The Role Of Rationalism In The Age Of Enlightenment

Thus, Philosophes like Voltaire, Rousseau, John Locke and Montesquieu, created new ideas about the different types of possible governments and societies, such as human rights, citizenship, & democracy. Eventually, these ideas began spreading throughout France. Similarities between the French and Haitian Revolution: In France, the Enlightenment helped influence the French Revolution because the third estate, noticed that their basic right wasn’t being met. Specifically, the bourgeoisie, which was the growing merchant/professional class were well educated and familiar with the writings of philosophes like Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. It was the bourgeoisie class that was educated, yet they didn’t have privileges like the First and Second Estate consequently, they began to question if there should be a social and political change in France.

Another influential philosopher was the french Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wrote the Bill Of Rights. It protected the people's right from the government. These new ideas influenced in the French Revolution just like other revolutions did too. In 1776 the American revolution took place and inspired the French people. The British colonies in the America’s declared their independence from the English Court and the lower class in France saw the possibility of throwing down the French

Claims The French Revolution was a success and failures in many ways more than one, but most of it was a success. It achieves a lot of goals ranging from the government to the lower class of France. The first few years of the revolution starts to change the power ranking from the upper class to the lower class that began to revolt. They made themselves noticeable. Evidences The French revolution start off with giving more power and control to the Third Estate or the lower classes of France.

Let 's see. One of the major reasons to the French Revolution to happen was the absolute monarchism. Absolute monarchism is a king and queen system and they had absolute power. France in 1789 had a absolute monarchy system ruled by queen Marie Antoinette and king Louis the sixteenth. Absolute monarchism was bad to France because they have just a little connection with the citizens of France and the government and that is the opposite of social contract.

During the 17th century in Europe, there was major social and political disgruntlement among the people, because of this many European experienced revolutions. Two countries who gained the most traction in their revolutions and saw major change was France and what is now known as Germany. France experienced revolutions in both 1830 and 1848, while Germany experienced a revolution in 1848. I will be focusing on both of Frances revolutions as they were both caused due to corrupt governments and the goal of both was similar, a more republican nation. The reason France had a revolution in 1830 was because the royalist believed the kings had too much power, in 1815 the Congress of Vienna had put a Bourbon Monarch into power names Louis XVIII

The outcome of the Haitian Revolution was in favor of the slaves on the island because they gained their freedom from the French and Spanish. On the other hand, in France, members of the Third Estate led a revolt against the monarchy in hopes that by overthrowing the monarchy, they would be granted a constitution and a new assembly would be created with delegates of the Third Estate. Although the radicals were successful and a National Assembly was created, there were still problems. The worsening economic issues had not been solved and many citizens did not gain any rights. When the Revolution took a radical turn in 1792, the French Republic was formed.

The French Revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799, was primarily a response to the poor leadership of King Louis XVI who had been ruling France at the time. A number of commoners took to the streets of Paris to protest against the monarchy after years of alienation and paying abundance of tax and fees. The bourgeoisie was also out of touch with the rigid social structure orchestrated by the regime as they were often excluded from law-making decisions and other political rights that were given exclusively to noblemen. Shortly after the monarchy had been abolished, the church became victimized at the hands of the revolutionaries who recognized the institution as a chunk of the Ancien Regime that needed to be destroyed. On that note, the French

The peasants were angry at the king because, he was taxing them, even though they barely have land to live on (spielvogel, 341). Nearly at the end of the French Revolution, a new regime was created, the directory. this regime lasted for almost five years until Napoleon Bonaparte came to power. There were many problems that contributed to the rise of Napoleon, but the most important problems were the division of French citizens, wars against foreign enemies, and economic growth problems. One of the most important problems that contributed to the rise of Napoleon was the division if French citizens.

This aspect of military might became the key piece for centralizing power in France, controlling the army meant collecting taxes without the consent of the Estates General, therefore diminishing the power of Estates. This is the reason why the Military Revolution went hand-in-hand with the emergence of absolutism. Hatton describes “the term ‘absolutism’ denotes a form of power which is unrestrained; more specifically it implies that no external agency can suspend or delay the action of the sovereign power” (Hatton, 1976, p.18) Absolutism was also a product of power struggle between the King and the Estates, for example in France the Crown won, establishing monarchical

Nobles lost their advantaged position in French society causing, among other things, loss of life, a perceived forced emigration to other lands, loss of property, and the end of seigneurial rights and income. Some of these advantages were subsequently recovered during Emperor Napoleon’s reign but many pre-Revolutionary rights were forever