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Age Of Enlightenment DBQ

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The Age of Enlightenment, a movement during the 17th and 18th century started from the Europeans, later moving into American colonies. The point of this movement was for the society to reform on a new base such as emphasizing reason and individualism over tradition. Enlightenment thinkers, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Beccaria, Locke, and Voltaire helped launched this project amongst Europeans. John Locke, for example, criticized absolute monarchy and favored self-government. Voltaire also believed that people should be able to speak their minds without the fear they may be punished. Through these philosophy influence, this eventually leads to European rulers ruling with a sense of equality, democratic governance, and abolition. John Locke known as an Enlightenment thinker believed in the equality between men. “A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another...by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty (Doc. 2).” John Locke stated this in 1690 with the meaning that everyone is equal no matter what their rank or power may be. They must all have the same advantages with the except that the person may want to work for someone else. “To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the …show more content…

For a country to have equality, rank or power does not matter and all people have the same rights. The three branches lead to a more of a democratic governance and more of a self-government where one branch does not have more power than another. Finally, rulers are making adjustments to the Age of Enlightenment, starting with a patent and later reforming their own characters. The Age of Enlightenment began a reformation of a society while a new object in mind. This Enlightenment Movement helped Europe...and now it’ll help American

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