Declaring the Rights of Men and Women in the French Revolution Essay

The French Revolution was a dark time in the history of man. From corruption in government to the almost certainty of starvation for the French peasants, there seemed to be no sign of better times. These were just a few of the logs in the ever-growing revolutionary fire that was burning in the late 1700's. There were many causes to the French Revolution ranging from: poor distribution of power and wealth, a bad harvest which left no grain for bread, a manufacturing depression, and the king's financial problems (which caused overtaxation for the entire population with the exception of the high clergy and nobility). When the estates general was called for the first time in one hundred years, it seemed that the Enlightenment had finally reached France and it seemed that things were going to get better. But as the third estate general would soon find out, this was merely a trick by the the king and other estates general to bring more taxation to the lower and middle classes. When the third estate found out about this plot, they proposed a change in the voting rules which not only didn't pass, but got them locked out of the hearings. But, on July 17, 1789, the third estate founded the National Assembly which later brought upon the Declaration of the Rights of Man. This declaration affirmed the "natural and impre- scriptible rights of man" to "liberty, property, security, and ...