French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

(noun)

A fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human rights, defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal.

Related Terms

Examples of French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in the following topics:

  • The First Amendment

    • The First Amendment to the US Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights, and protects core American civil liberties.
    • The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights and protects American civil liberties.
    • A French revolutionary document, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, passed just weeks before Congress proposed the Bill of Rights, contains certain guarantees that are similar to those in the First Amendment.
    • Although the First Amendment does not explicitly set restrictions on freedom of speech, other declarations of rights occasionally do.
    • Lastly, the First Amendment was one of the first guarantees of religious freedom: neither the English Bill of Rights nor the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen contain a similar guarantee.

  • The Declaration of the Rights of Man

    • The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, passed by France's National Constituent Assembly in August 1789, is a fundamental document of the French Revolution that granted civil rights to some commoners, although it excluded a significant segment of the French population.
    • The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 1791) is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights.
    • In August 1789, Honoré Mirabeau played a central role in conceptualizing and drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
    • Modelled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, it exposes the failure of the French Revolution, which had been devoted to equality.
    • The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789  by Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier.

  • The American Revolution

    • The origins of the French involvement in the American Revolution go back to the British victory in the French and Indian War (1754–1763; the American theater in the Seven Years' War).
    • Benjamin Franklin negotiated a permanent military alliance in early 1778 and thus France became the first country to officially recognize the Declaration of Independence.
    • The treaty with France was mostly about exchanges of captured territory (France's only net gains were the island of Tobago and Senegal in Africa), but it also reinforced earlier treaties, guaranteeing fishing rights off Newfoundland.
    • The American Revolution was a powerful example of overthrowing an old regime for many Europeans who were active during the era of the French Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence influenced the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789.
    • A British army was captured at the Battle of Saratoga in late 1777 and in its aftermath, the French openly entered the war as allies of the United States.

  • Introduction to the Enlightenment

    • French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution.
    • The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789 and emphasized the rights of the common men, as opposed to the exclusive rights of the elites.
    • While the philosophers of the French Enlightenment were not revolutionaries, and many were members of the nobility, their ideas played an important part in undermining the legitimacy of the Old Regime and shaping the French Revolution.
    • While differing in details, Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau agreed that a social contract, in which the government's authority lies in the consent of the governed, is necessary for man to live in civil society.
    • His theory of natural rights has influenced many political documents, including the United States Declaration of Independence and the French National Constituent Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

  • The Constitution of 1791

    • The critical question to consider was: Would every subject of the French Crown be given equal rights, as the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen theoretically promised, or would there be some restrictions?
    • In the end, a distinction between active citizens who held political rights (males over the age of 25 who paid direct taxes equal to three days' labor) and passive citizens, who had only civil rights, was drawn.
    • It abolished many institutions defined as "injurious to liberty and equality of rights."
    • It distinguished between the active citizens (only male property owners of certain age) and the passive citizens.
    • All women were deprived of rights and liberties, including  the right to education, freedom to speak, write, print, and worship.

  • In the South: The Haitian Revolution

    • The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) began as a slave insurrection in French colony of Saint-Domingue and culminated in the abolition of slavery in the French Antilles and the founding of the Haitian republic.
    • On 26 August 1789, the Estates General published the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which proclaimed all men free equal.
    • The Assembly granted civil and political rights to free men of color in the colonies in March 1792, sending shockwaves throughout Europe and the U.S.
    • It abolished slavery in France and all its colonies and granted civil and political rights to all black men in the colonies.
    • Blacks declared themselves free of French rule and fought a guerilla war against the French for the next two years.

  • Foreign and Domestic Crises

    • From 1789 to 1792, as the French overthrew their monarchy and declared a republic, many Americans supported the revolution.
    • A constitutional monarchy replaced the absolute monarchy of Louis XVI in 1791, and in 1792, France was declared a republic.
    • Federalists viewed these excesses with growing alarm, fearing that the radicalism of the French Revolution might infect the minds of citizens in the United States.
    • Therefore, despite the mutual defense treaty the United States established with France in 1778, Washington and the Federalists declared that the French Revolution rendered previous agreements with France non-binding, and issued a formal Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793.
    • Democratic-Republican groups, however, denounced neutrality and declared their support of the French republicans.

  • The XYZ Affair

    • The XYZ Affair refers to the bribes demanded by French agents in the negotiating dispatches to cease French seizures of American vessels.
    • In the wake of the French Revolution relations between the new French Republic and the United States became ever more strained.
    • Since Adams omitted the names of these French agents in the dispatches, referring to them as "X, Y, and Z", this became known as the XYZ Affair.
    • However, Adams continued to hope for a peaceful settlement with France and avoided pushing Congress towards a formal declaration of war.
    • While there was no formal declaration of war, the conflict escalated with both size capturing ships.

  • Establishment of the National Assembly

    • These ideas came to have an immense influence on the course of the French Revolution.
    • On August 26, 1789, the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which comprised a statement of principles rather than a constitution with legal effect.
    • Influenced by the doctrine of natural right, it stated that the rights of man were held to be universal, becoming the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by law.
    • In an attempt to address the financial crisis, the Assembly declared, on November 2, 1789, that the property of the Church was "at the disposal of the nation."
    • The Oath signified for the first time that French citizens formally stood in opposition to Louis XVI, and the National Assembly's refusal to back down forced the king to make concessions.

  • The Quasi-War

    • The Proclamation of Neutrality and Jay's Treaty both outraged France, and the French navy began seizing American ships and harassing American traders in Caribbean and European ports.
    • The French seized 316 American merchant ships by June of 1797, and the French Republic refused to receive the new U.S. minister Charles Pinckney when he arrived in Paris in December of 1796.
    • While there was no formal declaration of war, the conflict escalated, with both sides capturing ships and the expanding U.S. navy slowly pushing the French out of the West Indian trade system in the Caribbean.
    • Essentially, these acts restricted the free-speech rights of the opposing Democratic-Republicans by censoring anti-Federalist writings.
    • Although Congress never officially declared war, it did authorize Adams to build a navy for the explicit purpose of attacking French warships that sought to capture American merchant vessels.