Although the French Revolution was at the heart of the Enlightenment, similar ideas served as driving forces of the American, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions as well. The revolutionaries agreed that life, liberty, and property should be considered natural rights, emphasizing property as a main source of inequality among man, and constructed new governments based on popularized Enlightenment ideas.
French revolutionary Jean-Jacques Rousseau introduced this idea of natural rights and inspired other countries to evaluate the nature of man and origins of inequality1. American revolutionaries saw the freedom of language as a natural right, and how property can be claimed and then others can acknowledge that ownership as an aid in equality/inequality. Latin America wanted equal treatment and the freedom they deserved as citizens, but resistance from natives and lack of communication amongst the groups deprived the Europeans of their liberty. The ambiguity experienced by the peoples in developing Columbia and Venezuela regarding their citizenship as well as their place in society drew an even larger gap between the natives and the Spaniards. .
Conflicts arose between the groups over ownership of land and property, while the Europeans also fought to remain in the country of their birth despite the oppression they faced daily. While the revolutionaries in Latin America struggled with slave-like treatment from their superiors, the US and Haiti recognized the noxious effects of slavery and abolished it in their written constitutions, a new concept derived from the Enlightenment. After the Haitians completed the only successful slave rebellion recorded in 1791 and gained independence in 1804, they bitterly sought to banish the white Frenchmen, revoke their land and rights, and restore an independent community on the island. .
The French felt that intuitions were corrupting the nature of man, and believed that starting over without them would be most effective in restoring order within the country.
