The Enlightenment
“The Age of Reason”
The Enlightenment aka Age of Reason
• Intellectual movement using an
“enlightened”, or rational, view of
the world in the 1700’s
• Scientific Revolution changed the
way people saw the world and
showed the power of human
reason
• The Enlightenment used reason to
discover laws of human nature
and society
Don’t write
England Has Issues… to say
the least
Democracy in England
• Democracy had been put on
hold until 1215
• 1215, King John of England
signed the Magna Carta
• This showed that the king had
limited powers and had to
listen to the people
• A group forms to advise the
king and becomes Parliament
(…kings tended to not follow the Magna
Carta, but it was a start….)
Tudors vs. Stuarts
• Tudor monarchs, Henry VIII and
Elizabeth I, strengthened
Parliament by using them for
advice
• Stuart monarchs take over after
Elizabeth’s death and believe in
“divine right”, or that they get
their power from God and didn’t
need the parliament
• The Tudors were Protestants and
pro-Parliament, the Stuarts
Catholics and anti-Parliament
Parliament vs. Stuarts
• Charles I, a Stuart, makes decisions
without the Parliament
• Parliament passes the Petition of Right
in 1625:
• Parliament approved taxes, not the King
• Citizens could only be imprisoned for an
illegal act
• Troops cannot be housed in citizens’
homes
• Charles imprisons some members and
closes Parliament for eleven years,
during the “Eleven Years’ Tyranny”
English Civil War
• Pro-monarchy and pro-Parliament
forces fight a civil war
• Pro-Parliament forces are led by a
Puritan military zealot named
Oliver Cromwell
• Cromwell executes Charles I and
loses major support
• Ironically, Cromwell eventually
kicks out Parliament too
• Cromwell ruled for 10 years and
made England extremely un-fun
The Restoration
• Parliament reconvened after Cromwell’s
death and Charles II, the next Stuart,
came to power
• Charles II was a Catholic sympathizer
and his brother James II, the heir, was
an outright Catholic
• James was old when he came to power
and his daughters from his first wife
were Protestant, so Parliament decided
to wait it out
• James, however, had a son with his
second wife who was also a devout
Catholic
The Glorious Revolution
• Parliament invited James II’s
Protestant daughter and husband to rule
England
• 1689, William and Mary agreed to rule
England as a Constitutional
Monarchy, or to rule following the
constitution of England
• W & M agreed to uphold the English
Bill of Rights, which protected the
rights of citizens
• The government of England changed,
but there was no bloodshed
The British
Enlightenment
Thinkers
Thomas
Hobbes
• Wrote Leviathon
• Believed:
– people were basically cruel,
greedy selfish & must be
controlled by strong gov’t
– people give up some freedom
and enter “social contract”
with the government
– the social contract is
agreement between the people
and the government to live in
an orderly, strict society in
exchange for security
John
Locke
• Wrote Two Treatises on
Government
• Believed:
– humans are good and
reasonable
– humans had “natural rights”
of life, liberty, and property
– the social contract is an
agreement between the
people and the government to
give up a little freedom so
that government will protect
people’s natural rights
ESSAY!!
LOCKE’S NEW BIG IDEAS:
• If a government violates people’s natural
rights, the people are OBLIGATED to
overthrow the government
• Government:
– should have limited powers
– has OBLIGATION to protect people’s
natural rights
– only has power when the people give it
power (popular sovereignty: people have the power)
Mary Wollstonecraft
• Wrote Vindication of the
Rights of Woman
• Saw women were not
protected by the social
contract
• Believed women should
choose what is in their
own best interest
• Felt only education could
provide equality
Adam Smith
• Wrote Wealth of Nations and was a
“physiocrat” or person who
applied Enlightenment ideas to
economics
• Believed in laissez-faire, or having
little to no government
interference in the economy
• Felt free market would run
economy on its own, while
government should protect people,
provide justice, and public works
The Philosophes
• French Enlightenment thinkers
Baron de Montesquieu
• Wrote The Spirit of the Laws
• Liberty can be protected if
there is a separation of
powers
• Government should have
three branches: the
legislative, executive, and
judicial
• Each branch should check
the power of the other so that
power is balanced
Voltaire
• Wrote novel Candide and
much more
• Used wit and sarcasm to
criticize society
• Targeted inequality,
prejudice, the slave trade,
the aristocracy, hypocrisy
• Supported freedoms especially speech, religion,
and no slavery
Denis Diderot
• Edited 28 volume
Encyclopedia to gather
knowledge & explain the
new ideas
• Voltaire & Montesquieu
wrote articles
• 20,000 copies were
printed & Enlightenment
ideas spread
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
• Wrote The Social Contract
• Felt people were basically good, but
small controls were needed to ensure
“general will”, or majority rule
• Governments should be chosen by the
people who are governed
• Believed government was a social
contract between the people and the
government to serve the good of the
whole not the good of the individual
Summary of Enlightenment Ideas
• Social contract between government and governed
• All people have natural rights
• Governments should be chosen by the governed to
protect natural rights or be overthrown
• Governments should have a division of powers
• There should be checks and balances between the
branches
• The economy should be governed by the rules of
the free market, not government
Salons
Salons
• Aristocracy held parties
in salons and discussed
new Enlightenment ideas
• Middle class people met
there as well and listened
to writers give lectures
• Salon gatherings spread
ideas because many of
the Enlightenment works
were censored or banned
• Clothing and
hairstyle for
women reflected
the classical
influence of
Greece and
Rome
• Architecture also reflected the
designs of Greece and Rome
The Enlightenment and
the American Colonies
King George III
• Came to power in 1760
• Wanted colonists to pay for the
army that protected them
• Enforced rules and taxes more
strictly in the colonies
Colonial Reaction
• Colonists violently
protested British
interference and unfair
taxes
– Boston Massacre of 1770
– Boston Tea Party of 1773
• King punished the
colonies with more taxes
and fewer freedoms
The American Revolution
• In 1775, the American
colonists take up arms to
fight the King’s unfair laws
• HUGELY important
because America is the first
nation to truly stand up for
the Enlightenment ideas
• Small colonial army fought
the most powerful nation in
the world and won!
Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Jefferson
wrote the Declaration
of Independence to
show world that King
violated natural rights
• Jefferson felt they had
the right to revolt
against the king and
form a new government
that would protect their
rights
IDEAS FROM J. LOCKE:
1. PEOPLE HAVE NATURAL RIGHTS
2. THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS
TO PROTECT NATURAL RIGHTS
3. IF A GOVERNMENT DOES NOT
PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE
PEOPLE, THE PEOPLE HAVE THE
RIGHT TO REVOLUTION
THIS WILL BE AN ESSAY ON THE TEST
U.S. Constitution
• The first plan for US gov’t, the Articles of
Confederation, created a too weak gov’t
and did not work
• The second plan, the Constitution, was
written by James Madison
• The Constitution forms our whole system
of government
• The Constitution begins with an
introduction called the Preamble:
– “We the people” establishes popular
sovereignty in our system
– Outlines the basic purpose of a
government – to serve the majority of
people while protecting the rights of all
Basic Constitutional Ideas
• Gov’t is given power from the people in the form of a social
contract
• Power is divided into 3 branches to provide checks and
balances
• Bill of Rights added to guarantee basic rights and freedoms
– First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion, press
– 4th – 8th Amendments guarantees the rights of the accused, like
there must be evidence to keep you in jail and the right to a fair
trial by jury
• Many nations, like Japan and Iraq, have followed the model
of the Constitution when forming new governments
• Created a federal system in which power is shared between
the national government and the states
REMEMBER!!!
EVEN IN AMERICA IT TOOK
MORE THAN 100 YEARS FOR
ALL ADULT AMERICANS TO
GAIN THESE BASIC RIGHTS
SUMMARY
• Scientific ideas question
established beliefs from
the Church
• Enlightenment ideas
questions governments
• These ideas cause people
to ACT in the American
Revolution