How Did The Enlightenment Influence The French Revolution

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Enlightenment influences on the French Revolution
What events of the French Revolution were inspired, or influenced, by the Age of Enlightenment? The French Revolution was a series of stages to create a revolution in France between the years 1789 and 1799. This revolution led to the end of the monarchy by the beheading of many authoritative figures, including King Louis XVI, and officially ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took power making him the emperor. Due to the corrupt political and economic problems in government in France in the 1780s, natural rights of the French oppressed groups such as the third estate, which caused them to rise up and defy the power of the government and create the Tennis Court Oath.
The natural rights during the enlightenment age provided a pathway of ideas in the Declaration of the Rights of Man during the French Revolution. In late 1789, the National Assembly began to write a Constitution to better organize French society, but to do so they began by writing the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The natural rights of the enlightenment were life, liberty, and property; the Declaration of the Rights of Man …show more content…
In May of 1798 the third estate, bourgeoisie, was offended by their voting representation being nonexistent and that their rights were being violated, causing them to walk out on the estate general and enter the tennis court, or gym. This action is an illustration of “resistance to oppression”, a natural right in the old constitution influenced by the enlightenment natural rights. Immediately the third estate declared themselves the new assembly of the people and start to write a constitution for France. They believe that they can change the way the government is run, and they wanted a limitation on the king’s power. This idea came from John Locke’s idea of how a government should be
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