Baron De Montesquieu example essay topic

Baron de Montesquieu was a French philosopher who lived around the late 1600's and early 1700's. This was before the French Revolution. He believed strongly in Thomas Locke, who was another French philosopher. Montesquieu also wrote many books that greatly influenced the society he was in at that time. Although Montesquieu was thought to be fair, he believed in slavery. Other ideas that he had were that women were not equal to men, but could still run government.

He believed that women were too weak to be in control. Montesquieu thought since women were more calm and gentle that they would be helpful qualities in making decisions in government but not anything else. Montesquieu wrote three major books when he lived. His first published work was Lettres Persanes, or Persian Letters. This book deals with the criticism of the wealthy French lifestyle. The book is about two Persian's who take a trip to Paris.

Montesquieu ridicules the two people throughout the book. Montesquieu strongly disliked despotism. Despotism is a government run by a tyrant. In another book, Spirit Of The Laws, he uses despotism to tell about how the different governments get corrupt. He believed that the only reason a despotism starts is because of a corruption in a republican or monarchy government. Montesquieu believed that all things were made up of rules or laws that never changed.

He set out to study these laws with the hope that knowledge of the laws of government would reduce the problems of society and improve human life. He was very active in his economy and had a joy for doing so. This made him a very influential person in his society. Despite Montesquieu's belief in the principles of a democracy, he did not feel that all people were equal. Montesquieu approved of slavery. He also thought that women were weaker than men and that they had to obey the commands of their husband.

However, he also felt that women did have the ability to govern. In this way, Montesquieu argued that women were too weak to be in control at home, but that their calmness and gentleness would be helpful qualities in making decisions in government. Montesquieu argued that the best economy would reflect a good government. Government in which was balanced among three group officials is what he called the best. A good model of this would be like the United State's government today.

He called the idea of separating government into three branches 'separation of powers. ' ; He thought it necessary to create separate branches of government with separate but equal powers. If the government could run honest and loyal then the economy would soar and economic growth and equity could be reached at the same time, but of course this is very hard to do. Montesquieu also had many other books that he wrote. One of the many is called The Sprit Of The Laws. It gives his viewpoints on the laws that he believes in that are always there and are never going to change.

This book led Montesquieu to his popular height in Europe. Another is called Considerations On The Causes Of The Greatness Of The Roman's And Their Decline. Both of these reflected what Montesquieu had learned during his political career and were told brilliantly. Montesquieu got to his background in which he was at his height by first becoming a lawyer in the local government. Later, he was a member of the French Bordeaux and other French academies of science. He studied the laws and customs of countries in Europe to get familiar with the way that they lived.

He was especially interested in Britain. However, he was more interested in the political institutions rather than the social economic problems that existed there. So, this means that in most of his writings, the lower class people are left out. Montesquieu lived during a time before the French Revolution, but his ideas had a great effect on the development of governmental structure in that period of time. There were great problems in France at that time, with the lower class people growing in number, which means that the country was growing in poverty.

This provided less of an opportunity for the lower class earning a good living. During the French Revolution, the peasants were not happy with the monarch. In part due to the ideas of Enlightenment and Montesquieu, the people were given objectives for which to revolt. The king was forced to make a change in what he was doing. This change was not limited to France though, it spread throughout many other countries as well. Baron de Montesquieu played a major role in shaping and molding the history around Europe.