Inequity: The French Revolution

The French Revolution was a drastic time for the people of France. In 1789, the majority of people were living in poverty and dealing with terrible conditions. People were split into three estates: the first, second, and third, the first being the wealthiest. Political, economic, and social situations were what contributed to people’s desire for change. The three main, or biggest causes of the French Revolution, were taxes, inequality, and lack of reform.

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.

However, despite the law, these rights were not granted to all human beings, as the Declaration preserved the institution of slavery and women were not granted equal rights. In 1789, the French Revolution broke out, lasted 10 years, and ended with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. The French revolution was heavily influenced by present Enlightenment ideas, specifically, the concepts of sovereignty and absolute rights, as well as the population’s powerful resentment of royal absolutism, the system of noble privilege and the unfair and unequal system of taxation. Although the French revolution failed to achieve all of its goals, it brought along the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789). The declaration was heavily

During the Eighteenth Century, France had an absolute monarchy with Louis XVI as king and Marie Antoinette as queen. In that time period, French society was based upon a system of Estates where the clergy made up the First Estate; the nobility comprised the Second Estate, and everyone else including professionals, peasants, and the bourgeoisie made up the Third Estate. The Third Estate was immensely unhappy with the old regime, the Estates General, and Louis XVI’s leadership. France was also in the midst of a fiscal crisis due to the American Revolution, Louis XVI’s lavish lifestyle, the Seven Years War, and the tax exemption of the First and Second Estate. Following the surge of new ideas and impactful philosophers from the Enlightenment,

The Intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment occupies an important position in the growth of Western civilization. How it totally affected society, especially French society is a subject of debate, from the beginning of the Revolution to today. In fact, two schools of interpretation are involved. The first school is the conservative school, Edmund Burke is the best example.

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. John Locke is an example of a philosophe who helped shape the outline of the French Revolution because he said that if people are dissatisfied with their governments, they should overthrow them, so they could create a new government. In Haiti, the enlightenment helped shape the Haitian revolution because ideas like freedom and liberty inspired them to bring

The French Revolution was one of the most significant wars that changed France’s history. The Revolution started in 1789 and ended in 1799 and was mainly initiated by the conditions affecting the Third Estate. Louis XVI was predominately the king during this time period but little did he know that an uprising among the peasants was happening. The French Revolution was caused by the Enlightenment ideas because of the American Revolution, the knowledge of rights, and the questioning of France’s government. The American Revolution was basically the “fire” that ignited the change the Third Estate wanted to see in their country.

During the French Revolution, people fought and killed for the things they believed in, specifically rights. It was started for many things, including resentment of royal absolutism, rise of enlightenment ideals, unmanageable national debt, and the unfair treatment of the Third Estate. The French Revolution produced written works such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which served as a model of man’s inalienable right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Everyone during the Revolution agreed on and wanted one thing: rights. However, not everyone wanted people to have this privilege, and cared more for themselves.

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 belief in equality was desired during the French Revolution, they wanted all citizens to be equal to one another. The belief in Fraternity was also very appreciated during the French Revolution, meaning they wanted peace between neighboring countries rather than war or battle. Napoleon Bonaparte ultimately

How revolutionary was the French Revolution? Did the Revolution simply replace the old ruling elite with a new bourgeois one? What were the major effects on different groups of people, including nobles, priests, peasants, urban workers, slaves, and women? This essay will address the French Revolution and the degree to which it can be aptly described as “revolutionary.” How revolutionary was the French Revolution? Was the storming of the Bastille, the destruction of feudalism, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of a fundamental and radical and revolutionary nature, or, alternatively, simply a series of historical events that results in the supplanting of one authoritarian regime for another and at great cost in

Opening paragraph The French Revolution was a major failure and a minor success. After all of the blood shed, the laws, civil rights, and codes did not get instituted effectively and did not represent the values that the citizens had fought for. Examples of this were the Napoleonic Code and Declaration of Rights of Man. Another reason it was a failure was because during the revolts and reforms more than 40,000 men and women died.

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

As Marie Antoinette said, “There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.” this is proof that the French monarchy being built on absolutism and forgetting about the 3rd Estate’s feelings towards it led France through a revolution for a new way of life. In the 1600s France was ruled by an absolute monarchy. The rulers only answered to God, upsetting the peasants, which in turn caused many heads to roll. The most important social, economic, and political causes for the French Revolution are the unfair censorship of speech for commoners, the over-taxation of commoners, and the absolute power of the French monarchy.

The French Revolution was undoubtedly influenced by the political theorists of the Enlightenment. The ideas of two French political theorists in particular are easily seen throughout the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Baron Montesquieu. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thoughts and texts, such as the Social Contract, instilled the entitlement of basic human rights to all men. Rousseau’s concepts on rights combined with Baron Montesquieu’s ideas on government provided the backbone of a radical movement in the French Revolution known as the Terror. When one delves into the beginnings of the French Revolution, the motives and actions of the National Assembly, and the Terror of the French Revolution, one can obviously see the influence of two Enlightenment political theorists, Rousseau and Montesquieu.