Impact Of Montesquieu On France During The Enlightenment

To what extent did the enlightenment thinkers affect the socio-political relations in France between 1789-1815? These occurrences clearly resulted in a more chaotic environment and ultimately made life harder for French people. Although Jean-Jacques Rousseau played a pivotal role in improving Socio-political relations across the globe, his ideas had an undesired effect in France as conditions within France between 1789-1815 worsened with resurgence of a monarchy, the rise of extremist groups, and the dissolution of the Catholic Church’s power in France.

Throughout this book, Montesquieu touched up on other governments and even earlier governments. He described ways a government should be made up, and he centered in on one idea. This idea was to create three branches of government which were the legislative, executive, and judicial. These were to be used for different causes and could check the others power so one branch doesn’t get too powerful and disrupt its citizens liberties. About 50 years later, these ideas would soon influence a growing nation’s government.

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 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.

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

As one can see, his ideas of religious freedom and the government is what brought about the French Revolution, which has affected France up to this very day because they no longer have a royal absolutist government like they once had.

The two most influential people were Baron de Montesquieu and Voltaire. Montesquieu constructed the idea of the separation of powers in the government; he argued that in order to ensure liberty and prevent corruption and tyranny the three main powers of government, legislative, judicial, and executive, should be separate bodies able to check each other. Voltaire brought about the idea of separation of state and religion and the later years of the 1700’s he would push Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie spreading the Enlightenment to other countries around the world; inspiring Jean-Jacques Rousseau to write The Social Contract and evaluate the idea of having the Government sign a contract with the people to protect natural rights and be bound by the laws. The Enlightenment in Europe would end however with the French Revolution as total chaos and violence dismantled the idea of people’s ability to govern

This is important because in some ways he did help France after the revolution even if he was a dictator. He did provide stability with his very strict laws. Even if his ways of acquire power and land were not ethical he paved the way for change in Europe and most importantly France. He did not have to do many of the arbitrary things he did during his rule however. There were many unnecessary actions he took.

Montesquieu, a philosopher who lived in France during the reign of absolute monarchs, experienced the unjust division of political power between the wealthy nobles and king living in Versailles and the citizens of the third estate. He believed that instead of an absolute monarchy, political power should be divided between three branches of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial, with a system of checks and balances to ensure that one group would not overpower the others. (Doc. 3) Montesquieu’s ideas would become the basis of the United States’ government and serve as an inspiration to the French third estate to support the decline of absolute monarchies. Another French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wrote The Social Contract in 1762 during the reign of French monarchs, stated that absolute authority removes the natural rights of humanity. (Doc. 5) As a firm believer of individual freedoms, Rousseau explained that a leader must gain the citizens’ consent to rule, as all citizens are equal due to logic and reasoning. Like Montesquieu, Rousseau’s ideas would inspire the French to overthrow its monarch during their revolution. His reasoning encouraged the French to accept a democratic government, where citizens elect a leader to rule them, unlike before where monarchs inherited political power. Frederick II,

Under the rule of king Louis XVI, in the 18 century, France fell into a political, social, and economic destruction. One result being the exaggeration of taxes on the 3rd Estate. Enlightenment ideas brought ways to think about society and the ideas of questioning higher authority. French soldier returning from the American Revolution, introduced ideas of freedom of speech, religion, and press.

Around the same time, Americans were also influenced by the works of Charles, the Baron de Montesquieu, a French political thinker. He believed that there were three types of governments; a monarchy (ruled by a king or queen), a republic (ruled by an elected leader) and a despotism (ruled by a dictator). In his book, The Spirit of Laws ,

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.

Politics into if they wanted economic improvement and political changes that were believed to be possible. It was the people 's will, and rulers provisions in enlightening to centralize authority that will improve their land. Their prime target was their nation development above everything else. For example in France, there were wars of Louis XIV that left debts and more of disturbance to the economy that needs for administrative reform was urgent and necessary. There was the development of numerous scholars who began to compose themes that identified with government, legislative issues and composers. Individuals read the compositions and now started pondering the works. They additionally thought of their assessments successive to being enlightened. The political cause had the following effect on enlightenment regime; it usually ended the privileges of the goodness. They also came with another view of slavery as barbaric.

Not only were Hobbes and Locke influential during the Constitutional Period, but also Charles de Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau. In Montesquieu’s work, The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu described the state of nature as a place of fear where humans avoid violence and war. However, once the state of war enters society, a need for human laws and government is needed in order to maintain law and order. Therefore, Montesquiu helped advocate for governmental authority and raised awareness for the need for separation of powers in the three branches of government. In today’s government, Montesquieu's beliefs in the separation of powers and governmental control are clearly seen in the Constitution. Additionally, Rousseau was able to influence

Richelieu was important for French history as he strengthened the French monarchy through the unification of France, lessening of nobles’ power and boosting economic growth. Richelieu unified France by making French the national language of France. The unification of France made it easier for Louis XIII to achieve an Absolutist government. Richelieu minimised the nobles’ power, which in turn increased the monarch’s power. Richelieu also managed the economic activities of France. These strengthened the French monarchy significantly.