The French Revolution - Assignment Example

French Revolution Roll No: Teacher: 15th November 2008 "Do you agree that the issues of the present must intrude into our understanding of the past? Were the rights of religious minorities, slaves, and women also issues during the French Revolution, or are they rather present concerns which historians have simply read back into the past?" Present and past are interrelated to each other. The past incidents of history can be better understood with the present issues. The issues of human society have remained the same but with the passage of time, we have started understanding and finding solutions for those issues. In fact, in today’s society, education and knowledge is so common that people question every other thing and incident of the past on the basis of their understanding of today’s world. Such as people are aware of racism fully nowadays as every other day we listen about prejudiced attitudes of people, so the critics and writers try to find the issue of racism in the old literary and other works. It is not necessary that the original writer of a historical text has written a text with racist motives, he may have just narrated the facts as they were there. Therefore, it is quite clear that present issues have a vast impact on our understanding of past. Social and political issues were a cause of French Revolution (Frey and Marsha 2004). French Revolution was a revolution that is seen as the upheaval of social and political matters. There was not one but many causes behind French Revolution. “Human rights” was also an issue behind French Revolution (Doyle 1990). As far as human rights are concerned, rights of religious minorities, slaves and women rights all come under the title of human rights. There was unemployment and the costs of eatables were unreachable for the poor. Some historians find out that rights of religious minorities, slaves and women were also the issues during the French Revolution but this is not absolutely right. According to my perception and reflection, it is only historians’ present concerns on the basis of which, they are reading the past. Women, Clergy and slaves were prominent in French Revolution but the motive was to end the monarchy of French Monarch of the time and the reasons why that monarch was unacceptable to people was that the French monarchy of that time was unable to control irrelevant taxes, the costs of the bread and other eating items and other economical concerns of the society were there, which the monarch was unable to handle. The monarch put the burden of uncontrollable economy on the masses of France due to which, there was a revolution named French Revolution (Grove 1998). It is informed that women conducted a march to make sure that the King and higher officials of the state consider and make better the dearness prevalent at that time (Carlyle 2002). Women were unable to manage their household finance, due to which, they were upset about the food and other basic needs of their children and family. This march was there in October 1789 and women come out for the march on the basis of a buzz that the king is going to received there. Women’s march was based on the issue of economic problems and scarcity of bread and other food items (Doyle 1990). The women also come up with the motive that the monarch should not take any actions against the National Assembly by blocking it. The women who were the participants of the march also asked the King and his management to move to Paris, as through Paris, he could have controlled the issue of poverty (White 1995). The officials of the king did not give any positive reply to the women. They did not even agree to solve the economic problems of people or to take any actions for reducing dearness in France (Rude 1991). Due to disappointing replies of the officials, women were offended and nearly seven thousand women gathered and moved towards Versailles and they were also equipped with some armaments of smaller kinds. Several guards of the king were killed because of the offensiveness of the mob of women. The guards tried to keep order but they were unable to control the mob (White 1995). At last, the king was made to move towards Paris according to the demands of the women marchers. As a result of this revolting action from the women marchers, the king left Versailles for Paris and also the National Assembly was legitimized (Grove 1998). So, the above mentioned incident that was against the monarch’s policy and in which, women were involved, there is no implication of violation of women rights or even there is no issue of women rights. Therefore, if the historians are finding some reason related to the violation of women rights, that is absolutely wrong and it is clear that they are seeing the event with their present knowledge of present issues. The French Revolution was there to just take away the monarchy of the French king as he was not fulfilling the demands of the common masses (Hibbert 1980). As far as religious minorities and French revolution is concerned, the church also got involved in French Revolution. Because of the French Revolution, the power that was given to the Catholic Church was no more with it as the power was transferred to the state. Previously, the Church exercised the most power and also it was the largest possessor of lands and areas (White 1995). The national assembly imposed taxes on church and also thought that the church is responsible for the economic instability of the state. The special privileges that were given to the church were also annulled. The people associated to clergy were also regarded as the employees of the state (Grove 1998). The people associated to the church such as priests, bishops and other clergy related to Catholic Church was really disturbed because of the government’s such actions due to which, they rejected to accept the impositions of the government or national assembly (Lefebvre 1971). The new arrangement of the Catholic Church and new laws were not approved by the clergies due to which, there was revolt from the clerical side (Carlyle 2002). Due to this revolt by the church people, there were serious consequences such as the killing of the priests on a wide scale and many other actions against clergy. After Napoleon’s coming in power, the church was able to work with the state but the previous laws by the French monarchy was unacceptable due to which, clergy was also involved in the French Revolution but it cannot be said that there was some issue of injustice with the religious minorities, as the history reports no such thing. The depiction that there can be some cause related to the injustice to the religious minorities behind French Revolution is wrong and it is just the historians’ understanding of issues on the basis of their present understanding of events. Slavery cannot be regarded as a cause of French Revolution. Salve trade was a common trade that was done to get economic benefit by making the black people as commodities. When French Revolution was there, there was mentioning of inclusion of slave rights in the queue of actions that were recommended to be taken afterwards (Rude 1991). Representatives from people who believed in freedom of slaves went towards the National Assembly in France and there were also some people in the National Assembly that regarded slavery as a criminal activity and were interested in the elimination of slavery (Doyle 1990). There was an action on the issue of slavery. Therefore, the perception of historians related to the mentioning of the issue of slavery and slaves during French Revolution is not based on understandings of issues of past with the help of present events. There were also people who were interested to keep slaves and they were not at all satisfied with the steps of National Assembly regarding the abolition of slavery. There was no solution to the issue of slavery with the French Revolution (Lefebvre 1971). With the government of Napoleon, the issue of abolition of slavery ended as Napoleon was not interested in freeing slaves. Slavery continued to be after the French Revolution. The issue of slavery was pointed during the revolution but there was no resolution to the problem at the end (Hibbert 1980). Therefore, it is quite clear that historians place their understanding on the present events. The issue of women rights and rights of religious minorities was not an issue at the time of French Revolution but the issue of slavery was addressed at that time. The historians talked about women rights and rights of religious minorities as they are the current issues and historians seeing French Revolution with the help of today’s understanding regarded women rights and rights of religious minorities as the issues that were addressed during French Revolution. As far as slavery is concerned, the historians are right about their view regarding to the addressing of slavery during the revolution. References Carlyle, Thomas. 2002. The French Revolution: A History. New York: The Modern Library. Doyle, William. 1990. The Oxford history of the French Revolution. 3rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Frey, Linda and Marsha, Frey. 2004. The French Revolution. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Hibbert, Christopher. 1980. The Days of the French Revolution. New York: Quill, William Morrow. Lefebvre, Georges. 1971. The French Revolution: From Its Origins to 1793. Columbia: Columbia University Press. Grove, Richard H. 1998. “Global Impact of the 1789–93 El Niño,” Nature 393, 311-334. Rude, George. 1991. The French Revolution: Its Causes, Its History and Its Legacy After 200 Years. London: Grove Press. White, E. 1995. "The French Revolution and the Politics of Government Finance, 1770-1815." The Journal of Economic History. Read More