Introduction

French revolution started in 1789. The series of events started by the middle class
shaken the upper classes. The people revolted against the cruel regime of
monarchy. This revolution put forward the ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality.

• The revolution began on 14th July, 1789 with the storming of the fortress-prison,
the Bastille.
→The Bastille, the fortress prison was hated by all, because it stood for the
despotic power of the king.
→ The fortress was demolished.

Causes of the French Revolution:

Social Cause

French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century

The term ‘Old Regime’ is usually used to describe the society and institutions of
France before 1789.

The society was divided into three estates.

1. 1st Estate: Clergy (Group of persons involved in church matters)
2. 2nd Estate: Nobility (Persons who have high rank in state administration)
3. 3rd Estate: (Comprises of Big businessmen, merchants, court officials, lawyers,
Peasants and artisans, landless labour, servants)

• First two classes were exempted from paying taxes. They enjoyed privileges by
birth. Nobility classes also enjoyed feudal privileges.

• Only the members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state.
→ Direct tax called taille and also a number of indirect taxes which were charged
on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco.
• A tax called Tithe was also collected by the church from the peasants.

• Clergy and Nobility were 10% of the population but possessed 60% of lands.
Third Estate was 90% of the population but possessed 40% of the lands.

Economic Cause

Subsistence Crisis

• The population of France rose from about 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in

1789.

• This increased the demand for the foodgrains. However, production could not
keep pace with the demand which ultimately increased the prices of the foodgrains.

• Most workers work as labourers in the workshops and they didn’t see increase in
their wages.

• Situation became worse whenever drought or hail reduced the harvest.

• This led to the scarcity of foodgrains or Subsistence Crisis which started

occurring frequently during old regime.

Political Cause

• Louis XVI came into the power in 1774 and found empty treasury.

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

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

• An extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles also cost a lot.

• 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.

Growing Middle Class

• The eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of social groups, termed the
middle class, who earned their wealth through overseas trade, from manufacturing
of goods and professions.

• This class was educated believed that no group in society should be privileged by
birth.

• They were inspired by the ideas put forward by the various philosophers and
became a matter of talk intensively for these classes in salons and coffee-houses
and spread among people through books and newspapers.

• The American constitution and its guarantee of individual rights was an important
example for political thinkers in France.

Philosophers and their contribution in revolution

• John Locke: (written a book named ‘Two Treatises of Government’) in which he

criticized the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch.

• Jean Jacques Rousseau (written a book named ‘Social Contract’) in which he

proposed a form of government based on a social contract between people and
their representatives.

• Montesquieu (written a book named ‘The Spirit of the Laws’) in which he

proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the
executive and the judiciary.

The Outbreak of the Revolution

• Louis XVI called an assembly of the Estates General to pass his proposals to
increase taxes on 5th May 1789.

• The first and second estates sent 300 representatives each, who were seated in
rows facing each other on two sides, while the 600 members of the third estate had
to stand at the back.

• The third estate was represented by its more prosperous and educated members
only while peasants, artisans and women were denied entry to the assembly.

• Voting in the Estates General in the past had been conducted according to the
principle that each estate had one vote and same practice to be continued this time.
But members of the third estate demanded individual voting right, where each
member would have one vote.

• After rejection of this proposal by the king, members of the third estate walked
out of the assembly in protest.

• On 20th June, the representatives of the third estate assembled in the hall of an
indoor tennis court in the grounds of Versailles where they declared themselves a
National Assembly and vowed to draft a constitution for France that would limit
the powers of the monarch.

• Mirabeau, a noble and Abbé Sieyès, a priest led the third estate.

• While the National Assembly was busy at Versailles drafting a constitution, the
rest of France was in trouble.

• Severe winter destroyed the food crops which resulted in increase in the prices.
The bakers also hoarded supplies of breads for making greater profit.

• After spending hours in long queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women
stormed into the shops.
• At the same time, the king ordered troops to move into Paris. On 14 July, the
agitated crowd stormed and destroyed the Bastille.

• In the countryside rumours spread from village to village that the lords of the
manor were on their way to destroy the ripe crops through their hired gangs.

• Due to fear, peasants in several districts attacked the castle of nobles, looted
hoarded grain and burnt down documents containing records of manorial dues.

• Large numbers of noble fled from their homes and many migrated to
neighbouring countries.

• Louis XVI finally recognised the National Assembly and accepted the
constitution.

• On 4th August, 1789, France passed the law for abolishing the feudal system of
obligations and taxes.

• The member of clergy were also forced to give up their privileges.

• Tithes were abolished and lands owned by the Church were confiscated.

France Becomes a Constitutional Monarchy

• The National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution in 1791 which
main object was to limit the powers of the monarch.

• The powers were now separated and assigned to different institutions – the
legislature, executive and judiciary which made France a constitutional monarchy.

• The Constitution of 1791 gave the power of making laws in the hands of National
Assembly, which was indirectly elected.
• The National Assembly was elected by a group of electors, which were chosen by
active citizens.

• Active Citizens comprises of only men above 25 years of age who paid taxes
equal to at least 3 days of a labourer’s wage.

• The remaining men and all women were classed as passive citizens who had no
voting rights.

France Constitution at that time

• The Constitution began with a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

• Rights such as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, equality
before law, were given to each human being by birth and could not be taken away.

• It was the duty of the state to protect each citizen’s natural rights.
• Various Political Symbols:
→ The broken chain: stands for the act of becoming free.
→ The bundle of rods or fasces: Show strength lies in unity.
→ The eye within a triangle radiating light: The all-seeing eye stands for
knowledge.
→ Sceptre: Symbol of royal power.
→ Snake biting its tail to form a ring: Symbol of Eternity.
→ Red Phrygian cap: Cap worn by a slave upon becoming free.
→ Blue-white-red: The national colours of France.
→ The winged woman: Personification of the law.
→ The Law Tablet: The law is the same for all, and all are equal before it.

France Abolishes Monarchy and Becomes a Republic

• Louis XVI had signed the Constitution, but he entered into secret negotiations
with the King of Prussia.
• Rulers of other neighbouring countries too were worried by the developments in
France and made plans to send troops to stop the revolutionary events taking place.

• Before this could happen, the National Assembly voted in April 1792 to declare
war against Prussia and Austria.

• Thousands of volunteers joined the army from the provinces to join the army.

• People saw this war as a war of the people against kings and aristocracies all over
Europe.

• The patriotic song Marseillaise, composed by the poet Roget de L’Isle was sung
for the first time by volunteers from Marseilles as they marched into Paris which is
now the national anthem of France.

• The revolutionary wars brought losses and economic difficulties to the people.

• The Constitution of 1791 gave political rights only to the richer sections of
society.

• Political clubs were established by the people who wished to discuss government
policies and plan their own forms of action.

• The most successful of these clubs was that of the Jacobins.

• The members of the Jacobin club belonged mainly to the less prosperous sections
of society such as small shopkeepers, artisans as well as servants and daily-wage
workers. Their leader was Maximilian Robespierre.

• Jacobins start wearing long striped trousers and came to be known as the sans-
culottes, literally meaning those without knee breeches.

• In the summer of 1792 the Jacobins planned a revolt of a large number of the
people of Paris who were angered by the short supplies and high prices of food.
• On August 10, they stormed the Palace of the Tuileries, massacred the king’s
guards and held the king himself as hostage for several hours.

• Later the Assembly voted to imprison the royal family. Elections were held.

• From now on all men of 21 years and above, regardless of wealth, got the right to
vote.

• The newly elected assembly was called the Convention.

• On 21st September 1792, it abolished the monarchy and declared France a

republic.

• Louis XVI was sentenced to death by a court on the charge of treason.

• The queen Marie Antoinette met with the same fate shortly after.

The Reign of Terror

• The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror as Robespierre
followed a policy of severe control and punishment.

• All his enemies, Ex-nobles, clergy, members of other political parties, even
members of his own party who did not agree with his methods were arrested,
imprisoned and guillotined.

• Robespierre’s government issued laws placing a maximum ceiling on wages and

prices.
→ Meat and bread were rationed.
→ Peasants were forced to transport their grain to the cities and sell it at prices
fixed by the government.
→ The use of more expensive white flour was forbidden and all citizens were
required to eat the equality bread, a loaf made of whole wheat.
• Instead of the traditional Monsieur (Sir) and Madame (Madam) all French men
and women were addressed as Citoyen and Citoyenne (Citizen).

• Churches were shut down and their buildings converted into barracks or offices.

• Robespierre pursued his policies so harshly that even his supporters began to
demand moderation.

• Finally, he was convicted by a court in July 1794, arrested and on the next day
sent to the guillotine.
(The guillotine is a device consisting of two poles and a blade with which a person
is beheaded. It was named after Dr. Guillotin who invented it.)

A Directory Rules France

• A new constitution was introduced which denied the vote to non-propertied

sections of society.

• It provided for two elected legislative councils which then appointed a Directory,
an executive made up of five members.

• The Directors often clashed with the legislative councils, who then sought to
dismiss them.

• The political instability of the Directory paved the way for the rise of a military
dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Women Revolution

• From the very beginning women were active participants in revolution.

• They hoped that their involvement would pressurise the revolutionary

government to introduce measures to improve their lives.
• Most women of the third estate had to work for a living as laundresses, sellers,
domestic servants in the houses of prosperous people.

• Most women did not have access to education or job training.

• To discuss and voice their interests women started their own political clubs and
newspapers.
→ The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was the most famous of
them.

• Women were disappointed that the Constitution of 1791 reduced them to passive
citizens.

• They demanded the right to vote, to be elected to the Assembly and to hold
political office.

• The revolutionary government did introduce laws that helped improve the lives of
women.
→ By creation of state schools, schooling was made compulsory for all girls.
→ 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.
→ Divorce was made legal, and could be applied for by both women and men.
→ Women could now train for jobs, could become artists or run small businesses.

• During the Reign of Terror, the new government issued laws ordering closure of
women’s clubs and banning their political activities.
→ Many prominent women were arrested and a number of them executed.

• It was finally in 1946 that women in France won the right to vote.

The Abolition of Slavery

• The unwillingness of Europeans to go and work in the colonies in the Caribbean
which were important suppliers of commodities such as tobacco, indigo, sugar and
coffee created a shortage of labour on the plantations. Thus, the slave trade began
in the seventeenth century.

→ French merchants sailed from their ports 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.

• Port cities like Bordeaux and Nantes owed their economic prosperity to the
flourishing slave trade.

• The National Assembly held long debates for 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.

• Jacobin regime in 1794, abolished slavery in the French colonies.

• However, ten years later, Napoleon reintroduced slavery.

• Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies in 1848.

The Revolution and Everyday Life

• After the storming of the Bastille in the summer of 1789 was the abolition of
censorship.
• The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen proclaimed freedom of speech
and expression to be a natural right.

• Newspapers, pamphlets, books and printed pictures flooded the towns of France
from where they travelled rapidly into the countryside and described and discussed
the events and changes taking place in France.

• Plays, songs and festive processions attracted large numbers of people which was
one way they could grasp and identify with ideas such as liberty or justice.

Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte

• After the end of reign of terror, directory created political instability.

• In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France.

• He conquered many neighbouring countries and placed members of his family on

the crown

• Napoleon saw his role as a moderniser of Europe.

• He introduced many laws such as the protection of private property and a uniform
system of weights and measures provided by the decimal system.

• Initially, many welcomed Napoleon as a liberator who would bring freedom for
the people. But soon the Napoleonic armies came to be viewed everywhere as an
invading force.

• He was finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815.

Legacy of the French Revolution

• The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the
French Revolution.

• These spread from France to the rest of Europe during the nineteenth century,
where feudal systems were abolished.

• Later, these ideas were adopted by Indian revolutionary strugglers, Tipu Sultan
and Rammohan Roy also.
The Age of Social Change

• The French Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a dramatic change in

the way in which society was structured.

• Not everyone in Europe, however, wanted a complete transformation.

• Some were ‘conservatives’, while others were ‘liberals’ or ‘radicals’.

Who were Conservatives?

• They resisted change.

• After the revolution, they started accepting change provided it was slow and had
links and respected the past.

Who were Liberals?

• They wanted a nation which tolerated all religions.

• They argued for an elected parliamentary government, subject to laws interpreted

by a well trained judiciary that was independent of rulers and officials.

• They were not Democrats.

Who were Radicals?

• They wanted a nation in which government was based on the majority of

a country’s population.

• They disliked concentration of property in hands of a few, not the existence of

private property.

Industrial Society and Social Change

• This was the time of economic and social change.

• Men, women and children were pushed into factories for low wages.

• Most of the factory owners were often liberals and radicals and they felt that
workers’ efforts must be encouraged.

The Coming of Socialism to Europe

• Socialists were against private property.

• They had different visions of the future.

• Some believed in cooperatives.

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels added that industrial society was capitalist.

Support for Socialism

• By the 1870s, socialist ideas spread through Europe.

• Workers in England and Germany began forming associations to fight for better
living and working conditions.

The Russian Revolution

• In 1914, Nicholas II ruled the Russian empire.

• The Russian Empire included territory around Moscow, current-day Finland,

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, parts of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.

Economy and Society during Russian Empire

• About 85 percent of the Russian empire’s population earned their living from
agriculture.
• The industry was limited in number.

• Workers were divided into groups but they did unite to strike work when they
were dissatisfied.

• Peasants had no respect for nobility, very unlike the French peasant.

• Russian peasants were the only peasant community which pooled their land and
their commune divided it.

Socialism in Russia

• All political parties were illegal in Russia before 1914.

• In 1900, the Russian Socialist Democratic Labour Party was formed.

→ It struggled to give peasants their rights over land that belonged to nobles.

→ As land was divided among peasants periodically and it was felt that peasants
and not workers would be the main source of the revolution.

• But Lenin did not agree with this as he felt that peasants were not one social
group.
→ The party was divided into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
→ Lenin led Bolshevik group.

A Turbulent Time: The 1905 Revolution

• Liberals wanted to end of the autocracy of the Tsar.

• They worked towards demanding a constitution during the Revolution of 1905.

Bloody Sunday
• In 1904, Prices of essential goods rose so quickly that real wages declined by 20
percent.

• When four members of the Putilov Iron Works were dismissed, there was a call
for industrial action.

• Over 110,000 workers in St. Petersburg went on strike demanding a reduction in

working hours and increase in wages.
→ This procession was attacked by the police and Cossacks.
→ Over 100 workers were killed.
→ Strikes took place as a reaction.
→ People demanded a constituent assembly.

• The Tsar allowed the creation of an elected consultative Parliament or Duma.

→ The Tsar dismissed the first Duma within 75 days and announced the election
of a second Duma.
→ Tsar constituted the third Duma with conservative politicians.

The First World War and the Russian Empire

• In Russia, the first world war was initially very popular but later the support grew
thin.

• Anti-German sentiments ran high.

• Russian armies lost badly in Germany and Austria.

• The war also affected the industry.

• There was labour shortage.

• By 1916, railway lines began to break down.

• The small workshops were closed down.

• There was shortage of grain and hence of bread.

The February Revolution in Petrograd

Events

• In the winter of 1917, Petrograd was grim.

→ There was a food shortage in the quarters of workers.

• On 22th February, a lockout took place at a factory.

→ Workers of 50 other factories joined in sympathy.
→ Women also led and participated in the strikes. This came to be called the
International Women’s Day.

• The government imposed a curfew.

• On the 24th and 25th, the government called out the cavalry and police to keep an
eye on them.

• On 25th February, the government suspended the Duma and politicians spoke
against this measure.

• On 27th February, the police headquarters were ransacked.

→ Cavalry was called out again.
→ An officer was shot at the barracks of a regiment and other regiments mutinied,
voting to join the striking workers gathered to form a Soviet or council. This was
the Petrograd Soviet.

• A delegation went to meet the Tsar, military commanders advised him to

abdicate.

• On 2nd March, the Tsar abdicated.

• Soviet leaders and Duma leaders formed a Provisional Government to run the
country.
Effects

• Restrictions on public meetings and associations were removed.

• Soviets were set up everywhere.

• In individual areas, factory committees were formed which began questioning the
way industrialists ran their factories.
→ Soldiers' committees were formed in the army.

• The provisional government saw its power declining and Bolshevik influence
grow.
→ Therefore, it decided to take stern measures against the spreading discontent.

• It resisted attempts by workers to run factories and arrested leaders.

• Peasants and the socialist revolutionary leaders pressed for a redistribution of

land.
→ Land committees were formed and peasants seized land between July and
September 1917.

The Revolution of October 1917

Events

• On 16th October 1917, Lenin persuaded the Petrograd Soviet and Bolshevik
Party to agree to a socialist seizure of power.
→ A Military Revolutionary Committee was appointed by the Soviet to organise
seizure.

• Uprising began on 24th October.

→ Prime Minister Kerenskii left the city to summon troops.
→ Pro-government troops were sent to take over telephone and telegraph offices
and protect the Winter Palace.

• In response, Military Revolutionary Committee ordered to seize government

offices and arrest the ministers.
→ The 'Aurora' ship shelled the Winter Palace.
→ Other ships took over strategic points.
→ By night the city had been taken over and ministers had surrendered.

• All Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd approved the Bolshevik action.

• By December, the Bolsheviks controlled the Moscow - Petrograd area.

Effects

• Most industry and banks were nationalised in November 1917.

• The land was declared social property and peasants were allowed to seize the
land of the nobility.

• Use of old titles was banned.

• New uniforms were designed for the army and officials.

• Russia became a one-party state.

• Trade unions were kept under party control.

The Civil War

• When the Bolsheviks ordered land redistribution, the Russian army began to
break up.

• Non-Bolshevik socialists, liberals and supporters of autocracy condemned the

Bolshevik uprising. → They were supported by French, American, British and
Japanese troops.
→ All these fought a war with the Bolsheviks.

Making a Socialist Society

• The Bolsheviks kept industries and banks nationalised during the civil war.

• Rapid construction and industrialisation started.

• An extended schooling system developed.

Stalin and Collective Farming

• Stalin believed that rich peasants and traders stocked supplies to create shortage
of grains. Hence, collectivisation was the need of the hour.

• Those farmers who resisted collectivisation were punished, deported or exiled.

Global Influence

• In many countries, communist parties were formed.

• By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, the USSR had given
socialism a global face and world stature.

• By the end of the twentieth century, the international reputation of the USSR as a
socialist country had declined.