The French Revolution

Q68. Describe the triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa and America.
Or
Give a brief account of slave trade in France.
Or
Explain triangular slave trade carried on in 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Ans. The colonies in the Caribbean - Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingo - were important suppliers of commodities such as tobacco, indigo, sugar and coffee. But the reluctance of Europeans to go and work in distant and unfamiliar lands meant a shortage of labour on the plantations. So this was met by a triangular slave trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. The slave trade began in the seventeenth century. French merchants sailed from the ports of Bordeaux or Nantes to the African coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains. Branded and shackled, the slaves were packed tightly into ships for the three-month long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There they were sold to plantation owners. The exploitation of slave labour made it possible to meet the growing demand in European markets for sugar, coffee, and indigo.

Q69. Name the most important and famous society founded by women in France. What was their main demand and how did the revolutionary government help them to improve their lives?
Or
Describe the law introduced in France by Revolutionary Government to improve the lives of women.

Ans. The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous of them. One of their main demands was that women enjoy the same political rights as men.

In the early years, the revolutionary government did introduce laws that helped improve the lives of women.

                        i.        Schooling was made compulsory for all girls.

                       ii.        Their fathers could no longer force them into marriage against their will.    Marriage was made into a contract entered into freely and registered under civil law.

                      iii.        Divorce was made legal, and could be applied for by both women and men.

                      iv.        Women could now train for jobs, could become artists or run small businesses.

Q70. Explain any five economic condition of France that led to revolution.
Or
What were the economic causes of the French Revolution?

Ans. The economic conditions that led to the French Revolution were as follows:

    1.   Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France.

    2.   To meet its regular expenses, such as the cost of maintaining an army, the court, running government offices or universities, the state was forced to increase taxes.

    3.   French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estates, and only members of the third estate paid taxes.

    4.   The population of France rose rapidly which led to a rapid increase in the demand for food grains. Production of grains could not keep pace with the demand. So the price of bread rose rapidly.

    5.   Wages of the workers did not keep pace with the rise in prices. This led to a subsistence crisis.

 
Q71. How was the taxation responsible for the French revolution?
Or
Elaborate on how the taxation policy was responsible for the French revolution.

Ans. To meet its regular expenses, such as the cost of maintaining an army, the court, running government offices or universities, the state was forced to increase taxes. French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estates, and only members of the third estate paid taxes. The members of the first two estates, that is, the clergy and the nobility, enjoyed certain privileges by birth. The most important of these was exemption from paying taxes to the state. The Church too extracted its share of taxes called tithes from the peasants, and finally, all members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state. These included a direct tax, called taille, and a number of indirect taxes which were levied on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco. The burden of financing activities of the state through taxes was borne by the third estate alone. This is how the taxation policy was responsible for the French revolution.

Q72. State any 5 causes for the empty treasury of France under Louis XVI.
Or
What were the causes for the empty treasury of France under Louis XVI?
Or
What was the financial position of France at the time of Louis XVI?
Or
What were reasons behind an empty treasury upon the accession of Louis XVI in 1774?

Ans. Reasons behind an empty treasury upon the accession of Louis XVI in 1774 were:

     1.   Long years of war had drained the financial resources of France.

     2.   Added to this was the cost of maintaining an extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles.

     3.   Under Louis XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from the common enemy, Britain. The war added more than a billion livres to a debt that had already risen to more than 2 billion livres.

     4.   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 payments alone.

     5.   French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estates, and only members of the third estate paid taxes.

Q73. Who constituted the middle class in French society? How did they participate in French Revolution?
Or
‘The eighteenth century France witnessed the emergence of the middle class’. Who were they and what were their ideas?

Ans.

                       i.        The eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of social groups, termed the middle class, who earned their wealth through an expanding overseas trade and from the manufacture of goods. It also included included professions such as lawyers or administrative officials.

                      ii.        All of these 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.

                     iii.        These ideas envisaging a society based on freedom and equal laws and opportunities for all, were put forward by philosophers such as John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau.