The Effect of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution

There are many ways in which the Enlightenment affected the course of the Revolution, however there are three interrelated facets of Enlightenment theory that gave the Revolution the might it needed to survive. These three ideals brought the middle and lower classes into the Revolution, a feat that would otherwise only come about in times of an intense depression. The first theory was that all ideas are universal and cosmopolitan, a theory that placed the …

…the occasion and removed the King’s crown from his head, and, eventually, his head from his body. In any country, the road to its revolution can be summed up in a word or phrase. The American Revolution’s motto was “Taxation without representation.” In other countries the rebellion was against tyranny, or despotism. In France, it was “Enlightenment,” and once the heads fell, the revolutionaries realized, however briefly, the goals of the Enlightenment, egalitarianism.