What was Montesquieu's impact on the French Revolution?

Answer 1

Montesquieu's most influential work divided French society into three classes (or trias politica, a term he coined): the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the commons. Montesquieu saw two types of governmental power existing: the sovereign and the administrative. The administrative powers were the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. These should be separate from and dependent upon each other so that the influence of any one power would not be able to exceed that of the other two, either singly or in combination. This was a radical idea because it completely eliminated the three Estates structure of the French Monarchy: the clergy, the aristocracy, and the people at large represented by the Estates-General, thereby erasing the last vestige of a feudalisticstructure.

Another example of Montesquieu's anthropological thinking, outlined in The Spirit of the Laws and hinted at in Persian Letters, is hismeteorological climate theory, which holds that climate may substantially influence the nature of man and his society. By placing an emphasis on environmental influences as a material condition of life, Montesquieu prefigured modern anthropology's concern with the impact of material conditions, such as available energy sources, organized production systems, and technologies, on the growth of complex socio-cultural systems.

Answer 2

Well, Montesquieu was one of the French with the idea of a democratic country. This was the reason why everyone who thought like this was sent to jail.

It impacted the political theory because he had a different idea of what the Monarchy had established. He thought the people had to vote for their leader, that they shouldn't be elected by the former King. Instead the people should vote for the ruler they want in charge.

Answer 3

3 types of government he wanted to use made many people think about government

Answer 4

Not really. Rousseau, another enlightened philosophe, did, however.