How Did Voltaire Influence The French Revolution

On November 21, 1964 a brave and risk taking writer was born. François-Marie Arouet, more commonly known as voltaire, took many chances in his writings. He wrote about his beliefs and opinions even though they were different than those of his culture and the world around him. Voltaire wrote different styles of writings as well. Many of them got banned and torched, but throughout all of this he continued writing and never gave up. Voltaire’s writings were influenced by his childhood trauma, multiple arrests and exiles, and by his life experiences and strong beliefs and opinions. Throughout Voltaire’s childhood he suffered many traumatic events. At just the young age of 7 years his mother, Marie Marguerite Daumand, passed away. The cause of
Voltaire died in Paris France, the same place he was born. His first exile was in 1715 in Tulle, for mocking The Regent Orleans. After that, in 1717, he returned to Paris and was arrested and exiled again because he wrote and published libelous poetry that offended a lot of people. From there he was exiled to England for 3 years because he argued with The Chevalier De Rohan. In England he angered the church and government by publishing offensive letters on the English nation and fled to Lorraine. Finally in 1778 he returned to Paris as a literary hero and genius, where he lived out the rest of his days (Biography.com/people/voltaire page 1). This affected Voltaire’s writings because he got to experience living in many different places, witness the cultural differences first hand, and meet different people. If Voltaire didn’t live in these different places and get arrested and exiled as many times as he did, he never would have written Letters on the English Nation. He also met many people who influenced his writings such as, Sir Isaac Newton and Henry IV of France. The stories and other writings done by Voltaire couldn't have been done if he didn't have such a strong willed personality, that caused him to have many arrests and
Sir Isaac Newton was just developing his ideas on philosophy, and Voltaire found them to be fascinating. Believe it or not, he actually helped to popularize Newton’s ideas! “Voltaire played a key role in popularizing Newton’s ideas,” (Evan Andrews, 10 Things you should know about Voltaire). He wrote a philosophy in 1752 called, Micromégas. Micromégas is about a being from a planet circling the star, Sirius, who visits earth. The story ends with humans being inspired to test philosophies of Aristotle, Descartes, and many other philosophers! Another one of Voltaire’s works was named Candide. Written in 1759, Candide was a French satire about a young man who lived a sheltered life. The man lost his mother and suffered great hardships. He had a professor whom he looked up to and greatly admired. Candide seems very similar to Voltaire’s childhood, since he too lost his mother and had someone to look up to. He also suffered many great hardships. Plato’s Dream was written in 1756. It was a criticism of religious doctrine because Voltaire did not agree with the church. Plato’s Dream was about a god-like entity who challenged lesser beings to create a world better than the one he created, knowing they couldn't (britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). Voltaire wrote many types of writings that were based off of his life and personal