The Enlightenment was an eighteenth century intellectual movement that embodied the people of the world, emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. The Enlightenment encouraged people to question traditional authority and embrace the concept that humanity could be improved through rational change. These thoughts and concepts of the Enlightenment inspired certain movements in history, enhancing change and propelling the intellectual movement forward. One of the more famous examples of these movements in Europe can be found when looking at the French Revolution. The French Revolution remained committed to the Enlightenment principle of using reason to reshape society and government, however, not all voices revolving around these
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As a whole, most of the country spoke in unison about the idea of sharing the power with the common people instead of having it consolidated under the nobility and the monarchy. This only occurred because over 90% of the population in France were considered to be “common people”, otherwise referred to as the Third Estate. When the Third Estate started its rise, pamphlets like the one by Abbé Sieyès, spread the message that “the privileged few [of France] should not determine the [entire] nation’s future” (113). Sieyès goes on to defining the Third Estate as everything within the nation; “the collectivity of citizens who belong to the common order” (115). The rise of the Third Estate spread quickly and the ideas it represented resonated in the people of France, but one cannot generalize that “all” people in France supported this rise of power to the common people. The monarchy, along with the nobility and clergy, the ones in the First and Second Estate, obviously did not share the views that the Third Estate preached. The first two estates, and the Royal family, already had power, standing as an exception to the common law, holding legal privilege and measurable wealth. The Third Estate showed to have the bigger voice in the end but that is partly to due with their vast numbers in comparison to the other estates. This dispute over where the power should reside is just one example of disagreements during the enlightenment period of the French Revolution. Another can be seen with the unrest over the execution of the monarch and the later transition into leadership under the leader of the Committee of Public Safety; Maximillien
As a whole, most of the country spoke in unison about the idea of sharing the power with the common people instead of having it consolidated under the nobility and the monarchy. This only occurred because over 90% of the population in France were considered to be “common people”, otherwise referred to as the Third Estate. When the Third Estate started its rise, pamphlets like the one by Abbé Sieyès, spread the message that “the privileged few [of France] should not determine the [entire] nation’s future” (113). Sieyès goes on to defining the Third Estate as everything within the nation; “the collectivity of citizens who belong to the common order” (115). The rise of the Third Estate spread quickly and the ideas it represented resonated in the people of France, but one cannot generalize that “all” people in France supported this rise of power to the common people. The monarchy, along with the nobility and clergy, the ones in the First and Second Estate, obviously did not share the views that the Third Estate preached. The first two estates, and the Royal family, already had power, standing as an exception to the common law, holding legal privilege and measurable wealth. The Third Estate showed to have the bigger voice in the end but that is partly to due with their vast numbers in comparison to the other estates. This dispute over where the power should reside is just one example of disagreements during the enlightenment period of the French Revolution. Another can be seen with the unrest over the execution of the monarch and the later transition into leadership under the leader of the Committee of Public Safety; Maximillien