How Did The Enlightenment Cause The French Revolution

No one could have imagined the impact that the Enlightenment would have and its long-lasting effect. The Enlightenment and its ideas became so widespread that they did not only affect France, but many other countries also. The French Revolution was directly inspired and influenced by the Enlightenment. Revolutionaries in France built their cause around the ideals of the Age of Reason.

The American and French Revolutions were both fundamentally based on the Enlightenment ideas. The main ideas that they followed were by John Locke. His ideas inspired the Americans and the French to have a revolution. In these revolutions, the Americans had success and the French failed. The success that the Americans experienced wad due to the protection of rights they had. These rights are 'Life, Liberty and Property.? In America a constitution was put together that provided for a stable government and also a representative government. In France failure was caused by chaos, terror, fear and war. The French were unsuccessful because they failed to create a democratic

One cause of the French Revolution was the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment had many different philosophs, a well known one was John Locke(1632-1704). The philosophs would go to salons and talk about how they felt to the lower class. “The philosophs were not directly responsible for the outbreak… but they sparked that change of thought into action” Doc 5. John Locke would go to these salons and he would say how he felt about freedom and equality. “ All mankind… being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possession” John Locke. The Enlightenment also

The French Revolution took place during the latter half of the 18th century. This revolution was inspired by the Americans who fought against Britain’s rule and overcame that government (document 5). Similar to the American Revolution, the French Revolution had similar reasons to revolt against their government. It may be hard to determine the main reasons for the Revolution, but the spark can be narrowed down to three main reasons. The first main reason is the negligence of the king to the civilians and the second is the under-representation of the Third Estate and over taxation, lack of food and the economic hardships.

In France important discoveries were made during the age of enlightenment. Philosophers developed a new respect for human intelligence. Poets celebrated freedom and imagination. People believed that the truth about how the world around them functioned could be worked out by reason, instead of accepting ideas and superstitions of the past. It was also a time of when people began to find things out by scientific experiment and observation. When enlightenment ideas spread to America, they are an influence of British-born writer, Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine supported the ideas behind both the French and American revolutions. In his book, The Rights of Man, he said he saw "a dawn of reason rising on the world" (Gale online) In France, we can see the writings and ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau on government and citizens' and human rights begin to influence political events.

The French Revolution began in 1789 with numerous events like bankruptcy due to foreign wars, France sending aid to the Americas during the American Revolution, royal family spending, and the consecutive bad harvests. But what truly triggered the French Revolution was the brilliant writing of the Enlightenment Philosophers and the influence of the American Revolution. One of these important Enlightenment Philosophers was John Locke, who believed in the Natural Rights of man, the Social Contract Theory, and saw the State of Nature as a good place. The American Revolution influenced the French Revolution with the Declaration of American Independence also called the successful detachment from Great Britain. This inspired French citizens and allowed

The Enlightenment period and the French Revolution both had an influence on promoting human rights claims beyond those initially intended by the early revolutionaries. The Enlightenment is the period in the history of western thought and culture, stretching roughly from the mid-decades of the seventeenth century through the eighteenth century, characterized by dramatic revolutions in science, philosophy, society and politics; these revolutions swept away the medieval world-view and ushered in our modern western world. The French Revolution took place in 1789 and it was what helped bring in the modern era. The influence of the Enlightenment and French Revolution had an influence on many things including men and especially women.

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. Even though the French Revolution, which was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France, started out based on the Enlightenment; Such as gaining more freedom for everyone, a more efficient government that would not repress the people, over time it became more about the violence and terror.

The tax systems in France were unjust on the 3rd estate and made it hard for them to survive this lead them to rise up against the government. France was in great debt that led to the collapse of their economy and then the people's Revolution. In France the Third Estate made up most of the people and they didn't get the recognition they wanted so they rebelled against their country. The main cause of the French Revolution was economic issues that lead the to rebelion of the french people.

The French fought back to their government. The Enlightenment and the American Revolution made them think that they can be free. The French citizens wanted to be free and that is why the 3rd Estates broke off from the government and made the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizens. In the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizens, it says, “Law can prohibit such actions as are hurtful to the society” (National Assembly of France, Article 5). The ninety-five percent who wrote the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizens, is saying that if any citizen does anything that can freedom, the law will give you a punishment. During the French Revolution there was a change in the government and how the people saw it. But during the time when there was a democracy it was kind of like an anarchy. There was an increase in choice because there wasn’t an absolute monarchy. Napoleon was still like a king, but the citizens had more freedom.The scientific revolution made many people started to question the church and how most things that the Church, was saying to the people were just lies. This lead the people to overthrow the church. This then made these people question the government too.

I agree that the Enlightenment was force for positive change in society. The Enlightenment was one was the most important intellectual movements in History, as it dominated and influenced the way people thought in Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. We will look at how it ultimately influenced the American and French Revolution which is still strongly governed by these ideas and principles today.

Many political, economic, and social problems led to the beginning of the French Revolution. In a political sense, King Louis XVI ruled as an absolute monarch and believed in the divine right rule, which meant that he was essentially a god and that gave him absolute power. Also, Louis XVI did not give citizens their natural rights that they should receive, he was completely oblivious of how upset and angry people were because of the lack of natural rights (Document 1). The economic issues included the estates and how unfair and unequal they were. The first estate was made up of the clergy, the second estate was made up of the nobility, and the third estate was basically everyone else in society. The third estate was treated like trash and was ordered to do all the labor and work, while the clergy and nobility didn't have much work to do at all. The third estate was also forced to pay high taxes, which connects to the economic problems. There were economic problems too that caused the French Revolution, such as France being in debt because of their participation in the American Revolution. France's debt

The base of the French Revolution could be accredited to the new unconventional way of thinking that was brought by the Enlightenment age. The French Revolution was from 1789-1799, and began with the third estate breaking off from the Estates General due to the process of voting not being representative of the population. Once the first estate joined the third estate, Louis XVI made it clear that he did not approve of the National Assembly. Starting with the fall of the Bastille began the revolution that led to the fall of the Monarchy, that include the execution of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. the Broadly speaking, the French Revolution was the people of France resisting the monarchy. Although the revolution seemed to be influenced by the thinkers of the enlightenment, certain aspects of the revolution were inconsistent with the ideals held by enlightenment as well. On either sides of the argument, it is plain to see that there are impacts that the enlightenment had on the actions taken by the agents of the revolution.

There were various reasons why the French revolution broke out in 1789 including King Louis’s poor judgement, the structure of the Ancien Regime and the Enlightenment. However, the most important reason was the financial problems of the crown as it put the otherwise “absolute” government in a compromising position in which they appeared weak and ultimately, the 3rd estate used this to their advantage.

During the time period 1789-1799, France experienced a revolution, known as the French Revolution. French citizens, particularly the Third Estate fought for equality and a fresh political landscape. This revolution altered the economic, social, political, and cultural aspects of France. People often banter about what was the main factor that triggered the outbreak of the French Revolution. What most people do not understand is that the Revolution was caused by many different factors. The French Revolution (1789-1799) was caused by three main factors, which were the ideas formed throughout the Enlightenment, problems regarding the inequality of the social classes, and a lack of legislative government. The Ideas brought from the Enlightenment became the most influential in sparking the French Revolution, as it led to the other causes occurring.