Compare And Contrast The Declaration Of The Rights Of Man And The French Revolution

During the 18th and 19th century, revolutions were happening on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, facilitated by the ease with which ideas and information could travel by sea. These revolutions aimed to produce liberty and equality for all, a radical new idea that came about in the Enlightenment Era. The French Revolution began in 1789, when the French National Assembly wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man. It continued in 1792 and 1793, when the constitution was written, and culminated in 1818, when France finally abolished slave trade. The French Revolution best lived up to the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality because of the rights and freedoms that were guaranteed to every citizen without discrimination through two important documents: the Constitution and the Rights of Man.
The Constitution guaranteed liberty for all French citizens. Before the constitution, France

Unlike the American constitution, which only applied to Americans, and only a small percentage of them, the Rights of Man was a universal document that applied to everyone, including (despite its name) women. The first article of the Declaration states, “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights,” immediately putting forth their stance on equal rights. Later, the Declaration goes on to state that “All the citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all public dignities, places and employments.” This further exemplifies the equality in France because not only were all citizens considered equal in the eyes of their government and leaders, the declaration aimed to make sure that they were also treated equally by their fellow citizens. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was ahead of its time, introducing ideas of equality also seen 150 years later, when the United Nation released the Universal Declaration of Human