The Enlightenment: The French Revolution

(1) “The movement known as the Enlightenment included writers living at different times in carious countries. Its early exponents, the philosophes, popularized the rationalism and scientific ideas of the 17th century. They exposed contemporary social and political abuses and argued that reform was necessary and possible.” (The Heritage of World Civilizations). This led to tremendous rethinking of religious and moral matters as well as scientific theory.

Firstly, in the beginning the government was able to control everyone, but after the Enlightenment, people started to question things. Because of this, the Enlightenment encouraged people to challenge the authority, and think upon reasoning/logic. The word/phrase "common sense" was an Enlightenment idea, which inspired a man named Thomas Paine, during the Rev War. The Declaration of Independence was based on Enlightenment ideas, which were presented by John Locke. The Enlightenment supported ideals including: liberty, democracy, individualism, religious tolerance, and

The Enlightenment was a period during the eighteenth century that brought new attitudes toward reform, faith, and reason in the governments of Europe. The Enlightenment had a massive effect on the Western Civilization. The Enlightenment brought new ideas about government that inspired the Founding Fathers and the French revolutionaries. The Enlightenment also gave birth to the ideas of free trade and it also shifted economic reliance from agriculture to industrial products. This transformation led to beginning of the globalization of Europe. The Enlightenment also started the religious idea of Deism, which states both religion and reason could be combined to give rise to new

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries that emphasized the use of reason and individualism. It was mostly influenced by Descartes, Locke, and Newton. The idea of enlightened absolutism valued reason rather than faith. Enlightened monarchs had total control but embraced rationality. Being an enlightened ruler meant allowing religious tolerance, freedom of speech, and the right to hold private property. The so-called enlightened rulers of the 18th century included Catherine the Great, Joseph II, and Frederick the Great. Joseph II ruled with more enlightened ideas than the other too but he lacked to make a long lasting changes during his reign. But to what extent did these rulers actually rule with enlightened absolutism?

The Enlightenment was a period of rationalization and understanding, and in many ways contributed to the birth of the French Revolution. Around the time of the French Revolution the church was the dominate force in France. That being said, often times the church would offer explanations to many events as acts of God. The ideas of The Enlightenment saw the opposite. The ideas sought to find reason and physical world explanations. The Enlightenment called for equality and freedom, which was in fact the base of the French Revolution. In order to acquire both equality and freedom, that would mean a complete coup d'état of both the monarchy and aristocracy would be necessary. One of the

Imagine a time where your actions, decisions, and thoughts were controlled by a government, and those ideas were strictly enforced. This was what it was like before the Enlightenment Era, and when this happened, it changed the world forever. The Enlightenment Era was a time period where many different types of people came together to challenge ideas from the time, and think of new ideas that would change the world. There are many people that created new and revolutionary ideas, but the ideas of Wollstonecraft, Locke, Smith, and Voltaire share a common overall idea: freedom and equality. The main ideas of Wollstonecraft, Locke, Smith, and Voltaire are similar because they talk about how every individual should have freedom in society, and that everyone is equal. While it is

The Age of Enlightenment was a European movement which emphasizing reasoning and individualism in preference to tradition. Different factors had a part to play in starting or even propelling ‘the Age of Enlightenment’, including the rule of the Church and State which experienced a power struggle among them, in addition to the Western discovery of latest societies with noticeably exclusive cultural traditions and norms. Many intellectuals felt unhappy with the fixed social styles amongst their very own collectives, and angry at their governments' refusal to provide non-public rights.

In conclusion, the Enlightenment was vital to the American Revolution and the creation of American Government. The Enlightenment beliefs that influenced the American Revolution were natural rights, the social contract, and the right to overthrow the government if the social contract was violated. The Enlightenment beliefs that aided to the creation of the American government were separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government. As stated before, without the Enlightenment there would not have been a revolution, resulting in no American Government. The Enlightenment’s influence on the creation of America is irrefutable. Although there are more beliefs and ideas that came from the Enlightenment that have influenced America, the

“God, who has given the world to men in common, has also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience” (Locke, 35). The Scientific Revolution concentrated on understanding the physical world through astronomical and mathematical calculations, or testable knowledge. The Enlightenment focused more on “Spreading of faith in reason and in universal rights and laws” (Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, 535). While the Scientific Revolution preceded the Enlightenment, both time periods sought to limit and challenge the power of the Church, through the spread of science, reason and intellect, and political philosophies.

The Enlightenment was a movement that shunned superstition and was more in favor with a scientific explanation of the world. The Enlightenment was also known as the Age of Reason or Age of Enlightenment. It started in Europe and America around the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment was about people who used their critical thinking skills to argue knowledge, education, politics, religion, and art. The enlightenment produced an increased number of inventions, books, scientific findings, political laws, and revolutions.

The American Revolution was between the Americans and England’s King, and the French Revolution was between the French’s king ad the third estate. The Declaration of Independence was created, because the Americans thought that all men should have the same rights and the King of England has done the opposite of what they wanted. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was created, because the French third estate wasn’t being treated like the 1st and 2nd estate and they wanted have rights that was justified. These Revolutions started from Enlightenment ideas. Enlightenment ideas were ideas that would help with individualism. Examples of some Enlightenment Ideas were John Locke and his idea about the division of branches. These two documents were

The Enlightenment thinkers changed the way common people viewed government. Before the 17th century, governments acted with impunity. While rebellions had happened prior to the 17th century, they usually consisted of fewer than 1,000 troops

The Enlightenment changed and challenged the way that people thought or acted during the Age of Absolutism. During the Age of Absolutism, the only things kings cared about was power and wealth. They had complete disregard for their subjects. In all six DBQ excerpts, the reader sees people either challenging the king or the King getting upset that people are starting to stand up for themselves instead of just taking his word as the gospel truth. The Enlightenment caused people to start questioning and thinking of different types of governments such as a democracy. This was unlike the Age of Absolutism where people did whatever the King said and didn’t question it.

The enlightenment definitely played a pivotal role in the revolution, the ideas and works of well known enlightenment identities like Voltaire, rosseau, locke, and monstesque were highly influential during the era of the French revolution. Ideas that were developed during the period of the enlightenment led the lower class to become upset by the way they were being treated under the government. Correspondent to the ideas of enlightenment john locke philosophy, the boruqoosi essentially wanted life, liberty and property. The liberal ideas continued to influence the events of the revolution. The bourgeiosi created the national assembly which published the declaration of the rights of man and citizen. The declarartion included ideas and natural

The Enlightenment era, assumed to be the best movement of change and jaw dropping ideas.A time when Emanuel Schikaneder words traveled through a medium of wisdom and righteousness (para. ix). The time when church and state trembled to their knees and lost tremendous power.This marked the beginning of a new era , an era of understanding. People in this age began to question their values, their positions, and their lifestyles. Many people just like Figaro a philosopher , questioned why can we be similar to an aristocrat and be born with such power and fortune.These ideas that people thought and presented brought an age of splendid illumination of light and enlightenment (Kramnick,Isaac ix).