Enlightenment And The French Revolution Essay

This time period had three revolutions; The English Revolution in 1688, the French Revolution from 1789-1799, and the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783, and these revolutions led to constitutional democracies. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. A new understanding of the natural world inspires the age of enlightenment to remodel the social world into accurate models we would find in our rationality. Philosophers of the Enlightenment find flaws in existing political and social authority. They find that the existing authority is masked with mystery and myth of religion, was founded on vague traditions. Philosophers criticized the institutions that were already in place and proposed ideas of new models that they thought would better society. Because of this, the basic structure of today’s government was formed in this time and along with ideas of liberalism and equal human rights. There was an increased toleration of differences among religions. There were also the ideas of checks and balances in government systems to equal out the power. There were many accomplishments of political philosophy during the Enlightenment that led to drastic change in government, the way that society functioned and various other elements. The theory of reason displays its power by

To what extent did the enlightenment thinkers affect the socio-political relations in France between 1789-1815? These occurrences clearly resulted in a more chaotic environment and ultimately made life harder for French people. Although Jean-Jacques Rousseau played a pivotal role in improving Socio-political relations across the globe, his ideas had an undesired effect in France as conditions within France between 1789-1815 worsened with resurgence of a monarchy, the rise of extremist groups, and the dissolution of the Catholic Church’s power in France.

How and to what extent did Enlightenment ideas about religion and society shape the policies of the French Revolution in the period 1789 to 1799?

The French Revolution had many contributions to its cause. One of these many causes was financial crisis and economic conflicts. There was an injustice in the amount each person must pay (document 1). The people of nobility were taxed very little and the commoners were taxed heavily. Also, the poor people were extremely poor.

The development of the French Revolution was greatly influenced by the philosophies of the French Enlightenment period. Interestingly, disparate to the English and American Revolutions, the French Revolution did not evolve in a linear fashion. Instead, it progressed in a series of conflicting phases, each of which could be considered almost as a revolution in itself. Political theorists – such as Montesquieu, Rousseau and Voltaire – were sources of inspiration for key revolutionaries throughout the Revolution’s three major phases. As the revolutionists occupying the leading roles changed, the principles of the Revolution’s former phase were abandoned in favour of another policy, essentially antithetical to the previous one. Ultimately, in shifting between various Enlightenment philosophers, France was able to subject its government to massive structural change - from being an absolute monarchy (prior to the Revolution), to a constitutional monarchy (1791-1792), then a republic (1792-1804), and finally a dictatorship (under Napoleon Bonaparte).

The Revolution started in 1789 and Europe had been recently influenced by the Seven Years’ War, American Revolution, as well as the Enlightenment, which was prior to both of these events. The Seven Years’ War was a war that involved France and Britain, in which Britain defeated France leaving them in an economic crisis. In addition, France continued to participate in the American Revolution, in order to get revenge on Britain, this conclusively backfired, as it brought liberal ideas to France and also pushed them further into their economic catastrophe. Ultimately, the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution led France to a position of being susceptible to revolution, due to their plundering economic status and the new ideals brought forward. The Enlightenment also altered France’s way of thinking, as it introduced revolutionary beliefs. Socially, Enlightenment ideas heavily impacted the French Revolution in the sense that views of liberty reflected in Montesquieu’s “The Spirit of the Laws” as well as beliefs pertaining to revolution, mentioned in John Locke’s “Two Treaties of Government” can be directly linked to the Third Estate’s desire to be represented in an equal manner and the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” Religiously, Enlightenment ideas weren’t as impactful as social ideas. Although, the concept of rationalism was a major cause for the Catholic Church’s property to be nationalized and sold with hopes of financing the state. In addition, the National Assembly granted Jews and French-Protestants the right to practice their religion, which corresponds with the Enlightenment idea of religious toleration. The social ideas of the Enlightenment heavily impacted policies of the French Revolution through the concepts of liberty and revolution, whereas religious ideas can be observed through rationalism and religious

Towards the end of the 18th century, almost all of Europe had gone through a period called the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers', and philosophers, promoted reason and human freedom over tradition and religion. France had one of the bloodiest Enlightenment periods in history because they used the ideas of John Locke's Natural Rights, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract, and Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) teaching of Freedom of Speech and morphed it into the French Revolution.

Many of the leaders of the American Revolution - Jefferson, Washington, Franklin - were powerfully influenced by Enlightenment thought and these ideas can be seen in the American Declaration of Independence and the United States Bill of Rights. They are also reflected in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In France, Enlightenment ideas found eager allies among the impoverished masses who were all too aware that with each passing year they were paying higher and higher taxes to support a few thousand idle aristocrats. Sedition and

The Enlightenment is seen as a time period in which people began to pay more attention to the role of the government and the way individual rights were treated. New ideas were brought to the surface by people who would later become known as “Enlightenment Thinkers”. These ideas were spread seeing as revolutionaries used them as the overall idea of their statements. People began to actually realize the inequality and injustices of the government once they receded from the Age of Absolutism. The Age of Absolutism meant that all of the ruler's had sustained divine power against the citizens, during this time they had no ability to speak or think against the rulers orders. There were many aspects and ideas that pushed the French Revolution further,

The Enlightenment was a crucial period in modern history for the simple fact that it engendered some of the thoughts that are directly responsible for contemporary social, political, and religious institutions. This epoch, along with the Renaissance, helped to spur Western Civilization out of the Dark Ages and into contemporary conceptions of modernization. Not surprisingly, this time period is characterized by a number of different seditions and the revolutionary tenets that fueled them which were markedly at variance with social, political, and religious notions that preceded them. As these three spheres of life often intersect with one another, there is some degree of difficulty in isolating their specific causes in terms of respective Enlightenment principles. However, history has revealed that some of the most distinguishable characteristics of this historical era are its different ideas regarding the nature of politics and the role of government in ruling over the people, its new regard for and conception of traditional viewpoints of religion, and a philosophical divergence with the past in terms of ethics and psychology; a review of the Enlightenment's most notable thinkers (such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin) readily confirms this thesis.

Enabled by the Scientific revolution, the Enlightenment brought new ideas and different ways of thinking to the growing modern society. The enlightenment was an intellectual movement that spread throughout western civilization starting around 1650 CE. Who were the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment? Well, many different individuals had a great impact on this movement. They contributed their ideas and spoke for their personal beliefs. Three of the most influential thinkers of the enlightenment were Mary Wollstonecraft, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson. Mary Wollstonecraft had a strong belief in equal rights for woman, John Locke shared his ideas about individual rights, and Thomas Jefferson spread his ideas about intellectual

Enlightenment ideas was an intellectual clause that help start the French Revolution. Philosophers like Rousseau and Locke preached enlightenment ideas that were soon spread to France. John Locke preached the idea that rulers should receive the right to rule by the people. Jean-Jacques Rousseau preached the idea that all people were born free and equal. These ideas appealed to

During the 18th century, the Enlightenment ideas were flourishing in both the American and French Revolutions. The Enlightenment perspective consisted of people searching for their social prestige, questioning authorities and believing they could create a new republic. The Americans aimed for independence and the French desired to overthrow their monarchy. The objective in both revolutions were relatively the same, to overthrow and recreate in efforts to achieve national sovereignty. However, the outcomes of the two socials worlds were radically different. The French citizens emerged more enlightenment thinkers demanding their equal rights despite regressing back to a monarch. In contrast, the Americans formed a successful democratic republic but continued inequality within their society. Furthermore, the French were significantly more revolutionary, as opposed to reactionary, than the Americans.

In the latter years of the eighteenth century, France was an aristocratic bureaucracy, presided over by sovereign monarch Louis XVI. France was ruled under the Ancien Régime; a social and political system established by the French in the early renaissance period of the fifteenth century, until the late eighteenth century where it was violently overturned in the French Revolution. ‘ Under the Ancien Régime the richer a man was, the less he paid.’1 The French Revolution, beginning in 1789 was an era of social and political upheaval that saw the collapse of the absolute monarchy and its prejudice class system. Before the French Revolution of 1789, France was subject to a social division dictated by ones circumstance of birth and wealth. The

Prior to the French Revolution enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire had been writing about equality and individual freedoms. These ideas began to catch hold with the populous of France, who were almost all living in very poor conditions. Perhaps the most important of these authors, in regards to the French Revolution, was John Locke who talked about the idea of a decentralized government, a system where the people represented the people; a democracy.1 The people of France began to make a push for such equality, and in August of