Causes of the French Revolution
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799)
The French Revolution was a watershed event that changed Europe irrevocably and ended a century of slowly increasing opposition to absolutism and the supremacy of a decadent aristocracy. The causes of the French Revolution are difficult to pin down. Therefore, we will divide them into long-term and immediate causes. Within long-term causes, we will also define intellectual, political and economic causes.
Long-Term Intellectual Causes
Before a movement can reach the proportions of an actual revolution, it requires a body of ideas that provides a programme of action and a vision of the new order to be achieved. The intellectual causes of the French Revolution are a direct result of the Enlightenment. This movement produced two interesting political theories: the liberal theory of Locke, Voltaire and Montesquieu and the democratic theory of Rousseau.
John Locke (1632-1704) was the father of the liberal theory. His political ideas are mainly contained in his Second Treatise of Civil Government published in 1690. Locke maintained that originally all men had lived in a state of nature in which absolute freedom an equality prevailed, and there was no government of any kind. The only law was the law of nature, which individuals enforced to protect their own natural rights to life, liberty and property.
However, after a while, confusion and insecurity prevailed. Accordingly, people agreed to establish a civil society, to set up a government and to surrender certain powers to it. But they did not make this government absolute. The only power people agreed to surrender was the executive power, in order to make certain that the law and subsequent decisions were put into action.Therefore, the state is the joint power of all members of society. If the government exceeds or abuses the authority granted by the people, it becomes tyrannical and the people have the right to dissolve it or rebel against it and overthrow it.
Locke condemned
The French Revolution was a watershed event that changed Europe irrevocably and ended a century of slowly increasing opposition to absolutism and the supremacy of a decadent aristocracy. The causes of the French Revolution are difficult to pin down. Therefore, we will divide them into long-term and immediate causes. Within long-term causes, we will also define intellectual, political and economic causes.
Long-Term Intellectual Causes
Before a movement can reach the proportions of an actual revolution, it requires a body of ideas that provides a programme of action and a vision of the new order to be achieved. The intellectual causes of the French Revolution are a direct result of the Enlightenment. This movement produced two interesting political theories: the liberal theory of Locke, Voltaire and Montesquieu and the democratic theory of Rousseau.
John Locke (1632-1704) was the father of the liberal theory. His political ideas are mainly contained in his Second Treatise of Civil Government published in 1690. Locke maintained that originally all men had lived in a state of nature in which absolute freedom an equality prevailed, and there was no government of any kind. The only law was the law of nature, which individuals enforced to protect their own natural rights to life, liberty and property.
However, after a while, confusion and insecurity prevailed. Accordingly, people agreed to establish a civil society, to set up a government and to surrender certain powers to it. But they did not make this government absolute. The only power people agreed to surrender was the executive power, in order to make certain that the law and subsequent decisions were put into action.Therefore, the state is the joint power of all members of society. If the government exceeds or abuses the authority granted by the people, it becomes tyrannical and the people have the right to dissolve it or rebel against it and overthrow it.
Locke condemned