Declaration of the Rights of Man
1789 · Early Modern
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789. It is a human civil rights document from the French Revolution and had a major impact on the development of popular conceptions of individual liberty and democracy in Europe and worldwide.
Key Figures
Marquis de LafayetteThomas JeffersonEmmanuel Joseph SieyèsHonoré MirabeauLouis XVI
Locations
VersaillesParis, France
Topics
french revolutionindividual libertyhuman rightsdemocracy
Connected Events — 5 Connections
The revolutionary principles unleashed by the Declaration drove the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that Vienna sought to contain, forcing the Congress to design conservative institutions that could resist popular sovereignty movements Congress of Vienna
Provided contemporary philosophical model and language for individual rights that influenced Madison's drafting of the Bill of Rights, with Jefferson's correspondence from Paris reinforcing these Enlightenment principles U.S. Bill of Rights Ratified
Established the philosophical and legal precedent for universal individual rights that directly inspired the UDHR's foundational principles of inherent human dignity and inalienable rights Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Jefferson's natural rights philosophy and specific language about equality and liberty directly influenced French revolutionaries, with Lafayette consulting Jefferson while drafting the French declaration Declaration of Independence Adopted
Locke theory of natural rights and government by consent directly informed the Declaration principles of liberty property and resistance to oppression Publication of Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding
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