How Did The Enlightenment Ideas That Influence The French Revolution

The Enlightenment was a European 18th century movement in which thinkers attempted to apply the principles of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of society. The Enlightenment thinkers like Locke and Montesquieu impacted the American Revolution by enforcing rights that should be given and by creating a system limiting ones power in the government. Montesquieu proposed that separation of powers would keep anyone from gaining total control of the government. Voltaire impacted the French Revolution with his herculean clash; he never stopped fighting for tolerance.

The enlightenment took place in Europe in the 18th century. It was a time of reason and science. During this period everything was redone from science to politics and also philosophy. There was also clashes between the church and society because of the change that was taking place. Great philosophers came out of this time period such as Rousseau. The ideas of the 18th century would influence how people thought and wrote.

brought these new ideas and changes to light. Enlightenment’s main goal was to seek out

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 French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political change in France that lasted from 1789 to 1799. Before the revolution there was a period of time called the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement in which followers considered that human reason brought a move from theory to practice and criticism to reforming education, household administration, social reactions and politics. Voltaire, a French philosopher and contributor to the Age of Enlightenment, expressed these ideas utilizing his intelligence, wit and style to mark his name as one of France’s greatest writers. The Enlightenment influenced the French Revolution to a great extent by introducing new ideas that encouraged questioning of authority and religion, advancing people’s outlook on commodities, and forcing citizens to compare their need with the Republic’s needs. This further brought an uprising of people wanting more such as equality and civil rights. In the process to do so there were 250,000 casualties in the Reign of Terror followed the Thermidorian Reaction which implemented an oligarchy government called the Directory. Royalist riots prompted the Coup d’etat of Fructidor which brought Napoleon into Directory which he later overthrows and creates an Authoritarian Republic.

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

The enlightenment was a European movement during the 17th and 18th centuries. The enlightenment wasn’t a physical movement; however, it was an intellectual movement. Most of the ideas centered around authority and legitimacy. Later these ideas may have transformed into liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state. The enlightenment was valued greatly, considering that it showed people how to think scientifically, and it also let the world understand different scientific processes. John Locke influenced Thomas Jefferson with these enlightenment writings by helping him write the Declaration of Independence because of Locke showing Jefferson that people were born with natural rights.

The Age of Enlightenment, a movement during the 17th and 18th century started from the Europeans, later moving into American colonies. The point of this movement was for the society to reform on a new base such as emphasizing reason and individualism over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Beccaria, Locke, and Voltaire helped launched this project amongst Europeans. John Locke, for example, criticized absolute monarchy and favored self-government. Voltaire also believed that people should be able to speak their minds without the fear they may be punished. Through these philosophy influence, this eventually leads to European rulers ruling with a sense of equality, democratic governance, and abolition.

The ideas of the Enlightenment were influenced by several thinkers and French philosophers like Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Locke. Each philosopher had new ideas of freedom that inspired the ones not in power, the lower classes, to defy the monarchy. These unaccustomed concepts related to the rights of the French peasants and created envy for the monarchy. The enlightenment was not only a movement of new ideas, but a spark among French peasants that helped to spread the ideas of individual freedom which, in turn, led to the French Revolution.

Enlightenment thinkers, also known as philosophers had a major impact on the American and French Revolution. Philosophers from the 1700s influenced the making of two documents known as United States’ Declaration of Independence and France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens. The Declaration of Independence is a document that was written in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson. It reflects the beliefs of enlightenment philosopher, John Locke. Written in 1793 by Marquis de Lafayette, the Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen was influenced by the beliefs of Voltaire, another Enlightenment thinker. John Locke didn’t like the idea of absolute monarchy. He favored the idea of self- government and equal rights. Locke believed that the

With the movements of resisting, rebelling, and reforming, the Enlightenment affected independence movements in the thirteen colonies, and by the end of the eighteenth century new states were developed. The United States was a result of the Enlightenment, and took on the many ideas developed during this time. During the Enlightenment, people no longer wanted to live under arbitrary rulers. Colonists wanted to use reason and logic instead of superstitious beliefs and the church teachings. As Pangloss explains in Candide, earthquakes are a natural phenomena and not an act of punishment from God. The power of individualism and critical thinking was not unique to just one country, it was happening all over Europe. An important figure who focused

The enlightenment period in America played a big part in helping shape the American revolution. Wether it was regarding such ideas as “9 out of 10 men are born good or evil, useful or not because of their education” (John Locke). Or Rousseau’s ideas of society being the destroyer of itself and all the time needing to change itself in order to survive The biggest ideas used from the enlightenment period, were ideas regarding things like religion, governments. These ideas of the enlightenment where the sparks which ended up igniting things like the American declaration of independence. Which then sparked things like Abraham Lincolns abolishment of slavery.

During the Enlightenment period, it was the age of reason. Where people understood and viewed things differently. However, centuries later from that time period (1700s) both America and France incorporated and reflected various enlightenment ideas and formed it into several documents such as the Bill of rights, Declaration of Independence both America and France, and the Constitution. These Enlightenment thinkers believed in our natural rights, our equality, and our freedom of speech, expression, and press. By having a unified government and society America and France decide to incorporate these ideas to change the fighting and all of the revolts and decided to get the freedom everyone deserves, except for women until later on. However, both America and France took bits of pieces of these ideas and slightly changed them. The one who reflected most of these enlightenment ideas was America.

The Enlightenment was an 18th century European movement in which thinkers attempt to apply the principles of reason and scientific method to all aspects of society. During the Enlightenment there were a group of social thinkers in France known as philosophers. Even though John Locke was from Great Britain, the philosophers would often met in Paris to discuss Enlightenment ideas. One Enlightenment philosopher in particular, John Locke, had a tremendous impact on the American and French Revolution. John Locke believed all people are born free and equal with 3 natural rights; life, liberty, and property. With him philosophy, Locke uses his knowledge to help impact the American Revolution through the Declaration of Independence.

Intellectual such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and others sparked the Century of Enlightenment in Europe. The concept was the roots of freedom of expression opening doors for knowledge on mathematics, astronomy, physics, politics, economics, philosophy, and medicine.