The Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the Rights of Man are two documents that sate the people are ending a relationship with their monarch. One of the two documents led to a successful revolution, the other was the beginning of a reign of terror. Both of these revolutions began with a group of people talking about enlightenment ideas. Enlightenment Ideas are when people begin to start to think that they can rule themselves and not have to have a king. Some Enlightenment ideas include: freedom of religion, the ability to make and pass laws, the ability to vote on what happens in court, the idea of a jury at a trial and not just a judge. All of the ideas mentioned above are some causes of these two major revolutions. The …show more content…
King Louis XVI and Marie Antionette were two people that should not have been ruling a country. King Louis was always gone on hunting trips and Marie Antionette spent every dime of French money. Once the Monarchy ran out money, they started to tax the Third, and poorest, estate. The third estate took up 97% of the population. 97% of the population was starving and the royal family kept spending large amounts of money until the people revolted. The people of France tried to reason with King Louis, but he refused to change his ways and kept taxing the third estate. When the people revolted, they stormed the Bastille and took all of the weapons they could. The people then went to the King’s palace and demanded he fix the way he was ruling before they killed him. The King didn’t listen and was executed along with his wife. Of the three kids that Marie Antionette had, the two boys died of Tuberculosis in jail and the daughter was sent to live the remainder of her life in exile in Austria. It may seem as though the people of France had successfully overgrown their monarchy and could begin a life of freedom, however this is not the case. The French had rushed into combat too fast and did not have a plan for what to do after they had killed their rulers. The right of Terror begins where Maximilian Robespierre beheads 40,000 people in the span of ten months for speaking against the revolution. In the end, Robespierre ends up getting
There was no justice to these acts of terror in France. During this time period the 3rd estate was 98% of the population, 1.5% was the 2nd and .5% was the 1st estate. The 3rd estate was the peasants who had to pay 100% of the taxes in this time period and by the poor being taxed and France spending a lot of their money on random stuff and junk. They were in debt because of this. The Reign of Terror was unjustified because of the discrimination and violence to the non-republics and peasants. (Doc G.) The government also played a big factor in the unfair justice to the peasants and non-republics by making the peasants pay all the taxes and not giving them any say in government. (Doc A.)
During the French revolution, French citizens went against absolute monarchy and the feudal system that was antiquated. They were influenced by Enlightenment ideas such as inalienable rights and popular sovereignty. Louis XVI was the ruler at the time; he believed that his power was given to him by God, thus making him think his ruling was right despite people’s opinion. The citizens of France especially the 3rd estate disliked the king for treating them poorly. Eventually the Jacobins convicted Louis XVI to death by a guillotine for treason after finding a large iron box holding Louis XVI’s secret correspondence with foreign monarchs. The beheading of King Louis XVI was justified because he took people’s rights away and made people follow his inadequate rules and biased judgments based on status. Furthermore, if he were to be left alive it would have posed a threat to the security and stability of France.
It all came down to everyone who started the Reign of Terror, ended up dying, including Robespierre, Saint-Just and many innocent
Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité were the main principles of the French revolution. However, it was a time where these three ideals would be twisted into nothing more than moral and physical violence. The revolution was ultimately a failure which spun out of control and began to murder itself. The French wanted Freedom from its absolutist ruler, but in turn saw themselves being governed by the devil. These citizens wanted a sense of brotherhood amongst their country, but saw their nation being torn apart by violence. Furthermore, the third estate sought to benefit from a new government that promised equality; however, the result was a further imbalance in an already corrupt society. Ironically, the gruesome reign of terror which was
The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson. The purpose of the document was to explain to other countries why the colonies were choosing to break away from Great Britain. Several different statements contained in the Declaration of Independence took inspiration from the Enlightenment, and John Locke. John Locke was an influential Enlightenment thinker. One case in point is how the document states about the consent of the government. This idea is from the Enlightenment, which supported people making their own decisions. An additional example is the concept that if the government does not protect the people, it would be necessary for the people to revolt. This comes from the Enlightenment, because the Enlightenment encouraged the people to question the government when things were wrong with
The Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Rights of Man have many similarities and differences. Both of the documents have gotten their ideas from enlightenment ideas. What are Enlightenment Ideas? People would get together and talk about what rights people should have. The idea that men were born or created equal was an enlightenment idea. Another idea, is that they believed they didn’t need a monarchy and the people could govern themselves. The Enlightenment ideas had major impacts on both documents but used in different ways.
Imagine a collection of ideas that give a man freedom from an oppressive government. That happened with the formation of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence has a list of grievances about the King of Great Britain. Also Declaration of Independence is the people of the United States wanted to be self-evident. On July 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was finalized to the King of Great Britain.
The Declaration of Independence written on July 4, 1776, was the first of the three documents written. When reading this document it is hard to ignore the emotion it exudes of a people not just longing for independence, but rather who’ve grown tiresome of the lack of equality compared to that of those on the motherland. The Declaration of Independence is the autonomous stance of a people declaring not just independence, but claiming their right to disassociate themselves from under the leadership from whom they consider a tyrant and therefore, “unfit” to be a leader of the free land. Unlike the US Constitution, this document discusses and/or lists in depth the atrocities and unconstitutional acts displayed by the ruler of England, the King and its theme is more so a grievance.
During the Enlightenment period, it was the age of reason. Where people understood and viewed things differently. However, centuries later from that time period (1700s) both America and France incorporated and reflected various enlightenment ideas and formed it into several documents such as the Bill of rights, Declaration of Independence both America and France, and the Constitution. These Enlightenment thinkers believed in our natural rights, our equality, and our freedom of speech, expression, and press. By having a unified government and society America and France decide to incorporate these ideas to change the fighting and all of the revolts and decided to get the freedom everyone deserves, except for women until later on. However, both America and France took bits of pieces of these ideas and slightly changed them. The one who reflected most of these enlightenment ideas was America.
Both the Enlightenment and the Great awakening caused the colonists to alter their views about government, the role of government, as well as society at large which ultimately and collectively helped to motivate the colonists to revolt against England. The Enlightenment was vital in almost every part of the founding of America, which included everything from government, to politics itself, as well as religion. Many of the ideas from the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening shaped our country as a whole in its seminal years, inspiring everything from the American Revolution, to the Constitution, and even electricity and stoves. Without the central ideas and figures of both the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment era, the United States
Two very important documents, similar but different in many ways, changed the way three of todays countries functioned. The Declaration of Independence made it so the 13 Colonies could become the United States of America and was separated from England. and The Declaration of the Rights of Man got France’s King and Queen executed and threw them into the Reign of Terror. One of the main differences between the two documents is that The Declaration of Independence was written to have Americas ties completely cut from Britain as their mother country, and The Declaration of the Rights of Man was written to change the way the
The Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen were both written to ensure the rights of the people. Before these documents were written, people were opposed to certain aspects of their government. For example, the British were too controlling of American citizens and were also unrightfully taxing American goods. This made the American colonists very unhappy. The anger of these people led to many protests and revolts against the British. Sooner or later, the founding fathers decided to send a declaration to the King of Britain, King George III, declaring their freedom and independence. This document is what led to the American Revolutionary War/American Revolution. In France, the people were treated very
The French Revolution began in 1789 as an attempt, by the revolutionaries, to form a new government that would give the people more liberty, equality and value people’s rights. Between 1793 and 1794 the government used extreme ways to achieve their goals. This period of time, led by Robespierre, was called the reign of Terror because between 20,000-40,000 french people were killed by the government forces. The Reign of Terror was not justified for three reasons:The external and internal threat did not deserve it, they denied natural rights against people who opposed them and the methods of the Terror were too extreme.
the claim to the Crown, and he believed that individuals held the right to revolt against a
Some of the leaders of the American Revolution were influenced by Enlightenment ideas which are, freedom of speech, equality, freedom of press, and religious tolerance. American colonists did not have these rights, in result, they rebelled against England for independence. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about American's natural rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These ideas came from the Enlightenment, the ideals led towards the American Revolution soon after (Fisk). "The American Revolution must be considered as an anticolonial war for independence, not only a war of liberation from overseas rule but a war for freedom. The American Revolution was a movement to fulfill aspirations to acquire more property" (Morris, 3).