Human Rights In France In The 1800's

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

Beginning in 1789, the French Revolution was a time of rebellion, passion, betrayal, death, violence, and perseverance. Before 1789, King Louis XVI was taxing his poorest people heavily, whilst the rich were hardly taxed at all. The socioeconomic system in place at the time, known as the ancien regime, ruthlessly upheld the status quo. When the tension in France rose to a boiling point, fiery, young rebels to rose up against the Monarchy, the Ancien Regime, and the Clergy. These revolutionaries desperately wanted change, and they had three main principles around which their movement centered: Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité. Liberty is the freedom to do as one pleases so long as one’s actions do not unjustifiably harm others. Equality is being considered the same. Fraternity is a sense of brotherhood and companionship. The goals of the French Revolution were initially achieved with alacrity, however they were abandoned with relative quickness as malcontented leaders quested for, and abused, power and authority.

One might ask if the 1789 document, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen addressed the needs of all the people of the third estate like its writers claimed was its purpose. The National Assembly of France, which consisted of mostly wealthy bourgeoisies men, wrote the declaration. The remaining members of the third estate, which included the urban poor sans-culottes, therefore did not have much say in what was being addressed to the public. Enlightenment ideas such as popular sovereignty and civic equality, advocated by both the bourgeoisies and sans-culottes, is apparent in the statement. Furthermore, the National Assembly of France addressed the sans-culottes’ need of equality, employment based on talent, and desire for a political reorganization.

However, ‘theory’ is the key word here, as this was not true in practice. As Johnson highlights, there were no legal provisions at any point during the French Revolution to guarantee these rights. Although the estates system was abolished, the class system remained, and there continued to be huge wealth disparity in France. As the October Days in the same year highlighted, urban workers continued to struggle to afford bread. The Declaration only guaranteed equality of rights. Although this is significant, the Declaration was by no means so revolutionary that it eliminated inequality and oppression in France. This is arguably best exemplified by examining women’s rights. The Declaration makes little progress in gender equality. Men

In the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, France was undergoing major changes. Before the French Revolution, France was experiencing political, social and economic problems. During this time period France was unstable, and wasn’t able to keep up with the new arising Enlightenment ideas. In addition, there were high taxes, unequal power distribution and social inequality. The French Revolution not only impacted the citizens of France, but people from other countries as well.

It is acknowledged that the “Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen” passed by the National Assembly of France in 1789 is a very imperative document in modern European history. This document shows the impact that American practice had on French theories on Constitutional Laws. “The document proclaimed the Assembly’s commitment to replace the ancient regime with a system based on equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government” The argument is firstly initiated by beginning with: “the ignorance, neglect or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments” . This immediate reflection shows the anger towards King Louis XVI’s government.

The Declaration of the Rights of man and Citizen is a document of French constitutional history. This declaration listed the rights of an individual, which guaranteed the rights of ¨liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression”. These are the supposed rights of human nature. The purpose of the government, in this document, was to preserve these rights. The document also declared the sovereignty of the people and equality of men and includes the concept of natural rights and the social contract. It is organized into seventeen articles that state each right of man. It is said in the passage that the document greatly corresponds to the American Declaration of Independence. It also includes

The concept that men should be treated equally began to be sought-after by other nations. This concept that was influenced by several key circumstances. For one, France was influenced by the lifestyle changes of the industrial revolution, along with other historical events at that time. These events had their basis in the words that came from some of the most brilliant minds of not only that time, but of all time. Their thoughts and written words that had so much influence that they changed many lives in history over a long period of time.

And, while it may seem that egalitarianism is most prominent now in the 21st century, the concept actually originated in France back in 1799 as its original format ‘equalitarian’. This awareness was established through the French Revolution between 1789 and 1799 which fashioned the doctrine that all humanity is equal. Egalitarianism was one distinct idea that shaped the French Revolution as it went through its various phases of “Liberty, equality, and fraternity!”: the revolutions three base concepts. The need for egalitarianism in France came from the uneven and unfair regime between the aristocrats or second estate and the third estate. The third estate consisted of around 27 million people – or 98% of the French population. Most of these people were peasants, living their lives as laborers, working on farms, yet they were required to pay a large range of taxes – this was seemingly unfair considering their tireless occupation and hard lifestyle… Even the smaller percentage of the third estate - those who were urban workers and lived in cities such as Paris were poorly paid, lived in difficult conditions and very bombarded by extreme food

Liberté, égalité, fraternité was the cry of freedom that countless people used to propel them through, and to the end of the French Revolution. This long period of social, political and economic change in France lasted 10 years, starting in 1798 and ended with Napoleon Bonaparte. The French Revolution greatly affected all of Europe at the time and continues to represent the embodiment of revolution to this day. This constant struggle between the heavily taxed, burdened, and unrepresented third estate and those higher created an environment of monumental change for everyone. In the years leading up to the French Revolution, new beliefs and ideas were reaching every corner of Europe creating the thought that men should live free of oppression. However, in France the leader Louis XVI lead like a tyrant leaving the people impoverish and angry. Through the analysation of numerous circumstance present during the Ancien Régime, such as an inferior fiscal leadership, massive debt, and the forthcoming of new ideas during the Enlightened period, it can be concluded that the means for this revolution were justified as it is in our essence to revolt for a change.

Many women were involved in the uncertainty of women's rights during the French Revolution between the years of 1789 and 1804. Exploration of the unfolding struggles of France managed to turn my head in the direction of woman's rights more than once in my discovery. Perhaps because of the persistence of the women during this time period and their straight forwardness in their mission, was I so determined to see a positive progression in the fulfillment of their needs. "Even during a revolutionary time like this, equal rights for women seemed out of reach. Women had to struggle for a position in the revolution" (Ajaibu 2001, 1).

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

John Locke’s views on property and liberty, as outlined in his Second Treatise of Government (1690), have had varying interpretations and treatments by subsequent generations of authors. At one extreme, Locke has been claimed as one of the early originators of Western liberalism, who had sought to lay the foundations for civil government, based on universal consent and the natural rights of individuals. [1] Others have charged that what Locke had really done, whether intentionally or unintentionally, was to provide a justification for the entrenched inequality and privileges of the bourgeoisie, in the emerging capitalist society of seventeenth

Equality in government is something that is extremely important and relevant in today’s society, which is why I chose to focus on equal rights in the French Revolution for my research paper. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines equality as “the quality or state of being equal”, I am going to apply this term to government and explain why being equal in government is the best way to avoid conflict, maintain peace, and keep order. I want to focus on equality because it is a topic that is dear to my heart for many reasons and I firmly believe that the lack of equal rights is what fueled the French Revolution and led to the violence and chaos that occured. Due to the Monarchy that the French had at the time, citizens were under a feudal class system that kept their people from being equal in government. This division between classes is just one of the things that aided the violence that occurred during the French Revolution simply because people were not equal. When people are not heard, or feel their opinion is irrelevant, they begin to cause an uproar; for example, King Louis XVI made decisions that affected everyone, but only thought of himself, and didn’t want to hear what his citizens had to say. All the power lied in his hands and that was the problem. No one was represented in government and no power was distributed amongst the people; therefore, people felt they were walked on and that their life was not as important. This is just one example of how inequality led to

The French Revolution led to reconsidering women’s place in society because the idea of the French Revolution was to find new ways to govern a society. Pre-revolutionary, the social norms for women was to stay home, take care of the children, and be dependent on their husband. Although women had some form of political rights, they were insignificant compared to men. During the French Revolution, women hoped that there would be social, political and economic change away from social norms, but it is seen that women were still experiencing inequality. Feminists like de Olympe de Gouges and Marquis de Condorcet had such difficulty persuading men to recognize women as equals. Even with the influence of ideas of the Enlightenment period, women’s rights were still ignored due to the perception of women being unfit in politics and being more fit in the role of a mother and a wife. The Declaration Rights of Women (1791), published by Olympe de Gouges, challenged the social norms and countered the declaration for men. Soon after, women again were backlashed for trying to obtain rights after Napoleon came into power.