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How Did The Enlightenment Influence The French Revolution

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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 …show more content…

This helped to fuel numerous widespread revolutions, including the French Revolution. A quote from John Locke, who was a famous Enlightenment Philosopher, says, “All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” Inspiring words from philosophers powered the French Revolution due to the fact that more books were being published by philosophers and having quotes like this in them, therefore more and more of the middle class was reading them, this quote from Albert Mathiez states, “…The middle class… was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The revolution came from them- the middle class. The working classes were incapable of starting the revolution. They were just beginning to learn to read.” Albert Mathiez explains how the revolution started with the middle class. It started with the middle class because they knew how to read, without this knowledge they probably would not have known about the Philosophy books, or the declaration of independence, therefore they would have not known about the way people should have been treated. For example Natural Rights or life, liberty, and property, freedom of thought and expression, religious freedom, and many

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