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Effect of enlightenment
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The American identity has evolved over time. During the 1700’s, the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, occurred. It spread rapidly across Europe, and then to North America. This revolutionary way of thinking was crucial to the development of the American identity. The Enlightenment was the period for cultivation of science and human reason.
“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in huge numbers and to the sound of trumpets,” Inquired Voltaire, one of many early philosophers that inspire and helped to promote new ideas. Early philosophers helped set the stage for enlightenment. These new ideas had people questioning the church and their rule. Imagine saying that every one in the world is wrong and you are rite, early philosophers went through this every day. The enlightenment is an intellectual movement emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition, and gave philosophers a chance to express new ideas.
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.
What influenced those philosopher’s ideas for The government and what caused the American Revolution? Natural rights were caused by John Locke because he believed that every human have certain rights is not given by law or society which consists of freedom, privacy and life, etc. Social Contract was also Locke but also Jean Jaques Rousseau’s writings, that the government and people are bound under a contract the constitution protects the people’s natural rights. Revolution was caused by the government’s failure to protect the people’s natural rights.
One more exceptional idea that came from the Enlightenment, was the idea of natural rights. This idea was one of the ideas in which Enlightenment thinker John Locke came up with. Locke discussed how people have certain rights which both men and women have that cannot be taken. He called these rights natural rights and said that the government is made to protect these rights. Political leaders are not born into their positions, they earn them through the election process (consent of the governed).
How did Locke's ideas influenced the American Revolution? John Locke believed man had natural rights or “inalienable rights” that could not be violated, he asserted government
While enlightenment was the same revolution in thinking around the world, the ideas it brought were not always the same. For example, French enlightenment had different approaches to thinking than American enlightenment. Because of this, the two countries new governments were run on different ideologies. Both the French and American Revolutions were inspired by liberty, equality, and the rights of the people. However, the views of enlightenment of the two revolutions ultimately led to different ideologies in the two countries.
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.
After three centuries of colonial rule, Spanish and Portuguese America got independence. Between 1808 and 1826 all of Latin America except the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule. This was the result of a combination of long-building tensions in colonial rule and a series of external events. The reforms imposed by the Spanish in the 18th century provoked great instability in the relations between the rulers and their colonial subjects in the Americas. Many Creoles felt Bourbon policy to be an unfair attack on their wealth, political power, and social status.
Were the ideas of the Enlightenment actually revolutionary? In the following essay that will be analyzed, what was revolutionary, were Enlightened thinkers “dangerous” as revolutionary implies? To an absolute ruler at the time the answer is yes, these men were challenging everything you knew and with that your power and position. To the average person the answer would be no as the leaders of the movement were only asserting your freedom. Are fundamental human rights revolutionary?
Locke's idea of natural rights and of the Two Treatises of Government, Voltaire’s idea of religious freedom that infringed on the people's rights and freedoms and set the basis for modern democracy. Along with Smith’s idea of freedom of economics and Wollstonecraft’s ideas on gender equality. John Locke was an Enlightenment philosopher and he
These unalienable rights mentioned were “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Two out of these three ideas originated from John Locke’s argument that the government was meant to serve and protect citizens’ rights to life, liberty, and property. Also mentioned in the document is Locke’s idea of the right to overthrow a tyrannical government that is not serving the best interest of the country’s citizens. Separation of church and state which was yet another Enlightenment idea going around at that time inspired the writing of the US Constitution. In the end, Thomas Jefferson was inspired by the radical thinking happening at that time during the Enlightenment period from its
Historians have argued whether the American Revolution was a conservative attempt to protect the colonist’s traditional rights as Englishmen or a radical attempt to implement dangerous enlightenment ideas. I believe that the American Revolution was a radical attempt to implement dangerous enlightenment ideas. Colonists new government, their acts of treason and new identity were mostly based on enlightenment ideas. Colonial leaders used Enlightenment ideas to vindicate freedom from Britain(Fiore Notes).
Life, Liberty, Property are Natural Rights that people are entitled to under the natural law. Natural Rights was one of the most important ideals during the Enlightenment. These ideals are Reason, Separation of Power, Natural Rights, Laissez Faire, Social Contract, and Progress. These ideals changed the world, it questioned people’s way of life. These Enlightenment Ideals started in Ancient Greece, 500-323 B.C.E.
Locke’s idea proposed the natural rights, which are life, liberty, and property. He stated this for people to set up civil government to protect their natural rights. Similar to what Locke proposed, the declaration used a comparable statement when it said, “The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.” Another Enlightenment thinker is Voltaire.
