Dedication

To my mom, who's been my support all over these years, for helping me in the best

possible way she can, and rescuing me from all those issues whre my youth and

inexperience have placed me.

To my dad, who's given me the foundation which I hope, will make a better person;

who's protected me from all hazards and for being the person whom I can rely on, no

matter what.

To my siblings, who've guided me along the way and even when I've gotten stucked

they don't care to come to help me raise up.

To the school Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who believed in me and gave me the best

education and formation, but particularly thanks to Sor Oliva Saavedra who pushed

me on the best way anyone can push on a teenager, and always did it with love.

To all the teachers, who've helped me to comprehend the world in a factual and

realistic way.

To Marissa, who's listened to me all over these years and has known how to share

the world with me.

To Tania and Alexa, who've been with me in the good and bad times, and even so,

we remain together.

Acknowledgements
To all those people who shared a little part of their lives with me.

To my parents, for bringing me to the world, for taking care and loving me in a way

only the best parents do, but above all, thanks for escorting me along the road of life

where it's easy to get lost, but not when you have your beloved ones holding your

hand.

To my siblings, for giving me the tools to face the world, without being so naive or

ingenuous.

To my friends for teaching me to live the moment; I want to thank all my teachers for

every lesson in every class they taught me, and even more for letting a mark in my

life, because a teacher teaches, but I've had the bliss to have had real teachers who

teach with quality and joy.

And lastly, to the schools Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Fray Toribio de Benavente,

for helping me to become a better student and person.

Abstract

The importance of the written word lies on the ability it has to change the mind of a

man, and the importance of the very well written word lies on the ability to chnage

the thought of a whole nation, of course, involving other factors.

Voltaire, far from just being an Enlightened author, was a politician, not because it

was his profession, but because he had a big influence within the political

movements of his time; he died on May 30th, 1778, eleven years before the

movement he influenced began: the French Revolution, but surely he participated so

actively in it, as any of the men who fought for a fair Republic, where all of the

French citizens are free and equal, idea that he, just like his Enlightened companions

Montesquieu, Rousseau, Diderot, among others, propelled through his works and

more effectively, the satire through the pamphlet.

The French Revolution takes in many varied characters who helped to spread the

Enlightenment with the help of their speeches, journals and even their actions.

Robespierre, Danton, Napoleon, Jean-Paul Marat are good examples of these guys,

although it's good to define that in certain point all of them took off from the

Enlightened ways to go to the pathways of power and money.

France is now a free nation thanks to Voltaire, thanks to Montesquieu, to Diderot and

Robespierre, to Napoleon, to Danton and Jean-Paul Marat; anyway, anyone who

helped in some way that in Paris, and more generally in all France, no man was

seen in other way than in equality. There were some hurdles, yet not bigger than the

ones concerning all revolutions, but in the end, it concluded in what every average

revolutionary fighted for: economic stabiliby, equality and a Nation which takes in

consideration all of its citizens.

Introduction

"Every age has produced heroes and politicians; all nations have experienced

revolutions, and all histories are nearly alike to those who seek only to furnish their
memories with facts; but whosoever thinks, or, what is still more rare, whosoever has

taste, will find but four ages in the history of the world. These four happy ages are

those in which the arts were carried to perfection, and which, by serving as the era of

the greatness of the human mind, are examples for posterity."[1]

[1] Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, 1751.

I think that if Voltaire had been able to live through the years where his writings took

the revolutionary men to fight for a homeland, the homeland this author believed in,

he would have faced mixed emotions; on the one hand, pride, since the man finally

was beginning the fight for what he considered right and wasn't satisfied only saying

he lived in the best possible world, and on the other hand the revulsion toward the

medium used by the revolutionary men to obtain that their rights were taken in

consideration.

The French Revolution was a complaint, no just from the French, but from the whole

world, that's why it influenced so much that it could furnish another revolutions, as

well as getting into the head of many revolutionary leaders, and if not for one of its

factors, the Enlightenment, this movement wouldn't have existed in the same way,

although, not all of the outcomes of the Revolution were furnished by the Century of

Light, and many unfortunate events that happened are now an example of what

occurs if the government gets out of the human feeling, as well as one of its

manifestations, the religion.

Anyway, just like we can say that the Enlightenment was an important factor for the

French, in this thesis we'll take in consideration one of its authors: Voltaire.

Chapter 4: Conclusions

The French Revolution had innumerable causes and influences, we can't say that

one of them was the one which affected the more or the one which affected the less,

since it was the result of all of them, which make the French realize that they needed

a change of regime to get one more righteous.

Voltaire sowed a little part of the seed which propelled the ideological influence

within the French Revolution and it's illogical to suppose that the author had all the

merit, although we can say about him, apart from supposing that such an author for

the French with his own theories and ideas about the unfair French government, was

also a sponsor for another Enlighted authors who also helped to turn reason and

thought for oneself in something reachable for those times. But, even when the

author helped to spread the ideas of other people, apart from his own, the

Enlightenment all over Europe was'nt enough for France when the Revolution

started, namely, there were more factors.

While it is true that the Enlightenment spread the ideas of men who had theories and

complete works related to the way the government was supposed to be, it reached a
point within the French Revolution where these didn't matter and the fight for power

was the key factor when choosing the government which ruled France; although it's

clear that characters like Roberspierre and Jean-Paul Marat had ideas based on the

thought of Enlighted authors, at the moment to impose the reign of "terror" the

principles of the movement were lost bit by bit and got confused with fanaticism,

pananoia and chaos, as the Godess of Reason, which only helped to end the reign

of Robespierre and left doubt concerning the French Republic of the moment.

The violence of the French Revolution is a clear example of what happens when

man moves away from his own beliefs, in the same way we can say that all the blood

which was shed in France at that time was the result of all the chaos caused by the

abusive monarchies over so many centuries. Fifteen thousand peple were beheaded

by the guillotine; among that number we can count both king Louis XVI and

Roberspierre as well Jean-Paul Marat, each one of them paying the price for the

unrighteous things they committed, being for the first one the fact he inherited a

country submerged in crisis and wanting to silence the third state; for the second

one, departing towards the paths of extremism and the feelings, more than reason

and objectivity; and for the last one, having incited so much violence and distrust

among the French people; anyway, it's quite obvious that the fight which moved the

Old Continent and its leaders, made it possible to keep France as it had been before,

a nation full of power, and both its goals and its medium were nothing but the result

of the context that had been lived, context which had served too as a home for

Voltaire.
The similarity between the situations Voltaire and the revolutionary men had lived,

made it possible for the ideas of the author to be accepted by the popular thought,

even today we may observe the way his theories are useful for the government we

have. So it is, the sense of possesion, one of the key factors for a book, or any

intellectual work to become an idea which contributes to the fight of such kind, in the

same way, it is also logical that it's required a desperate situation for the idea to start

up, but we can't give a solution to a problem we don't have,and Voltaire had gotten

the answer to his problems from the solution England had provided, just a century

before the Industrial Revolution, just as its greatest influencial people: Issac Newton

and John Locke, this last one having a similar way of thought as that of Hobbes;

that's why we may suppose that Volatire was the integration of various authors and

solutions provided before; just the the previous action taken by the revolutionary

men, sinnce these were just the previous set of steps which had had violence as

their basis, for this was the given answer in the context of the French monarchs,

therefore, what the people had learnt to do.

The French Revolution not only has causes, but consequences also, and among

these among these it should be noted that the Revolution turned into a model to

dismiss unfair governments all over the world, that's why it's considered an

European revolution, because with Napoleon's rule, revolutionary ideas got terrain

within the conquered lands, as well as within Latin America. This way Voltaire

became a featured factor for the coming revolutions, since he was an important part

of the French influence lying in every oppressed citizen's head.

Now we can that many nations of the world consider themselves independent and

we seldom see an absolutist state; clearly, the fight for power and the sanguinary

violence observed during the French Revolution keeps getting ground today, but

these are practices and interests, while the human being rules, will be presnt, for we

are imperfect, that's why the branching of the government was so important for the

revolutionary men, the same for Voltaire, because this meant if a ruler was missing,

he had other people to help him see his mistakes.

Along this thesis, I was realizing of this: the limit where Voltaire's influence ends

among the revolutionary men and where these last ones's influence begins is very

blurred, it could almost get confused, the only faint line existing between both areas

is where the author developed the ideas of the French citizens and exposed them to

the public; out of this we can assert the clear visualizing in Voltaire's works of the

drama his people lived and generally speaking, all over the world, it could be said

that the situation of chaos was a sort of a muse for the author.

His controversial works which meant for him on one side imprisonment and on the

other, the exile, is a clear example that his theories and ideas being written down in

his books, perfectly fitted the French situation from 1789, even before that time

arrived.

While sometimes we confuse a genius with a mad man, it was funny to realice that

Voltaire is one of these examples: the author was a deist, but when he accused the

Church as an intolerant institution, he became someone who "hated" God, when this
wasn't true. We can give merit to him for sowing that ideas in the heads of the

French, especially when there as so many injustice towards the second state, that is,

the clergy, when the only thing Voltaire defended was the human right to profess any

religion without being judged, something the Catholic church didn't allow from 1789

to 1799 and not even to its members; it's easy to confuse, because of that, the critic

with hate, and Voltaire as someone who despised religion. With this I don't pretend

to give an example of religion, but of how ideas may surge, and how the

interpretations of these belong to everyone's own judgement, at the end of this

thesis, I've realized that the influence produced during the French Revolution, had

diversity of different interpretations; for some the right thing was to keep the

monarchy, for others, with the empire, for others, a republic of virtue through blood

shedding was the best way to reach the ideal ignited with the Revolution; for the very

Voltaire, ending the rule of absolute power was the solution.

The variety interpretations started the issues happening during the French

Revolution, and yes, the ideas provided by Voltaire were important, but no

primordial; these weren't the reason for the murdering of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette,

Jean-Paul Marat, Robespierre, Danton and fifteen thousand more people, but the

interpretation that each one of the citizens who once thought about how to end the

unfair regime. It is true that the author of Candide wasn't the only author who

contributed with these interpretations.

So as my conclusion, I think the written word is an important factor for both authors

and readers, since the first ones become the second ones, and the second ones are
opened to change through the ideas expressed in the works. Voltaire is just one

example of this.