Assignment class 9 History

Q 1. What was taille?

Ans. It was also a kind of tax which was paid by the people of the third estate directly to the state.

Q 2. What does ‘subsistence crisis’ mean?

Ans. It is an extreme situation where the basic means of livelihood were endangered.

Q 3. Which social groups emerged as ‘middle class’ in 18th century France?

Ans. The social groups who earned their wealth through expanding overseas trade and from the manufacture of goods such as woolen and silk textiles that were either exported or bought by the richer members of society.

Q 4. What were the views of John Locke in inspiring the people for the French Revolution?

Ans. Locke sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch in his book ‘Two Treatises of Government’.

Q 5. Who was Rousseau?

Ans. Rousseau was a French philosopher who carried the idea of Locke forward, proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives.

Q 6. How was the division of power suggested by philosopher Montesquieu?

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

Q 7. What was the Estates General?

Ans. The Estates General was a political body to which the three estates sent their representatives.

Q 8. How was the meeting of Estates General called by Louis XVI attended by three Estates?

Ans. The first and the 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.

Q 9. Which proposal of the third estate was rejected by Estates General?

Ans. The third estate demanded that voting should be conducted by the assembly as a whole, in which each member would have one vote. But the king rejected this proposal and therefore members of the third estate walked out of the assembly in protest.

Q 10. Who was Mirabeau?

Ans. Mirabeau was born in a noble family and was a representative of the third estate, who delivered speeches to the crowds assembled at Versailles. He was born in a noble family but was convinced of the need to do away with a society of feudal privilege.

Q 11. What do you know about Abbé Sieyes?

Ans. Abbé Sieyes was originally a priest. He wrote an influential pamphlet called ‘What is the Third Estate.

Q.12 What was the immediate cause of the French Revolution?

Ans. Due to bad harvest, the prices of bread rose and often bakers hoarded the bread. The angry women who could not get bread after long hours in the queues stormed into the shops. The King ordered troops and on 14th July the agitated crowd stormed and destroyed the Bastille.

Q 13. What does ‘Chateau’ mean?

Ans. It was a castle or stately residence belonging to a king or a nobleman.

Q 14. What was a ‘Manor’?

Ans. Manor was an estate consisting of the lord’s lands and his mansion.

Q 15. When was National Assembly recognised?

Ans. Louis XVI finally accepted the National Assembly in July 1789 and on 4th Aug 1789, the assembly passed a decree abolishing the feudal system of obligations and taxes.

Q 16. When was the draft of the National Assembly’s constitution completed and what was its main objective?

Ans. The draft of the constitution was completed in 1791 and its main objective was to limit the powers of the monarch.

Q 17. Who all got the right to vote for National Assembly?

Ans. Only men above 25 years of age who paid taxes equal to at least 3 days of a labourer’s wage were given the status of an active citizen and the right to vote.

Q 18. Who were the electors?

Ans. Active citizens voted for the electors who in turn chose the Assembly.

Q 19. Who could qualify as an Elector?

Ans. To qualify as an elector and then as a member of the Assembly, a man had to belong to the highest bracket of taxpayers.

Q 20. What was ‘Marseillaise’?

Ans. It was a patriotic song sung by volunteers of Mersiless as they marched into Paris. Marseillaise is now the national anthem of France.

Q 21. What were political clubs?

Ans. Political clubs were formed by people to discuss government policies and plan their own forms of actions. Women too formed such clubs.

Q 22. Who was the leader of the Jacobin club?

Ans. Maximilian Robespierre.

Q 23. Who were ‘Sans-Culottes’?

Ans. Those Jacobins were known as Sans-Culottes, who were without knee breeches and who wore red caps to symbolize liberty.

Q 24. Which new Assembly was formed by Jacobins?

Ans. The newly elected assembly was called Convention. This new assembly abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic.

Q 25. Who introduced the ‘Reign of terror’ in France?

Ans. Robespierre introduced the ‘Reign of Terror’ when he followed a policy of severe control and punishment in France.

Q 26. What was Guillotine?

Ans. Guillotine was a device consisting of two poles and a blade with which a person is beheaded. It was named after Dr. Guillotine, who invented it.

Q 27. When did Napoleon Bonaparte become Emperor of France?

Ans. In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself the Emperor of France.

Q 28. In which famous war was Napoleon Bonaparte defeated?

Ans. Napoleon was finally defeated at ‘The battle of Waterloo’ in 1815.

Q 29. What was the most important legacy of the French Revolution?

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