NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science History Chapter 1 The French Revolution

Ans : Ernst Renan was a French philosopher, who outlined the attributes of a nation which are as follows
(i) A nation is not formed by a common language, race, religion or territory.
(ii) To form a nation, social capital, common glories and deeds of the past and common will are necessary. A nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion.
(iii) Nation is a large-scale solidarity, its existence is a daily plebiscite and its inhabitants have the right to be consulted.
(iv) The existence of a nation is not only a good thing, but also a necessity.
(v) A nation has never any real interest in annexing or holding on to a country against its will.
Nations are important because existence of the nation is a guarantee of liberty. Liberty would be lost if the world had only one law and only one master. 

Ans : A customs union known as Wolverine was formed at the initiative of Prussia and joined by most of the German states. This union removed internal impediments and summed up 32 currencies into two. Besides this, it the aim of the union is to bind the Germans economically into a nation by strengthening the nation materially through its protection of interests externally and stimulating its internal productivity. It must be awakened and national sentiments should be raised through a fusion of individual and state interests. 

Ans : The caricaturist is depicting the club of liberal nationalists which dates back 1820. Conservative regimes were set up in 1815. These regimes were autocratic they were not ready to tolerate criticism and dissent. They curbed all the actions which put a question mark on the legitimacy of autocratic governments. Most of the regimes had imposed censorship law to have control over freedom of the press and over songs motivating the ideas of liberty. 

Ans : Language played a very important role in the creation of national Identity. Grimm brothers, namely Jacob and Wilhelm Grim, born in Hanau, a German city, wrote 'Fairy Tales' which became popular among children and adults. They brought the folktales to the public through their creations in German language which encouraged the feelings of the people to achieve freedom of the press.   The Grimm brothers tried to oppose French domination that was a danger to German culture. They did a lot of work for the development of German language and creation of German Nationality in reference to identity. They also published a 33 volume dictionary of German language which was also a wider effort to oppose French domination.   Poems, music, stories, folk songs, folk dances, etc are means that create the idea of a nation. Besides it they help to express and form national feelings through the creation of shared heritage and common culture. Collective identity among the French people was created by the French revolutionaries by discouraging local dialects and encouraging French. Use of vernacular language in Poland became helpful in dissemination of modern nationalist feelings among the large illiterate population. After Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced out and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. Due to some reasons, Polish came in use for church gathering and preaching and in due course, Polish came to be seen as a symbol of the struggle against Russian domination. 

Ans : The cause of the ‘Silesian Weavers’ uprising was due to the cheating of the weavers by the contractors. In 1845, the weavers raised a revolt against the contractors as the contractors drastically reduced their payments.
The viewpoint of the journalist Wilhelm Wolff for this uprising was - a large crowd of weavers reached the house of the contractor and demanded higher wages. They were not treated well, so a group of the crowd entered the contractor’s house forcibly and destroyed the furniture, windowpanes and plundered it. The contractor fled with his family to a neighbouring village but did not get shelter.
After 24 hours, he returned back with army and eleven weavers were shot dead. This shows that the viewpoint of the journalist was based against the weavers and in favour of the contractor. He did not understand the misery of the weavers properly.