉🏻 This led to a subsistence crisis, an extreme situation where the basic means of livelihood are endangered.
1.3. A Growing Middle Class Envisages an End to Privileges
👉🏻 Peasants and workers had participated in revolts against increasing taxes and food scarcity but lacked the means and programs to effect orderly change. This task was left to the prosperous and those with access to education.
👉🏻 Middle class - earned their wealth through expanding overseas trade and manufacturing goods - also included professionals such as lawyers or administrative officials, and were against privilege by birth.
👉🏻 Ideas of a society based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all, were advocated by philosophers such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
👉🏻 "Two Treatises of Government," - by John Locke - against the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch.
👉🏻 Rousseau proposed the idea of a form of government based on a social contract between the people and their representatives.
👉🏻 "The Spirit of the Laws" - by Montesquieu - proposed the division of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. This concept was put into force in the USA when the 13 colonies gained independence from Britain.
👉🏻 These ideas were discussed in salons and coffeehouses - spread through books and newspapers - and often read aloud in groups.
👉🏻 News of Louis XVI planning to impose further taxes generated anger and protests against the system.
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