Enlightenment And The French Revolution Essay

The Enlightenment was a time period of demystification and the birth of many new ideas. Thinkers of the Enlightenment such as John Locke, Voltaire and Rousseau believed in governments that were based on the interests of the people, and not obtaining too much power. Global politics in the 17th and 18th century, including France, Venezuela and Mexico were impacted greatly by the ideas of the enlightenment.

The French Revolution was born from the ideas of the enlightenment, including John Locke’s ideas of Natural Rights and Montesquieu’s ideas of separation of power. Before the French Revolution, France was ruled by a Monarchy. The king of the time was Louis XIV. Louis XIV was a terrible and weak leader who did nothing to help the suffering people of his nation. Marie Antoinette was selfish and obsessed with extravagance, draining the country’s funds for events at versaille. The king and queen stood for the exact opposite of what
John Locke and Montesquieu said government should. The aristocratic social structure of the old regime also violated the ideas of Natural Rights, which the government should protect, but Marie and Louis did nothing for. These enlightenment ideas pushed the common people of France to the edge, and led them into revolution. The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen were born from the revolution, shaping how the government of france would become, allowing for the natural rights of man to be protected. A constitutional Monarchy was put in place in France. Many large changes were made to France during this time including the abolishment of degrading punishments, the selling of Church property to pay off debt and the Church being made into a branch of the state. But later the Pope condemned the constitution and the DotRoMaC which tore the french people between revolutionary loyalty or religion. The legislative assembly voted to declare war on Austria and essentially Prussia. This war became known as the 2nd Revolution and overthrew the constitutional monarchy, replacing it with a republic. When the King was executed, France was isolated and at war with virtually everyone around them. This began the time period known as the Reign of Terror. When the Reign of Terror was ending and the government was healing, a new name rose to power, Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was everything the French people wanted, until he wasn’t. He restored peace and order, and suppressed rebellion. Napoleon also granted back rights to men, but stopped far short from the full equality wanted by the rationalists. Bonaparte proved to be ruthless and manipulative, deeming himself as emperor, which essentially reversed everything the revolution fought for. Napoleon was exiled and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored.

The Enlightenment ideas of Natural Rights and Democratic government inspired the revolutions taking place in Latin America, including Venezuela. In Venezuela there was a strict aristocratic social structure which gave a very small portion of the population all the power and wealth, and left the majority poor or slaves. Slavery and the social structure was a violation of John Locke’s ideas of natural rights. Venezuela was also under rule by the Spanish Monarchy, to a king, Napoleon’s brother, to whom they felt no loyalty. This went against Montesquieu's ideas of a Government where the power was split and was used towards the benefit of the people. Using these ideals, the Venezuelans declared their independence from Spain. Simon Bolivar, a radical who studied many of the enlightenment thinkers works, aided Venezuela in their fight against Spain. With his help, Venezuela was able to beat Spain and begin to form their new government. Bolivar created the Republic of Gran Colombia, claiming that they should learn from Europe’s mistakes and not have multiple countries with different powers, because they fought each other too much. Bolivar was named president and Military Dictator of this new Republic. Yet the enlightenment ideals were still carried by the Latin American people. Not many agreed with Bolivar being the holder of all the power, it was exactly what they fought against. Civil war broke out, resulting in Venezuela withdrawing from Gran Colombia.

The Haitian Revolution, much like the revolutions taking place around it, was inspired by the enlightenment ideas and the French Revolution itself.
The slaves in haiti where the fuel for the revolution. They had no rights, no liberty, no property, which blatantly went against the ideas of John Locke and his belief that government should serve to protect these things for its people. With the introduction of that idea to the world, and the anger against the french, the slaves of haiti led them into a revolution against France that was ironically inspired by the French. Toussaint l'OUverture led the slaves into rebelling against the planters. The Haitians managed to fend off French and British reinforcements and l’Overture expanded the revolution to the colony of Santo Domingo. He abolished slavery and declared himself Governor-General over the entire island of Hispaniola. L'OUverture was captured by Napoleon's general, but one of L'OUverture's generals led Haiti to victory over the french, declaring them independant and creating a
Republic.