The French Revolution

In 1789, in the wake of early morning, the city of Paris was in a state of alarm. Rumours
spread that the King would open fire upon the citizens. People started gathering, and
they started breaking down a number of government buildings in search of arms. The
commander of the Bastille was killed in the armed fight, and the prisoners were
released. People hated the Bastille as it stood for the despotic power of the king. People
protested against the high price of bread. A new chain of events began, which led to the
execution of the King in France.

French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century

Louis XVI, in 1774, ascended the throne of France. Financial France was drained
because of the war. France, under Louis XVI, helped the thirteen American colonies to
gain their independence from Britain. Taxes were increased to meet regular expenses,
such as the cost of maintaining an army, the court, and running government offices or
universities. The country of France was divided into three estates in the eighteenth
century. The feudal system was part of the society’s estates dating back to the middle
ages. 90 percent of the population was dominated by peasants, but only a small number
of them owned the land they cultivated. 60 percent was owned by nobles, the Church
and other richer members of the third estate. The clergy and the nobility, members of
the first two estates, enjoyed certain privileges by birth. These groups of members were
exempted from paying taxes and enjoyed feudal privileges. All members of the third
estate had to pay taxes to the state, which 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 Struggle to Survive

The increase in population led to a rapid increase in the requirement for food grains.
Production of grains could not keep pace with the demand, due to which the price of
bread rose rapidly. Due to the low wages paid to the labourers, the gap between the
poor and the rich widened. Things became worse whenever drought or hail reduced the
harvest.

A Growing Middle Class Envisages an End to Privileges

Peasants used to participate in revolts against taxes and food scarcity. The group of the
third estate had become prosperous and had access to education and new ideas. In the
eighteenth century, new social groups emerged, termed the middle class, who earned
their wealth through expanding overseas trade and by manufacturing woollen and silk
textiles that were either exported or bought by the richer members of society. The third
estate included professions such as lawyers or administrative officials. A person’s social
position was dependent on their merit.

All these groups 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. A new
form of government was proposed by Rousseau based on a social contract between
people and their representatives.

Similarly, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the
legislative, the executive and the judiciary. In the USA, this model of government was
put into force. Louis Louis XVI planned to impose further taxes to meet the expenses.

The Outbreak of the Revolution

In France, the monarch didn’t have the power to impose taxes. They had to call a
meeting of the Estates-General, a political body to which the three estates sent their
representatives, to pass proposals for new taxes. Louis XVI, on 5 May 1789, called an
assembly to pass proposals for new taxes. Representatives from the first and second
estates were present, and the third estate was represented by its prosperous and
educated members. According to the principle, each estate had one vote. But,
representatives from the third estate demanded each member would have one vote.
The demand was rejected, so members of the third estate walked out to protest. They
swore not to disperse till a constitution was drafted for France that would limit the
powers of the monarch.

Due to the severe winter, bread prices rose, and people had to spend hours in long
queues. Rumours spread that the lords of the manor hired bands of brigands to destroy
the ripe crops. In fear, peasants started looting hoarded grain and burnt down
documents containing records of manorial dues. Nobles fled from their homes. Louis
XVI accorded recognition to the National Assembly and accepted the principle that his
powers would, from now on, be checked by a constitution. The Assembly passed a
decree abolishing the feudal system of obligations and taxes on 4 August 1789. Tithes
were abolished, and lands owned by the Church were confiscated.

France Becomes a Constitutional Monarchy

In 1791, The National Assembly completed the draft of the constitution, and its main
object was to limit the powers of the monarch. These powers were now separated and
assigned to different institutions – the legislature, executive and judiciary. France
became a constitutional monarchy.

Citizens voted for a group of electors, who in turn chose the Assembly, but
unfortunately, not every citizen had the right to vote. Men above 25 years of age who
paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a labourer’s wage were entitled to vote. 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, and equality before the law were
established as ‘natural and inalienable’ rights; that is, they belonged to each human
being by birth and could not be taken away.

France Abolishes Monarchy and Becomes a Republic

In April 1792, the National Assembly voted for a war against Prussia and Austria.
Marseillaise became the national anthem of France. While men were away fighting in
the war, women took care of their families. Large sections of the population demanded
that the revolution had to be carried further, as the Constitution of 1791 gave political
rights only to the richer sections of society. Political clubs were formed, and among
them, Jacobins became the most successful club. Members of the Jacobin club
included small shopkeepers, artisans such as shoemakers, pastry cooks,
watch-makers, printers, as well as servants and daily-wage workers. Jacobin members
started wearing long striped trousers similar to those worn by dockworkers. These
Jacobins were called the sans-culottes, literally meaning ‘those without knee breeches’.
On August 10 1792, Jacobins stormed the Palace of the Tuileries and held the king
hostage for several hours. Elections were held, and all men of 21 years and above got
the right to vote. The monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792, and France was
declared a republic. Louis XVI was sentenced to death by a court on the charge of
treason.

The Reign of Terror

The period from 1793 to 1794 is referred to as the Reign of Terror. People whom
Robespierre saw as enemies of the republic were arrested, imprisoned and then tried
by a revolutionary tribunal. If they were declared guilty by the court, then they were
guillotined. The guillotine is a device consisting of two poles and a blade with which a
person is beheaded, named after Dr Guillotin. Laws were issued to place a maximum
ceiling on wages and prices. Meat and bread were rationed. Expensive white flour was
forbidden to use. Equality was practised through forms of speech and address. All
French men and women were addressed as Citoyen and Citoyenne (Citizen). In July
1794, he was convicted by a court, arrested and the next day sent to the guillotine.

A Directory Rules France

The fall of the Jacobin government allowed the wealthier middle classes to seize power.
According to the new constitution, non-propertied sections of society were denied
voting. It provided for two elected legislative councils. The government appointed a
Directory consisting of executives made up of five members. Political instability paved
the way for a military dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Did Women have a Revolution?

Women were active participants from the beginning, which brought important changes
in the country of France. Women from the third estate had to work for a living, and they
didn’t have access to education or job training. Daughters of nobles of the third estate
were allowed to study at a convent. Working women also had to care for their families.
Compared to men, their wages were lower. Women also started their political clubs and
newspapers. The Society of Revolutionary and Republican Women was one of the most
famous women’s clubs. They demanded equal political rights as men, the right to vote
and to hold political office. The revolutionary government introduced laws to improve the
lives of women. Schooling became compulsory, divorce was made legal, and they could
run small businesses. During the Reign of Terror, the government closed women’s clubs
banning their political activities. After much struggle, women in France in 1946 won the
right to vote.

The Abolition of Slavery

Jacobin’s regime’s most revolutionary social reform was the abolition of slavery in the
French colonies. In the seventeenth century, the slavery trade began. Slaves were
brought from local chieftains, branded and shackled and packed tightly into ships for the
three-month-long voyage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Slave labour met the
growing demand in European markets for sugar, coffee, and indigo. Throughout the
eighteenth century, there was little criticism of slavery in France. In 1794, the
Convention legislated to free all slaves in the French overseas possessions. Napoleon
introduced slavery after ten years. In 1848, slavery was abolished in French colonies.

The Revolution and Everyday Life

France during 1789 saw changes in the lives of men, women and children. The abolition
of censorship happened in the summer of 1789. Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen proclaimed freedom of speech and expression to be a natural right. Freedom of
the press meant opposing views of events could be expressed. Plays, songs and festive
processions attracted large numbers of people.
Conclusion

Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804 and introduced many
laws, such as the protection of private property and a uniform system of weights and
measures provided by the decimal system. Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815.
The ideas of liberty and democratic rights were the most important legacy of the French
Revolution. Colonised peoples reworked the idea of freedom to create a sovereign
nation-state.

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NAZISM AND THE RISE OF HITLER

Birth of the Weimar Republic

In the early years of the twentieth century, Germany fought the First World War
(1914-1918) alongside the Austrian Empire and against the Allies (England, France and
Russia.). All resources of Europe were drained out because of the war. Germany
occupied France and Belgium. But, unfortunately, the Allies, strengthened by the US
entry in 1917, won, defeating Germany and the Central Powers in November 1918. At
Weimar, the National Assembly met and established a democratic constitution with a
federal structure. In the German Parliament, deputies were elected on the basis of
equal and universal votes cast by all adults, including women. Germany lost its
overseas colonies. The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the war and the
damages the Allied countries suffered. The Allied armies occupied Rhineland in the
1920s.

The Effects of the War

The entire continent was devastated by the war, both psychologically and financially.
The war of guilt and national humiliation was carried by the Republic, which was
financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation. Socialists, Catholics and
Democrats supported the Weimar Republic, and they were mockingly called the
‘November criminals’. The First World War left a deep imprint on European society and
polity. Soldiers are placed above civilians, but unfortunately, soldiers live a miserable
life. Democracy was a young and fragile idea which could not survive the instabilities of
interwar Europe.

Political Radicalism and Economic Crises

The Weimar Republic’s birth coincided with the revolutionary uprising of the Spartacist
League on the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. They crushed the uprising
with the help of a war veterans organisation called Free Corps. Communists and
Socialists became enemies. Political radicalisation was heightened by the economic
crisis of 1923. Germany refused to pay, and the French occupied its leading industrial
area, Ruhr, to claim their coal. The image of Germans carrying cartloads of currency
notes to buy a loaf of bread was widely publicised, evoking worldwide sympathy. This
crisis came to be known as hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise phenomenally
high.

The Years of Depression

The years between 1924 and 1928 saw some stability. The support of short-term loans
was withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929. The Great Economic
Depression started, and over the next three years, between 1929 and 1932, the national
income of the USA fell by half. The economy of Germany was the worst hit. Workers
became jobless and went on streets with placards saying, ‘Willing to do any work’.
Youths indulged themselves in criminal activities. The middle class and small
businessmen were filled with the fear of proletarianisation, anxiety of being reduced to
the ranks of the working class or unemployment. Politically also, the Weimar Republic
was fragile. The Weimar Constitution, due to some inherent defects, made it unstable
and vulnerable to dictatorship. One inherent defect was proportional representation.
Another defect was Article 48, which gave the President the powers to impose
emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
Hilter rose to power. He was born in 1889 in Austria and spent his youth in poverty. In
the First World War, he enrolled on the army, acted as a messenger in the front, became
a corporal, and earned medals for bravery. Hitler joined a small group called the
German Workers’ Party in 1919. He took over the organisation and renamed it the
National Socialist German Workers’ Party, which later came to be known as the Nazi
Party. In 1923, he planned to seize control of Bavaria, march to Berlin and capture
power. During the Great Depression, Nazism became a mass movement. After 1929,
banks collapsed, businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs, and the middle classes
were threatened with destitution. In such a situation, Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a
better future.

Hitler was a powerful speaker, and his words moved people. In his speech, he promised
to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and restore the
dignity of the German people. He also promised employment for those looking for work
and a secure future for the youth. He promised to remove all foreign influences and
resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany. Hitler started following a new style of
politics, and his followers held big rallies and public meetings to demonstrate support.
According to the Nazi propaganda, Hitler was called a messiah, a saviour, and someone
who had arrived to deliver people from their distress.

The Destruction of Democracy

President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship, on 30 January 1933, the highest

position in the cabinet of ministers, to Hitler. The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933
suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been
guaranteed by the Weimar Constitution. On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act
was passed, which established a dictatorship in Germany. The state took control over
the economy, media, army and judiciary. Apart from the already existing regular police in
a green uniform and the SA or the Storm Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret
state police), the SS (the protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service
(SD).

Reconstruction

Economic recovery was assigned to the economist Hjalmar Schacht by Hitler, who
aimed at full production and full employment through a state-funded work-creation
programme. This project produced the famous German superhighways and the people’s
car, the Volkswagen. Hitler ruled out the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the
Rhineland in 1936, and integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan, One
people, One empire and One leader. Schacht advised Hitler against investing hugely in
rearmament as the state still ran on deficit financing.

The Nazi Worldview

Nazis are linked to a system of belief and a set of practices. According to their ideology,
there was no equality between people but only a racial hierarchy. The racism of Hitler
was borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The argument of
the Nazis was simple: the strongest race would survive, and the weak ones would
perish. The Aryan race was the finest who retained its purity, became stronger and
dominated the world. The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the geopolitical
concept of Lebensraum, or living space. Hitler intended to extend German boundaries
by moving eastwards to concentrate all Germans geographically in one place.

Establishment of the Racial State

Nazis came into power and quickly began to implement their dream of creating an
exclusive racial community of pure Germans. They wanted a society of ‘pure and
healthy Nordic Aryans’. Under the Euthanasia Programme, Helmuth’s father had
condemned to death many Germans who were considered mentally or physically unfit.
Germany occupied Poland and parts of Russia captured civilians and forced them to
work as slave labour. Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. Hitler hated
Jews based on pseudoscientific theories of race. From 1933 to 1938, the Nazis
terrorised, pauperised and segregated the Jews, compelling them to leave the country.

The Racial Utopia

Genocide and war became two sides of the same coin. Poland was divided, and much
of north-western Poland was annexed to Germany.

People of Poland were forced to leave their homes and properties. Members of the
Polish intelligentsia were murdered in large numbers, and Polish children who looked
like Aryans were forcibly snatched from their mothers and examined by ‘race experts’.

Youth in Nazi Germany

Hitler was interested in the youth of the country. Schools were cleansed and purified.
Germans and Jews were not allowed to sit or play together. In the 1940s, Jews were
taken to the gas chambers. Introduction of racial science to justify Nazi ideas of race.
Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews and worship Hitler. Youth
organisations were responsible for educating German youth in ‘the spirit of National
Socialism’. At the age of 14, boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation where they
were taught to worship war, glorify aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and
hate Jews, communists, Gypsies and all those categorised as ‘undesirable’. Later, they
joined the Labour Service at the age of 18 and served in the armed forces and entered
one of the Nazi organisations. In 1922, the Youth League of the Nazis was founded.

The Nazi Cult of Motherhood

In Nazi Germany, children were told women were different from men. Boys were taught
to be aggressive, masculine and steel-hearted and girls were told to become good
mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children. Girls had to maintain the purity of the
race, distance themselves from Jews, look after their homes and teach their children
Nazi values. But all mothers were not treated equally. Honours Crosses were awarded
to those who encouraged women to produce more children. Bronze cross for four
children, silver for six and gold for eight or more. Women who maintained contact with
Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded through the town with shaved heads,
blackened faces and placards hanging around their necks announcing, ‘I have sullied
the honour of the nation’.

The Art of Propaganda

Nazis termed mass killings as special treatment, the final solution (for the Jews),
euthanasia (for the disabled), selection and disinfection. ‘Evacuation’ meant deporting
people to gas chambers. Gas chambers were labelled as ‘‘disinfection areas’, and
looked like bathrooms equipped with fake showerheads. Nazi ideas were spread
through visual images, films, radio, posters, catchy slogans and leaflets. Orthodox Jews
were stereotyped and marked and were referred to as vermin, rats and pests. The
Nazis made equal efforts to appeal to all the different sections of the population. They
sought to win their support by suggesting that Nazis alone could solve all their
problems.

Ordinary People and the Crimes Against Humanity

People started seeing the world through Nazi eyes and spoke their Nazi language. They
felt hatred and anger against Jews and genuinely believed Nazism would bring
prosperity and improve general well-being. Pastor Niemoeller protested an uncanny
silence amongst ordinary Germans against brutal and organised crimes committed in
the Nazi empire. Charlotte Beradt’s book called ‘The Third Reich of Dreams’ describes
how Jews themselves began believing in the Nazi stereotypes about them.

Knowledge about the Holocaust

The war ended and Germany was defeated. While Germans were preoccupied with
their own plight, the Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings
they had endured during the Nazi killing operations – also called the Holocaust. When
they lost the war, the Nazi leadership distributed petrol to its functionaries to destroy all
incriminating evidence available in offices.