Enlightenment Ideas in Action!
(Rise of Democratic Ideas Reach Its Summit)
The American Revolution: The Birth of a Republic
Directions: You are to synthesize (connect) your prior knowledge & assignments on the Enlightenment to American
history and government. (Consider your questions from pages 195-200, your Enlightenment philosophe research,
and notes in class. Your notes on the American Revolution (lecture & pages 206-211) are helpful as well.
1. America’ Call for Independence
Read over the opening statement of the Declaration of Independence (See below)
How does this excerpt reflect Enlightenment thinking? Explain below – be sure to cite a particular
Enlightenment philosophe and his theory.
Write your answer here
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the
Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (Note: the original handwritten text ended on the phrase "the pursuit of property" rather than |the pursuit of Happiness" but the phrase was
changed in subsequent copies in part because it was broader. The latter phrase is used today).
The U.S. Constitution: An Enlightenment Document (Page 209 is particularly helpful)
Enlightenment Idea
•
Locke
•
Montesquieu
•
Rousseau
•
Voltaire
•
Beccaria
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U.S. Constitution
Image to illustrate idea
The BIG question:
* Consider the chart above, and our learning in class and respond to the following question:
Do you think the American Revolution would have happened if there had been no Age of Enlightenment or
Scientific Revolution? Explain in a short paragraph with specific examples (remember 3 is the magic # ☺)
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