Impact Of The Enlightenment Ideas On The American Revolution

The Influence of Enlightenment Intellectuals on American Government Intellectual and moral movements have been at the heart of human progression. These revolutions open minds and hearts and inspire those to work towards the betterment of the individual, community and society. Campaigns for justice, equality and change have sparked the creation of new laws and even new nations. Ideas from movements such as The Enlightenment have inspired and been reflected in the American Revolution, which resulted in the birth of the United States of America. Enlightenment thinkers have had the greatest influence on the development of American government.

The American Revolution was an important sequence of events over a period of time that has affected early American society up to today’s modern society. It all started with the Revolutionary War, which led to the Declaration of Independence from Britain, and in turn created a reason for America to write the Constitution and develop their own government. Ideas of equality became a major point of the Revolution, and although it wasn’t very quick to happen, ideas eventually spread throughout the colonies, giving the equality that poor to middle classes, African American slaves, and women deserved.

The American Revolution was a war that happened between 1775-1783 where the 13 colonies in America gained independence from Great Britain and became the United States of America. Over time there have been several different historical interpretations about the causes of the American Revolution. Many of these interpretations lack evidence or provide a very one sided claim. The best explanation for the causes of the American Revolution out of the 5 passages provided is “A Democratic Movement” written by Robert Brown because it had the most historical evidence to back the explanation.

The American Revolution started when Britain started to tax the colonists without their consent. The stamp acts started a chain reaction of discontent. The colonists realized they were being treated unfairly and unequal to the citizens in Britain. Around this time when the Americans were facing discontent, many Enlightenment ideas were spreading. The colonists took many ideas like John Locke’s into mind when they planned their revolts. They were fighting for natural rights of

The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political change in France that lasted from 1789 to 1799. Before the revolution there was a period of time called the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement in which followers considered that human reason brought a move from theory to practice and criticism to reforming education, household administration, social reactions and politics. Voltaire, a French philosopher and contributor to the Age of Enlightenment, expressed these ideas utilizing his intelligence, wit and style to mark his name as one of France’s greatest writers. The Enlightenment influenced the French Revolution to a great extent by introducing new ideas that encouraged questioning of authority and religion, advancing people’s outlook on commodities, and forcing citizens to compare their need with the Republic’s needs. This further brought an uprising of people wanting more such as equality and civil rights. In the process to do so there were 250,000 casualties in the Reign of Terror followed the Thermidorian Reaction which implemented an oligarchy government called the Directory. Royalist riots prompted the Coup d’etat of Fructidor which brought Napoleon into Directory which he later overthrows and creates an Authoritarian Republic.

The American and French Revolutions were both fundamentally based on the Enlightenment ideas. The main ideas that they followed were by John Locke. His ideas inspired the Americans and the French to have a revolution. In these revolutions, the Americans had success and the French failed. The success that the Americans experienced wad due to the protection of rights they had. These rights are 'Life, Liberty and Property.? In America a constitution was put together that provided for a stable government and also a representative government. In France failure was caused by chaos, terror, fear and war. The French were unsuccessful because they failed to create a democratic

Some of the leaders of the American Revolution were influenced by Enlightenment ideas which are, freedom of speech, equality, freedom of press, and religious tolerance. American colonists did not have these rights, in result, they rebelled against England for independence. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about American's natural rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These ideas came from the Enlightenment, the ideals led towards the American Revolution soon after (Fisk). "The American Revolution must be considered as an anticolonial war for independence, not only a war of liberation from overseas rule but a war for freedom. The American Revolution was a movement to fulfill aspirations to acquire more property" (Morris, 3).

The American Revolution started for numerous motives, some of them were; political changes, declaration of freedom and equal rights. In the British colonies, prior to 1750 provided the basis for a course to America becoming an independent nation under its own control with its own government. Eventually, the relationship between the colonists and the British brought in consequences the Revolutionary War. America political thought came from the Enlightenment, American Revolution, and American Industrialism.

Few educators in history have made such a profound effect on the shape and molding of the future as John Locke. His approach on education and use of the science to prove his ideals not only shaped the ideals of the Enlightenment but European and American life itself (Trish, 2009). Locke disagreed with the relevance of ancient Greek philosophies in modern education and supported

The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a war between England and the colonies which were settled earlier by the English. There were many factors and events that led to the American Revolution. The Revolution was mainly an economic rebellion that was fueled by taxation without representation following the French and Indian War. The English Parliament was more often than not considered cruel and unfair by the colonists. With conflicts over trade, taxes and government representation, the colonies were at a starting line of a revolution that would later transform into the basis of the United States of America.

The main reason the American Revolution was caused was because the tax of the colonists by the British, in which led the end of the seven-year war of the French and Indian. This issue was more engaged in the North more than the South because of their politician differences. The people that were business leaders, politicians, etc, did not like the situation that was going on they had their particular economy and political interests in enlightenment just to get people the big masses, the war was freedom and release from tyranny. The British people were looking at it as the colonies were not paying what they were suppose to, also maintain the empire. They were treating the American to control them not as partners in their

Enlightenment thinkers, also known as philosophers had a major impact on the American and French Revolution. Philosophers from the 1700s influenced the making of two documents known as United States’ Declaration of Independence and France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens. The Declaration of Independence is a document that was written in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson. It reflects the beliefs of enlightenment philosopher, John Locke. Written in 1793 by Marquis de Lafayette, the Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen was influenced by the beliefs of Voltaire, another Enlightenment thinker. John Locke didn’t like the idea of absolute monarchy. He favored the idea of self- government and equal rights. Locke believed that the

The American Revolution was a major declaration of freedom and individual rights that inspired similar revolutions world wide. The underlying causes of the American Revolution were deep seated. Some of the contributing factors were the changes in thinking brought about by the Enlightenment, the theory of Mercantilism, the French and Indian War, and England's inability to enforce it's laws.

The Enlightenment Era, an intellectual movement based on reason, was the most influence to the American Revolution uproar. The Enlightenment thinker John Locke was by far the most efficacious in providing the Americans, who were still under the control of Great Britain this time, an insight of their own rights. Every person is supposedly born with the natural rights of life liberty and property. Locke said that if the government didn't protect the people's natural rights, then those people had the right to rebel. The Americans decided to rebel against the British, and thus caused the Revolution How did the enlightenment influence the American political

The Enlightenment was a period of time where philosophers such as John Locke, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft developed core ideas that varied from independence for all to equality between men and women, to division of power in governments into three equal sections. The Enlightenment influenced the American, South American, and Haitian Revolutions by influencing the people who lead these revolutions. Thomas Jefferson, Simon Bolivar and Toussaint L'Ouverture built nations and helped free the oppressed. Jefferson was the third president of the United States and wrote the Declaration of Independence allowing him to become an influential political leader. Bolivar became a political leader by leading the