NCERT 9th Class (CBSE) Social Science: The French Revolution

Question: Write short note on slavery in the French colonies.

Answer:

1. The colonies in the Caribbean-Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingo were important supplies of commodities such as tobacco, indigo sugar and coffee.
2. This  was met by slave trade between Europe, Africa and America.
3. The slave trade began in the seventeenth century.
4. French merchants sailed from the ports of Bordeaux or Nantes to the African coast, where they bought slaves from local chieftains.
5. They Exploitation of slave labor made it possible to meet the growing demands in European markets for sugar, coffee  and indigo.
6. It was finally the convention which in the 1794 legislated to free all the slaves in the french over seas possessions.
7. But Ten year later, Napoleon resumed suavely .
8. Plantation owners understood their freedom as including, the right to enslave African Negroes, in pursuit of there economic interests.
9. Slavery was finally abolished in French colonies in the year, 1884.

Question: Write a short note on Directory.

Answer:

1. Directory, an executive made up of five members. It was meant as a safeguard against the concentration of power in one-man executive as under the Jacobins.
2. However, the Directors often clashed with the legislative councils, who then sought foolishness them.
3. The political instability of the Directory plowed the way for the rise of a military director, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Question: How would you explain the rise of Napoleon?

Answer: France was ruled by the Directory, an executive made up of five members.

1. However, the Directors often clashed with the Legislative Councils, who then sought to dismiss them.
2. The political instability of the Directory paved the way for the rise of a military dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte.
3. After crowning himself as Emperor of France in 1804, he went out to conquer the neighboring European countries, dispossessing dynasties and creating kingdoms where he placed members of his family.
4. Initially, he was viewed as a liberator who would bring freedom to the people, but soon the Napoleonic armies came to be viewed everywhere as an invading force.

Question: What is subsistence crisis? explain the circumstances which to it in France.

Answer:

1. The population of France rose from about 23 million in 1715 to 28 million in 1789. This 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 which was the staple diet of the majority rose rapidly.
2. Most workers were employed as labourers in workshops whose owner fixed their wages. But wages did not keep pace with the rise in prices. So the gap between the poor and the rich widened.
3. Things became worse whenever drought or hail reduced the harvest. Shortage of food grains led to price rise, riots and death. It is called subsistence crisis, something that occurred frequently in France during the Old Regime.