How Did The British View Liberty In The 1700s

187 Words1 Pages
The British believed liberty to be their unique possession and believed that it competed/struggled against the idea of power. Therefore, those who were apart of the British freedom celebrated their liberty as a victory. This idea of liberty was central to two different sets of political ideas that took place in the 1700s. One of the ideas is republicanism, which “[…] celebrated active participation in public life by economically independent citizens as the essence of liberty.” (141) Liberalism posed as the second idea, “whereas republican liberty had a public and social quality, liberalism was essentially individual and private.” (142-143) Although Britain viewed liberty an achievement and a right, which belonged to everyone, to others it had