Enlightenment Impact On The French Revolution

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The Enlightenment ideas had an enormous influence on the outbreak of the French Revolution and the reforms in 1789, although many other things played a role in the outbreak of the revolu¬tion. It was an intellectual movement and it saw the emergence of new ideas concerning reason¬ing and rational thinking, in contrast to traditions and superstitions. The philosophers, who were a group of writers and thinkers that formed the core of the Enlightenment, supported the concepts of equality and tolerance within society and taught people not just to accept, but to question tra¬dition. One of the main and central principles of the philosophers of the eighteenth century was to apply rational analysis to all activities. The movement questioned and challenged…show more content…
On the 17th of June, the third estate took action and now called themselves a National Assembly. After the King had locked them out of a meeting with the Es¬tates-General, the new National Assembly moved in to an indoor tennis court and made the “Ten¬nis Court Oath” on the 20th of June 1789, with the views: “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”. This oath stated that they would not separate until they had been given a new constitution. Due to over-whelming support, Louis XVI was forced to accept the National Assembly. The third estate now held the majority in France under the new constitution. The revolutionary boldness of the third estate therefore was a contributing factor to the French revolution and without the Enlight¬enment; the third estate might not have had as much courage and boldness. The “Declarations of the rights of man and the citizen” was issued in the 26th of August 1789, which was not long after the Tennis Court Oath. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was set of individual rights and col-lective rights, of all of the estates as one. It was influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, these rights were universal; they were supposed to be valid in all times and places, pertaining to human
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