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How Did Montesquieu Influence The Government

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Baron de Montesquieu was born on January 18, 1689 in Bordeaux, France with the name Charles-Louis de Secondat. Charles de Secondat was given the title of Baron when his uncle died and passed on his title, fortune and his presidential seat in the Bordeaux Parliament to him. Throughout Montesquieu 's life he had studied politics, law and science. He served as a judge in his region 's government and was extremely active in Bordeaux ' scientific academy. In 1721, Montesquieu published his thoughts on France; he called this publication The Persian Letters. He had published The Persian Letters without identifying himself as the author, but instead saying that two Persian travelers wrote it to describe their experiences in France. Montesquieu went to Paris to join the court there. Soon he found himself losing money and sold his judgeship out of financial need. …show more content…

In this book he expressed his ideas on how the government would work best. Montesquieu believed that the government should be split up into three groups: executive, judicial, and legislative. He was the first to suggest the separation of power in the government, where as the government as it was in France was aristocratic. Montesquieu proposed that if you share the power within the government, then no one part of the government with have all the power. This would stop one part of the government from oppressing the people of that place.
Today, this is the type of government system that we use in America. Baron de Montesquieu 's ideas were adopted into our constitution and his form of government has been used in America since. Montesquieu also believed in political liberty. He thought that people could be as free as they want as long as they obeyed the laws. This type of government is called the separation of powers. When it was first proposed people discarded it because they were already used to the one type of government they were being ruled under. It took from the time that Baron de Montesquieu proposed it to the

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The best form of government, as stated by Montesquieu, is one where the legislative, executive and judicial powers were separate and kept each other in check to keep any branch from being too powerful. He called this idea the separation of powers. An example of this in his eyes was England’s government. Charles mistook the way that political power operated. He saw the English government as one where it separated and balanced powers instead of one central part holding all the power.

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The French people’s knowledge of their rights led them to believe that it is possible to achieve fairness and be respected in their own province. And lastly, the idea of questioning France’s government had peasants discover that their king barely even cared about their well-being and restricted them of representation.

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His view is that the limited government should secure life, liberty and estate. Which is almost identical to the phrase in The Declaration of Independence which states “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Thomas Jefferson got this phrase from John Locke because Locke connects property with happiness. With both phrases being something that no person or government can take away from an individual. As for Montesquieu, in his writing he differentiates the different types of government and the pros and cons of them.

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After already obtaining an uneven distribution of wealth in the nation among the three estates, the debt from the American Revolution took a toll on France’s financial stability, practically bankrupting them. Struggling from the large gap between the wealthy and the poor, it was suggested by Sieyes that the third estate, commoners (97%), were the people who made up the nation of France and that they needed to take a stand, which they did. The third estate followed Rosseau, who’s ideas were developed from Locke, on his ideas of “general will” of the nation, and that they should form a national assembly of their own since they were the nation (SMW 76). The French Revolution unfolded into three phases of constitutional monarchy, radical republicanism, and military consolidation, resulting in the issue of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, among other accomplishments. Also following the American Revolution, and the Declaration of Independence, the French used Locke’s ideas in his Second Treatise of Government as a guideline to their new constitution.

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The main difference between the American and French Revoultion was that one successfully converted to a democratic government and one did not. The French Revolution was not successful in forming a democratic government due to France’s history of a monarchy, economic issues and divison among its’ people. Unlike America, France had a long history of sole rulers and dictatorship which made the change to a democratic government much more difficult and ultimately impossible. America’s motto of “all men are created equal” (Doc A) was the complete opposite of France’s dividing estate class system. The third estate consisted of peasents, common people and the bourgeoisie, the second estate belonged to the Nobles, and the first was the home to the Clergy.

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Consequently, a limited government was created in response to these new thoughts. Furthermore, this new type of government was extremely revolutionary because it changed the way that the citizens had thought or viewed about the government. Two Enlightenment philosophers that influenced the creation of the government were John Locke and Montesquieu. John Locke had the belief that everyone had natural rights (life, liberty, property) and that if the government failed to protect these rights, they could be overthrown and replaced. Also, Montesquieu’s idea of the separation of powers helped shape the government.

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Another writer was Montesquieu, a Frenchman who lived in England for a time. His contribution was the idea of the separation of parts of government into three branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. This would create a balance so that no one person or group would be too powerful (Enlightenment, Pearson). Voltaire was also a Frenchman who lived in England for a time. His concern was that there be separation between church and state.

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This sharing of power added ideas from the newly formed government that focused on the freedoms of citizens in England. Voltaire contended that the English government had successfully limited the power of the monarchy by affirming the power of the nobility, criticizing the French feudal system for its inability to share political power amongst the citizens of France (6). Advocating a limited monarchy to hold political discussions concerning the progress of the French government towards liberal reforms during the French Revolution. Voltaire as an enlightened philosophe, published papers about the rationality of the French government, which influenced his attitude towards the English constitutional monarchy that implemented the enlightened ideal of liberty. John Locke wrote that the purpose of electing legislative powers was to create laws and rules that protected the “properties of all the members of society,” a natural right of mankind (5).

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To begin with, Montesquieu is best known for his ideas to revolutionize political systems. The separation of powers changed society by allowing people to think that not just one person should control and govern the laws of a country. The Spirit of the Laws which was a book written

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If this was not being done, he proclaimed that the people had the right to rebel. Other philosophers also convinced the French people about the corruption and misdeeds of the French monarchy. For example, Baron de Montesquieu frequently spoke that there should be a separation of power in

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A system with individual interest had more people viewing democracy as a fair and just way to ensure equality. The French Revolution helped shaped an old society that

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May 5, 1789, the beginning of the infamous French Revolution. Historians around the world studied the causes of the French Revolution, arguably regarded as one of the most important events in human history. Many important ideologies were developed during this time period. The current western political philosophies in France is the result of the French Revolution which introduced the principles of civic equality and popular sovereignty that challenged the historical Three Estates. Following many European reform trends, France in 1789 began their own major reform that lasted nearly a decade.

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John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu were political philosophers that debated the question of who was best fit to control the government. Locke and Montesquieu shared similar political beliefs such as natural rights and the separation of government powers. However, both philosophers did, in fact, have their personal views that helped them accomplish important achievements. John Locke published “Two Treatises of Government” and “ An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” which present a detail philosophy of the mind and thought. Locke’s “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” lays out his philosophical project.

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The age of enlightenment brought is what brought science and technology to the forefront of society. Montesquieu believed that we should correspond to the social, economic, and geographical conditions of a region because different place's are different all around. Look at New York and Belle for example. If we had a principle from New York here in Belle, it would be difficult for the principle to adjust to us, and us to him.

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During the Estates General, Louis XIV believes he can rid the Third Estate’s demands by locking them out. The Third Estate moves next door to a tennis court and takes an oath to remain there until there is a constitutional monarchy, a form of government promulgated by Montesquieu in his “Spirit of Laws”. “Montesquieu claimed that a liberal constitutional monarchy was the best system of government for a people who prized freedom, on the grounds that by dividing the sovereignty of the nation between several centres of power, it provided a permanent check on any one of them becoming despotic.” Montesquieu is clearly vital in the French Revolution as he sets the structure of government which the National Assembly demands and provides the governmental goal of

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