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Similarities Between The French Revolution And The Enlightenment

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Enlightenment?” Between the 18th and 19th centuries, two considerable revolutions reflected the ideals of the Enlightenment.Though these ideals played a substantial role in both revolutions, they were more significantly shown in the American Revolution. The French Revolution began with intentions following the Enlightenment ideals but ended up with strong feelings of fear driving the people rather than princples.
Enlightenment ideals heavily emphasized the importance and rights of each individual, white man; these were called natural rights. These ideals encompassed popular sovereignty where the opinions of the majority were emphasized. The Enlightenment continued the ideas of the Scientific Revolution in which there was a great emphasis on human reasoning and how it could answer questions about nature; in the Enlightenment, people believed that human reasoning could be used to solve any issues in society or politics. The idea of a social contract, in which there was an agreement between the people and the ruler which helped ensure that the ruler would not abuse his power, was brought about by Thomas Hobbes; many leader went on to adopt these principles and became enlightened despots. Many of these ideas led to political changes and revolutions The …show more content…

The ideas of equality amongst all citizens drastically inspired the oppressed lower class and lead to the storming of the Basille. The ideals of the Enlightenment were present during the French Revolution but they did not plays as great a role as they did in the American Revolution. The French Revolution was more inspired by fear and desperation when the peasants felt abused and neglected. As soon as the Reign of Terror began, the ideals of the Enlightenment seemed to be lost to fear and rage. Many of the military leaders who took over once the revolution

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They were also in need of social, economic, and political reforms. To conclude, even though the French, Haitian, and American Revolutions obtained different social outcomes, they did have alike social causes and goals that came from Enlightenment ideals. Each revolution lasted around ten years (1700’s), and were overall very similar to each other. Through their social causes, goals, and outcomes, it is understandable to state that the citizens and slaves revolted for their liberty, equality, and fraternity. These colonizations fought for their rights in order to achieve freedom from abusive and unfair

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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.

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The French Revolution all began after people in France decided it was time to fight for their rights and freedom and escape the tyranny that took place and give the people more power. At the time King Louis XVI was the French king and had power from 1774 to 1792 and was later executed in 1793. In France, the people were divided into three separate social estates, clergy, nobility, and the commoner as the lowest and the highest above all of course would be the king. The Enlightenment was a movement by intellectuals who promoted reason and science, and they began to question the system in place at the time in France and they began to spread revolutionary ideas that got people thinking about change. The “French Revolution was influenced by Enlightenment ideals” and when the ideas began to spread people were newly educated about something they never thought about, and after

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