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How did the Enlightenment influence the American Revolution
How did the enlightenment influence american colonies
Influence of enlightenment on america
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Throughout the American Revolution the colonists in America wrote many documents to declare their independence and establish the United States as a sovereign country. Despite the fact that they are all great, the US Constitution is the most influenced by the Enlightenment. The Constitution had countless ideas that express this. For instance in the first three articles (I- Legislative, II-Executive, III-Judiciary) the Founding Fathers made sure that the new government had separation of powers.
Enlightenment Influence on American Government and Revolution The Enlightenment era was around the 18th century. A time where many different philosophers imputed many of their own thoughts and beliefs on religion, human rights, the government and other important situations involving our country today. Many figures associated with the Enlightenment were, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Baron Montesquieu, and Beccaria, to name a few.
He believed a government is based on the consent of the governed. The Constitution states that the government is “by the people, for the people”. This directly aligns with what John Locke believed. John Locke believed in individual liberties. The Bill of Rights directly lists out what liberties and rights citizens would have.
Locke believed that the citizens had a right and responsibility to overthrow an unjust government. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson says, "That whenever any form of
The Enlightenment served as an empowering movement and emancipated the colonists to embrace their beliefs in equality. John Locke set a standard on the basis of people having “personal” rights (privacy), which lead to a social contract that declared that as the government protected the people's natural rights, the people would allow the government to rule. Along with that declaration, Locke also said that if the government failed to abide, the people are allowed to revolt. All in all, because the colonists believed the British government had ignored their natural rights, the assumption was that the British had violated their promise in the contract which resulted in the American Revolution. After the colonial victory at the Battle of Saratoga
The constitution was a product of the Founding Fathers, who are the traditional American political elite, and therefore their ideology was translated into the document because the elite were held to the highest regard. The influences of the Enlightenment in the United States can be traced back to The Articles of Confederation and The Declaration of Independence, which were direct predecessors of the Constitution. The political elite created the Constitution of 1787, and outlined the ideals and laws of the United States. Abusing this power, the men of the Constitutional Convention wrote articles reflecting their personal and economic interests. The United States Constitution of 1787 represented an ideological and economic victory for the America’s
The Enlightenment helped to shape the ideas of popular sovereignty, natural rights, and separation of powers in the United States Constitution. To start, the Enlightenment introduced the idea of Popular Sovereignty. Popular Sovereignty is the idea that the majority of people should have the biggest say in the government. John Locke believed that the people should be the ones to make the decisions for their government. The people are the ones that are impacted the most by the government, so they should have the biggest say in it.
The ideas of the Enlightenment influenced the American Revolution and the formation of the American Government. Firstly, The Enlightenment was a philosophical evolution that emphasized the aged ideas of the Greeks and Romans. In addition, the major philosophers of this time period were Voltaire, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Rousseau, Adam Smith and Isaac Newton. Their ideals include having an absolute monarch as a government (T.H), the separation of powers (Mont.), the government should not interfere with a free market economy (A.S), the freedom of speech (Volt.), the government could be overruled (J.L), and the government should rule according to the will of the people. Nevertheless, these ideals are important because they shaped the government that we have today.
The Enlightenment influenced the United States education, government, and citizen's rights. The Ideas of Enlightenment began with the concept of reason. The people began to think for themselves rather than accepting what nobility or rolyalty said. The idea of separation of powers and checks and balances, proposed by montesquie, is still used today in the united states. John Locke's Natural Rights, life, liberty, and protection of property, is the foundation of the United States Constitution.
John Locke was a key figure in the Enlightenment (which was at its peak at the time of the revolution), who stated that the government’s duty was to secure the rights of the people with the consent of the governed. If the government fails to do its duty, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to create a new one. Essentially, this was what the American Declaration of Independence revolved around; it calls out King George III on his acts that violates their values of equality and their unalienable rights and declares the independence of the thirteen
Locke truly believed that citizens are capable of reasoning and governing themselves. He gravely warned that if people were continuously mistreated and denied their natural rights, they would rebel against the
Enlightenment was created by the English philosopher John Locke. The ideas that were influenced by enlightenment were life, liberty, and property. This also gave to the idea of natural right. Enlightenment influenced the way people finally realized that divine right wasn’t right and start to doubt it. Throughout time enlightenment has influenced a lot of important events in history.
Among these figures, were philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke who argued that there were inherent rights that could not be taken or infringed upon by governmental authority. These rights were the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. John Locke, in particular, influenced the American people through his written works “Two Treatises of the Government”. Locke brings forward key ideas that contributed to the creation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Locke asserted that governments are created through the consent of the governed whose purpose is to protect the natural rights of its citizens (Locke 1689).
John Locke was a philosopher and political scientist. He had many interests and produced a number of writings that influenced future leaders. One of these leaders was Thomas Jefferson, who was involved with the aid of America and the act gaining independence from Britain. The Declaration of Independence and Locke’s views on government contain many similar aspects. These ideas includes the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (natural rights); the protection that is provided by the government for these rights; and the altering or abolishment of government if it fails to provide and protect the rights of the people.
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.
