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Enlightenment and its influence
Details about the impact of the enlightenment and the great awakening on colonial society in america
Influence of enlightenment on america
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Some ideas that generated during the Enlightenment was the fact that reason was more powerful over religion and the idea of Deism. During the Great Awakening, the fact that there was a lack of individual engagement in church services also challenged religious and political authorities in the British colonies. American people would now begin to think for themselves and they would soon realize that they didn't need Britain to function. This would ultimately lead to Britain having less authority over the colonies and therefore would weaken their influence in the colonial political society, while also losing their strict religious control over the colonies due to the idea of religious freedom that the Enlightenment brought
The main differences between the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment is that the Enlightenment was a movement started by the philosophers and scientists centered on scientific spirit and reasoning. However, the Great Awakening was a religious and spiritual movement. For example, Document A states, ”You have sown the harmful seeds of separation and disorder among us”. This shows that George Whitefield was a dangerous man and was spreading harmful ideas. Also, in Document A, the test explains “You have stopped the spread of the Gospel, and hurt the Peace and good Order”.
The great awakening and the enlightenment are similar in many ways but different in others. One way they are both similar is that they both defy traditional authority. Another way is that it taught them to seek truths for themselves. This shaped their beliefs. However they still had many differences.
The Central Ideas of the First Great Awakening The colonial American society witnessed innumerable revolutions and renewals during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The revolutions had different thematic focuses including protests against slavery and racial segregation among others. One of such revolutions was the Great Awakening, which involved the spiritual revival that swept the colonial American communities. In particular, the Great Awakening was intense in the New England colony during the first five decades of the 18th century.
Chapter 1.4 and 2 Study Guide After reading chapter 1.4 and chapter 2, please define the following terms and answer the following questions in your own words. Enlightenment-ideas about nature that led to a movement in which philosophers valued reason and scientific methods Great Awakening- a revival of religious feeling in the American colonies during 1730’s-1750 French and Indian War- a conflict in N orth America, lasting from 1754 to 1763, that was a part of a worldwide struggle between France and the transfer of French Canada to Britain Proclamation of 1763- an order in which Britain prohibited its American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian mountains.
Impowering the Nation The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment (Deism) were both important in shaping the religious, political, and social lives of Americans. However, the revivals of the Great Awakening were able to reach more of the population and therefore gave voices to those previously uncounted. The Great Awakening was a time of excitement that included all facets of society within the colonies. The message crossed barriers and spoke directly to the individuals, it awakened emotions and gave life to those that participated.
The Enlightenment brought many new ideas to the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and lead to changes in society. The people of this time started to question everything that was in their lives and they looked to the philosophers. Many scientists began to discover new things and they learned about how things really worked. The people started to focus more on secular ideas and not spiritual ideas. Mostly everyone started thinking about why they wanted and focusing more on making the world better.
The American Enlightenment and the Great Awakening were two very important motivators that changed the colonial society in America through religious beliefs, educational values, and the right to live one’s life according to each individual’s preference. The Great Awakening and the American Enlightenment movements were two events in history that signaled a grand distinction to the teachings among religious believers. New beliefs of how a person should worship in order to be considered in “God’s good graces” soon became an enormous discussion among colonists across the land. “Men of the cloth,” such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were well respected and closely followed when preaching about the love of God and damnation.
The Enlightenment was a time of revolution in art, science, philosophy, and literature that changed world governments forever. It began in Europe, and spread west over the Atlantic to the Americas. It was a movement of reason, which challenged authority and heightened tensions between subjects and rulers. The main ideas of the Enlightenment were individualism, progress, and democracy. Despite the failure of many Enlightenment uprisings, ideologies changed to more progressive beliefs, such as inalienable rights, criticizing governments, and desire for unity shaped the revolutions of the Atlantic World from 1750 to 1900.
The Enlightenment was a period between the 17th and 18th century in which philosophers attempted to discover new ways to improve and understand their society. There were four Enlightenment philosophers, John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft. The Enlightenment philosophers believed that individual freedom could improve our society in several areas. These areas included natural rights, freedom of religion, and social equality/ equal learning. First, is the idea that people have the power to create and change the government and that everyone has natural rights or rights that belong to all humans from birth.
Enlightenment was a concept that inspired a new way of thinking of the people. In the newly formed United States of America, enlightenment shaped the way the new government was run. Scientific reasoning was applied to politics, religion, and science. Enlightenment saved music, art, and literature programs in colleges. Enlightenment in Europe led to drastically altered views on philosophy, politics, and communications.
Although different, both the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening had a powerful impact on colonial society in America (Schultz, 2010). First, the American Enlightenment was a shift in thinking from the old style of medieval thought to prioritizing the human capacity for reason as the highest form of attainment. Simply put, the Enlightenment promoted scientific inquiry and reasoning to all areas including politics and even religion (Caron & Wulf, 2013). Exploring the scientific reasoning behind religion brought both rejection and support for the Enlightenment from various religious leaders (Schultz, 2010). However, the American Enlightenment did not dissuade the colonists from seeking religion, in fact, while the Enlightenment did promote thinkers to explore a balance between science and religion, not many atheists or agnostics were born from it.
The Enlightenment was a time period in which people began to embrace individuality and many Enlightenment thinkers arose. The Enlightenment was a movement that was highly based upon reason and logic. It occurred around the mid-1700’s and helped develop a new way of life. John Locke was an influential thinker during this time. John Locke is a french philosopher and writer who developed Natural Rights.
In conclusion, the Enlightenment was vital to the American Revolution and the creation of American Government. The Enlightenment beliefs that influenced the American Revolution were natural rights, the social contract, and the right to overthrow the government if the social contract was violated. The Enlightenment beliefs that aided to the creation of the American government were separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government. As stated before, without the Enlightenment there would not have been a revolution, resulting in no American Government. The Enlightenment’s influence on the creation of America is irrefutable.
The Enlightenment was a period during the 1600 and 1700s where authority, power, government and law was questioned by philosophers. The causes of the Enlightenment was the Thirty Years’ War, centuries of mistreatment at the hands of monarchies and the church, greater exploration of the world, and European thinkers’ interest in the world (scientific study). A large part of the Enlightenment was natural law, which was the belief that people should live their lives and organize their society on the basis of rules and precepts laid down by nature or God; the principles of the Enlightenment in the 1600s through the 1700s influenced the development of the USA by advocating religious and social freedom, freeing the people from oppression, and providing
