How Did Rousseau Influence The French Revolution

The French Revolution was heavily inspired by the ideas and writings of philosophers during the Enlightenment. These great thinkers, including Voltaire, Mary Wollstonecraft, and John Locke, contributed their different ways of thinking to the ideas that became the Revolution. One of the most important was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose works were particularly influential. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712. He was raised solely by his father, after his only sibling ran away from home and his mother died a few days after he was born. His father left Geneva when Rousseau was a child and he went to live with an uncle. At thirteen, he became a engraver’s apprentice, which he enjoyed, except for the fact that his mentor was “violent and tyrannical”. He later met Louise de Warens, who was a large influence on him. Because of her, he converted to Catholicism, and one of his basic philosophies is thought to have come from her belief in basic human purity: he
In doing so, they create a social contract: in return for giving up their power, they get the protection and security of the person they chose to lead them, so long as this person is making a majority content. This also means that each person, or each group of people, is crucial to the community- the upper class, the lower class, the King himself, and everyone in between. This idea was very influential to the French Revolution, and, more specifically, the Reign of Terror. During this time, leaders thought that anyone who did not completely surrender themselves to their new society needed to be weeded out because they were an enemy to the