French Revolution - Montesquieu & Voltaire

The philosophical works of Voltaire, such as Candide, influenced the beginning of the French Revolution, promoting new ideas and concepts. Voltaire used both wit and sarcasm to prove his points against injustice and cruelty. Voltaire was exiled to England for many years, and while there, he became influenced by the English government systems, associated himself with Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Sir Francis Bacon. Voltaire wrote many well known works, but Candide is the most widely read and considered to have the most profound impact on the French Revolution. In Candide, Voltaire uses his character Pangloss to imitate the extreme ways of Alexander Pope, another

The ideas of Enlightenment philosophers rippled throughout the globe, however, they seemed to have the most interesting effect on France. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a major contributor to Frances political and social structure post-French revolution. These ideas weren’t the only triggers for the French Revolution. A combination of strangling taxes, economic disparity, and an impotent ruler led to the development of an intense need for reform in France. “France spent an enormous amount of money during the American war which put them on the verge of bankruptcy” (McKay et al., pg. 662). To make up for this immense national debt, taxes were raised which put more pressure on the already struggling working class in France. The privileged classes

France stood as the center for the Enlightenment because it was in a constant dichotomy between “the desire to censor dissident ideas and the desire to appear open to modernity and progress” (Hunt, 4098). Parliament hindered the monarchy’s reform efforts by using their own words of Enlightenment influence against them. This was a paradox that showed how the Enlightenment affected all levels of French life, but was applied to achieve different results. While the American Revolution and the resulting new republic was regarded as a successful application of the Enlightenment, the unstable, failed attempts at change and reformation in France led to early signs of revolution as revolts “in the name of liberty” from 1787-1789.

The Enlightenment had a profound effect on the declaration of independence and the constitution. There are many ideas and principles that were created during the enlightenment that inspired the founding fathers. Ideas such as separation of powers, liberalism, and that government is supposed to protect the natural rights all came around during the enlightenment. These ideas had a major influence in why we declared independence from England and how we formed The United States of America. These ideas had major influence on America because they are the principles on which america was founded.

Montesquieu believed that everything was made up of laws or rules that never changed. He wrote the book The Spirit of the Laws, which greatly covers the importance of separation of power in balancing the control of the

The French revolution is notably the start of the creation of modern Europe. Within this revolution, the country experienced a drastic change in power and in government. Along with the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, played a huge role in the changes in Europe economy. Under napoleons rule and conquest, similar to the French revolution, citizens experienced great depression, debt, and confusion. Similar to the American Revolution, the French revolution was influenced by enlightenment ideas particularly the concepts of popular sovereignty and inalienable rights.

The Enlightenment era was a new intellectual movement that stressed reason and thought and the power of individuals to solve problems. Even though different philosophers approached their goal differently, they achieved it none the less. They all approached their goal differently due to their different upbringings, their different backgrounds, and most importantly their different environments. A few among the many enlightened thinkers were Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron Do Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. While some of their idea’s are not used in modern society, they were all instrumental to the modern society we live in today.

One of the major concepts of the Enlightenment was that ideas shouldn’t be trusted or followed just because they were customary. Colonists started to realize that just because something had always been done one way doesn’t mean they have to do it that way. A second major concept of the Enlightenment was

To what extent were Enlightenment ideas responsible for the outbreak of the French Revolution and the reforms of 1789?

The French Revolution of 1789 was inarguably a significant turning point in the history of Europe. However, there have been historical debates over the major contributing factor that had caused the French Revolution. Many historians have argued that the French Revolution was sparked by the emerging new age ideas of Enlightenment in the 18th century, which encouraged people to think logically and critically about their society. Many notable writers such as Diderot and Voltaire began to publicly criticise the social structure and the governance of France. (Darlington et al., 2004, p.25) But other historians argue that ideas affected the way people saw

The ideals of the Enlightenment were pretty straightforward. They involved the change of speculation, to experimentation thanks to the help of Galileo (1564-1642, Buckler, J., Crowston, p.592 para. 6), the hope of religious tolerance regardless of the type of religion, individual freedom, as well as secular Education for man to better understand their world and that of their surroundings. Napoleon very charismatically ruled over his empire and actually did advocate the ideals of the Enlightenment. He was a supporter of religious tolerance, believed in individual freedom,

The ideas from the Enlightenment and its thinkers greatly influenced the world today, everything from our ideas of modern government to our view of everyday life. Important Enlightenment philosophes such as Locke, Montesquieu, Hobbes and Voltaire established controversial ideas and theories on human nature, natural rights, and how government should be run and which form of it was superior. These ideas were all never even thought of before, and shattered many of the previous notions of ideas, such as ideas of how to run government, that had already been established and taken as a standard for several hundreds of years.

His ideas led to an improved type of government and different ideas on certain religions. Montesquieu's governmental ideas spread to America shortly after he came up with the idea, and is still currently used in the United states. ¨Dividing political authority into the legislative, executive, and judicial powers… these three powers must be confided to different individuals or bodies, acting independently¨ (Britannica Academics). This idea was called the separation of powers, it allowed each branch to have a limited amount of power so no branch could gain too much power. This is only one of the ideas that led to his worldwide fame.

The ideals that were achieved but not maintained during these revolutions were equality, fraternity, and partially self-government. These were achieved during some events but also were weak during other events. The ideas never were strongly upheld throughout the whole time of the Revolutions. Most if not all of the ideals of the Enlightenment were acknowledged during the French and Haitian Revolutions. “Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (Locke Second Treatise of Government). One of John Locke’s ideals was that all men are born good and righteous. Locke and other’s thoughts influenced the Revolutions. In the end, Enlightenment ideals greatly influenced the French and Haitian Revolutions although they were not fully

Enlightenment in Europe was a period in which ideas were legitimately from one country to another. It is also known as civilization time where traditional authority was put to the question while embracing the notion of humanity to improve human change. The French revolution was directly in motivation by Enlightenment ideals which marked a peak of its influence and a beginning of its fall. The Enlightenment 's imperative of the seventeenth-century forerunners incorporated the Englishmen Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes, the Frenchman Renee Descartes and the important characteristic logicians of the Scientific Revolution, including Galileo, Kepler, and Leibniz. The civilization called for changes in different parts of Europe and America than