Many of the philosopher's that existed during The Enlightenment
            
             influenced many countries, such as the United States of America, France and England, in
            
             both past and present history. One French philosopher in particular was Francoise Marie
            
             Arouet de Voltaire. He once established the statement, " I do not agree with a word you
            
             say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. " I agree with Voltaire's statement,
            
             meaning that although you may not agree with someone's beliefs you will tolerate them,
            
             and my agreement can be exemplified in actions that occur today.
            
             Looking back at the time period of which Voltaire wrote this statement, it is
            
             easy to see why Voltaire and many other philosophers wrote such things. France was
            
             suffering in many ways. Things such as the format of parliament and philosophes, a
            
             financial crisis and the assembly of the Estates-General led to the French Revolution in
            
             1789.
            
             In Voltaire's time period, parliaments had much political power. " Many
            
             parlements protested royal initiatives which believed in threatening the rights and liberties
            
             of the people. They denounced the absolute rule of the crown to impose religious
            
             orthodoxy and new taxes " ( Encarta Encyclopedia, 1999 ). Philosopher's were very
            
             outspoken about parliaments powers. They believed they had too much power and they
            
             were not protecting the natural rights of the people.
            
             France at this time was broken into three estates. The First Estate was made
            
             up of nobles and clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. The Second was made up of the
            
             bourgeois and the Third of the peasants.The First two estates paid little or no taxes;
            
             causing the peasants to pay very high taxes and making them very upset. To the peasants
            
             disadvantage, taxes were raised because of the financial crisis France was f...