Toward the middle of the 18th century a shift in thinking occurs that we call the Enlightenment. You have probably already heard of some important Enlightenment figures, like Rousseau, Diderot and Voltaire. It is helpful I think to think about the word “enlighten” here — the idea of shedding light on something, illuminating it, making it clear. The thinkers of the Enlightenment, influenced by the scientific revolutions of the previous century, believed in shedding the light of science and reason on the world, and calling into question traditional ideas and ways of doing things. The scientific revolution (based on empirical observation, and not on metaphysics or spirituality) gave the impression that the universe behaved according to universal and unchanging laws (think of Newton here) and this provided a model for looking rationally on human institutions as well as nature. Rousseau for example began to call into question the idea of the divine right of Kings, and wrote in The Social Contract that the King does not in fact receive his power from God, but rather from general will of the people. This of course this implies that “the people” can also take away that power! The Enlightenment thinkers were also discussing other ideas which are the founding principles of any democracy — the idea of the importance of the individual who can reason for himself, the idea of equality under the law, and the idea of natural rights. The Enlightenment was a period of profound optimism, a sense that with science and reason — and the consequent shedding of old superstitions — human beings and human society would improve.

The Enlightenment, the Monarchy and the Revolution!
The Enlightenment encouraged criticism of the corruption of the monarchy (at this point Louis XVI), and the aristocracy. They condemned Rococo art for being immoral and indecent and called for a new kind of art that would be moral instead of immoral, and teach people right and wrong.

These new ways of thinking, combined with a financial crisis (the country was literally bankrupt), along with poor harvests left many ordinary French people hungry and angry. In 1789 the French Revolution begins. In its first stage, all the revolutionaries ask for is a constitution that would limit the power of the king. The Declaration of the Rights of Man is a document produced by the revolutionaries at the beginning of the revolution. Ultimately the idea of a consitution fails and the revolution enters more radical stages, and in 1792 Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette are beheaded along with thousands of other aristocrats believed to be loyal to the monarchy.