The Enlightenment The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in the 17th and 18th centuries also known as "Age of Reason". It was born out of the ideas of the scientific revolution were many people began to look at things through logic and reason than faith, making it a turning point in history. The Enlightenment started in France and produced many ideals that we still use today. The Enlightenment influenced the French Revolution and changed the way people saw the government, however, not the view of women during this period. The French Revolution took place during 1789-1799. It was an extensive social and political upheaval in France that had origins with the monarchy and inequality of the social classes. France was ruled by an absolute monarch, which had 3 of classes, or estates, of people. The 1st was the clergy, or people, of the church; the clergy had 300 representatives in the Estates-General. The 2nd was nobility, which also had 300 representatives. The 3rd was the …show more content…
middle classes and the peasants, which had 600 hundred representatives but had little or no say in matters. In the beginning of the revolution, the 3rd estate wanted every man to have equal rights. An idea that was influenced by the American Revolution. When the king ignored the 3rd estate's cries for equality, the revolution took a drastic turn. The 3rd estate began rioting in the streets, hoping for the king's attention, and the national assembly took over. They used Montesquieu's idea for a constitutional monarchy and created a constitution with limited the power of the king. They simply picked out ideas that appealed to them most from Enlightenment philosophers and applied it to the revolution. The French Constitution also applied their writings works based on the influences of John Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and even Plato. Before the Enlightenment, absolute monarchs and the church ruled countries. Absolute monarchs ruled with the Divine Right Theory, a religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy, stating that God have given them the divine right to rule over the country. If anyone questioned their word, thrown into jail or put to death. During the Enlightenment, people began to question the monarchy, parliament, and the church. They began to ask, "Why them and not one of us? Why this and not that?" Philosophes of the Enlightenment brainstormed different ideas on how the government should work and what it should stand for. The well-known ideas of the government forms were checks and balances or separation of powers, democracy, individual rights, and natural rights. The Enlightenment rarely mentions women and their rights.
Before the Enlightenment, women were inferior to men and only needed to be educated on how to be a good wife and mother. During this time very few women spoke out against the lack of rights and educational opportunities however, their voices were not heard. "Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison."-Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Wollstonecraft was a well-known figure that spoke out against women's place in society. She grew up in the shadow of her elder brother; from a young age, she did not understand why men and women were not equal. She published books on suggesting that women should to be educated like men and suggested woman ought not to be hopeless in the embellishments of a household. After the Enlightenment, women's place in society did not change at all. They were still underneath men in every aspect you can think
of. Enlightenment thinkers questioned authority and welcomed the idea of human improvement through "Radical Change". They believed things should have been proven through logic instead of faith. The philosophes of the Enlightenment period also disliked religion however, believed that it was good for controlling the masses. The Enlightenment inspired many countries and their people to start their own revolutions to fight for what they believe in. The Age of Reason guided the French revolution inspiring new ideas for governments unfortunately, does not mean anything changed for woman's rights.
The Enlightenment was a great upheaval in the culture of the colonies- an intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries which emphasized logic and reason over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers believed that men and women could move civilization to ever greater heights through the power of their own reason. The Enlightenment encouraged men and women to look to themselves, instead of God, for guidance as to how to live their lives and shape society. It also evoked a new appreciation and
The French Revolution was a period of political upheaval that occurred in France during the latter half of the 18th century. This revolution marked an end to the system of feudalism and the monarchy in France and a rise to democracy and new Enlightenment ideas. By 1789, when the revolution began, France was in a deep financial crisis due to the debt they had obtained over many years of reckless spending and France was nearly bankrupt. These financial issues fell almost completely on the bottom social class or the Third Estate which made up a majority of the country. Because of this financial trouble, the common people were heavily taxed, leaving many of them in poverty.
Clearly there never was just one French Revolution, but rather a series of revolutions. These occurred while the French struggled to create a new political and social system – one that would follow principles radically different to that of the ‘ancient’ regime. There were five regimes during the French Revolution between 1787 and 1800. However, despite this fragmented revolution, the same fundamental principles guided most of the revolutionaries involved. These principles included equality under law, centralisation of government, elimination of feudal rights, religious freedom and careers open to talent, not birth.
The French Revolution started during 1789, it allowed for the people to have a better government that actually protected the natural rights of the people. This toke a nearly a decade of rioting and violence for the Third Estate to have their way and get the rights they deserved. From all the causes like the famine of wheat, long debts because of wars, the heavy taxes, and their rights not being protected, some causes stood out more than the others. It is noted that these reasons had to play a major role in order for the French Revolution to occur. The three most important causes of the French revolution are the ideas that came from the Enlightenment, the Old Regime not being an efficient class system, and the heavy taxation.
The French Revolution, also known as the revolution of 1789, was a movement that helped shape France into what it is today. The Revolution may have started in 1787 but it wasn’t till 1789 when the revolution actually started to become worse. The Revolution had many reasons for why it started, but it was only a few major things that really made it happen.
The French Revolution was a bloody civil war that lasted from the years 1789-1799. [1] The revolution arose out of hard economic times that had befallen France. Widespread famine and hunger, due to a grain shortage, rampaged through sections of the country. The economic crisis led to an increase in taxes on the lower classes, known as the third estate, to upkeep the lavish lifestyle of the nobility. [1] All of these are the known factors that led to the rise of the French Revolution.
The French Revolution started in 1787 because the country was going through financial difficulties and there was unrest between the classes of citizens in the country. The differences between the lower class citizens and higher classes, being nobles and the monarchy were great. The citizens had heard of the revolution that went on in the colonies and they also wanted freedom and independence. The real start of the French Revolution was on July 14, 1789, with the storming of the Bastille. Between 1789 1793, a constitution was written, feudalism was abolished, war had broken out, and King Louis XVI was put to death. In late 1793 and early 1794, Maximilien Robespierre became the head of the Committee of Public Safety in France. This was the new governing body in France; it could be compared to the executive branch of a government. Robespierre was a great leader, he ins...
The Enlightenment was a period in European culture and thought characterized as the “Age of Reason” and marked by very significant revolutions in the fields of philosophy, science, politics, and society (Bristow; The Age of Enlightenment). Roughly covering the mid 17th century throughout the 18th century, the period was actually fueled by an intellectual movement of the same name to which many thinkers subscribed to during the 1700s and 1800s. The Enlightenment's influences on Western society, as reflected in the arts, were in accordance with its major themes of rationalism, empiricism, natural rights and natural law or their implications of freedom and social justice.
Prior to the revolution, King Louis XVI was at the top of the ancien régime, the social, economic, and political structure in France, which means he had absolute power. When he received the throne in 1774, it came along with insoluble problems. The people were split into three estates which divided social class. The first estate consisted of 100,000 tax exempt nobles who owned 20% of the land. The second estate consisted of the 300,000 tax exempt clergy who owned 10% of the land. The third estate consisted of the remaining 23.5 million French people who were 90% peasants. The third estate was the only estate that paid taxes. Their taxes ensured the financial well-being of the clergy, state, and nobles (French Revolution Overview 6).
The Enlightenment is known as the revolution that brought to question the traditional political and social structures. This included the question of the woman’s traditional roles in society. As the public sphere relied more and more ?? and the advances in scientific and educated thinking, women sought to join in with the ranks of their male counterparts. Women held gatherings known as salons where they organized intellectual conversations with their distinguished male guests. Seeking to further their status, enlightened women published pamphlets and other works advocating for educational rights and political recognition. Even with this evolution of woman in society, many still clung to the belief that the role of the woman was solely domestic. The females that spoke up were usually deemed unnatural. However these women used the time period of reason and science that allowed them the opportunity to break away from their domestic roles and alter the view of women in society.
The French Revolution was one of the larger social revolutions. It can be considered a revolution on the political, social, religious, and economic front, although the biggest causes were social. The French Revolution began on July 14, 1789, with the fall of Bastille and continued until the rise of power of Napoleon Bonaparte. The main re...
The first underlying cause of the French Revolution was the Old Regime. The people of France were divided into three estates. The first estate was composed of the highest church officials. They held about ten percent of all the land in France. They paid no direct taxes to the royal government. The second estate was made up of nobles. They were only two percent of France’s population, but owned twenty percent of the land. They paid no taxes (Krieger 483). The third estate accounted for ninety-eight percent of France’s population. The third estate was divided into three groups; the middle class, known as the bourgeoisie, the urban lower classes, and the peasant farmers. The third estate lost about half their income in taxes. They paid feudal dues, royal taxes, and also owed the corvee, a form of tax paid with work (Krieger 484).
The French Revolution represents a period in history that brought about a major change in not only Europe but the entire world. The French revolution spanned from 1789 to 1799. It brought about several key changes in not only the economic state of France but also the perception of the Christian church, specifically the Catholic church in France. Its impacts both economically and religiously are still felt to this day. The French Revolution may have temporarily destroyed Christianity in France, however, it acted as a savior for the future of Christianity.
The Enlightenment questioned the role of women. For centuries men have dominated what the role of women should be. Many male writers believed that that women were lower intellectually value to men. But there were some philosophies, which showed some positive feed back for women. They argued that women were capable of all that men are. It was the woman thinkers who added new perspectives to the women question by suggesting better improvements for woman. Those thinkers believed that woman should be better educated. They should be able to learn what men are learning. A English writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was the fonder of modern European feminism. She began the women movement arguing the rights of women. She declared, that women should have equal rights with education and in economic and political life.
The French Revolution, which occurred from 1789 to 1799, was a time where the monarchy was overthrown, a republic was formed, and limits were put on the church. The French Revolution ended with the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The French Revolution created France’s legislative assembly, which is still in place today. Many would argue that the Enlightment was a cause of the French Revolution, but the Enlightment was not one of the main drivers for the Revolution. The bad living conditions, France’s monarchy, and the involvement in the American Revolution and other wars caused the French Revolution.