7th – Notes: Chapter 10.4 The Enlightenment: • to give knowledge or understanding (to someone) : to explain something (to someone) (Merriam-Webster)
• “The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry,…and representative government in place of monarchy. Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man”.
• “Many of the new, enlightened ideas were political in nature. Intellectuals began to consider the possibility that freedom and democracy were the fundamental rights of all people, not gifts bestowed upon them by beneficent monarchs or popes.” Mrs. Goss, McIntosh High School, Fayette, Georgia
• Enlightenment- a time period when the use of reason began to guide people’s thoughts about philosophy, society, and politics. This period is also known as the Age of Reason.
I. Reason and Politics • Before the Scientific Revolution people relied on faith or tradition to help them solve problems.
• However, new ideas and knowledge from earlier periods, such as Greek and Roman civilizations, the Renaissance, and the Reformation, influenced scholars and they began to challenge old beliefs about religion, science, and government.
o By the 1700s, many educated Europeans relied on reason, instead of religious teachings, to explain how the world worked. They began to view reasoning as the path to truth and understanding.
. Like the natural world, they believed logical thinking could help them understand the natural laws that governed human behavior, like the need for food and the desire for freedom.
. Once they were understood, people could use these laws to improve society.
• During the Enlightenment, political thinkers tried to use reason to improve government. They claimed there was a natural law that applied to everyone and was the key to making government work properly.
• They believed governments should reflect those natural laws and encourage education and debate.
• Famous French Enlightenment thinkers included Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
• Famous British Enlightenment thinkers included Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke.
• Two English thinkers used their understanding of natural law to develop very different ideas about government. These two men were Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
7th – Notes: Chapter 10.4 A. Who was Thomas Hobbes? • Thomas Hobbes was an English writer who supported King Charles during England’s civil war between the monarchy and Parliament in the 1620s.
• Charles wanted absolute power, while Parliament demanded a greater role in governing.
• Hobbes was shocked when supporters of Parliament executed King Charles.
B. Hobbes’s Beliefs • In 1651 Hobbes wrote a book called Leviathan. He argued that natural law made absolute monarchy the best form of government.
• According to Hobbes, this was because humans were naturally violent and selfish. They could not be trusted to make wise decisions on their own.
• Hobbes believed people needed a government that had the power of a leviathan, or a huge beast.
• This meant they needed to be ruled by a powerful king, because only a strong ruler could give people direction.
• This theory became known as absolutism, because it supported a ruler with absolute, or total, power.
C. The Glorious Revolution • James was another unpopular king with the English people.
• He overturned some English laws without Parliament’s approval.
• He was also a Catholic king with Protestant subjects.
• James fled the country in 1688 because of the threat of a civil war against him.
• The daughter of King James, Mary, and her husband, William replaced him as monarchs.
• When William and Mary took the throne of England in 1689 the event was called the “Glorious Revolution” because they agreed to change the English government into a constitutional monarchy.
• This is a form of government in which written laws, or a constitution, limit the powers of the monarch and Parliament holds most of the power.
o In return for the throne, William and Mary agreed to accept the English Bill of Rights, a document which listed rights for Parliament and the English people.
o It required the king to rule according to laws passed by Parliament
o It guaranteed people the right to a fair trial by jury and the right to freedom from cruel punishment.
o The ideas in the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights would later be found in the documents of the United States of America, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
• Some Enlightenment thinkers developed new ideas about how government should work.
7th – Notes: Chapter 10.4 D. John Locke • In 1690 John Locke, an English philosopher, wrote Two Treatises on Government. In it, he explained the ideas of the Glorious Revolution.
• Locke had a different perspective of natural law than Thomas Hobbes. He said natural law should support citizen’s natural rights.
• He said that all people have natural rights, including the right to life, liberty, and property.
• He believed that all men are equal. No one should have special privileges.
• Locke claimed that government is a social contract between the ruler and the people which limits the ruler’s power.
• Locke argued that if the government does not protect the rights of its citizens, the people have the right to change rulers or set up a new government.
• When Thomas Jefferson and the British colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776 they quoted Locke’s ideas.
• Because King George had violated the colonists’ rights, they believed they had the right to rebel and to set up a new government.
E. Montesquieu and Government • Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron Montesquieu, was a French nobleman and philosopher who wrote The Spirit of the Laws in 1748.
• He argued that a government should be divided into separate branches, called separation of powers.
• This prevents the government from becoming too powerful and threatening people’s rights.
• In this system power is equally divided between the branches.
• Each branch is limited by the others, so they must share power (this is called checks and balances).
o The legislative branch makes the laws.
o The executive branch enforces the laws.
o The judicial branch interprets the laws and makes judgments when the laws are broken.
• Montesquieu’s ideas influenced the constitutions of many countries, including the U.S. Constitution.
II. The Philosophes of France • During the 1700s France became the most active center of Enlightenment.
• French thinkers, or philosophers, often discussed and debated new ideas at gatherings, called salons, in the homes of wealthy citizens.
• French philosophers believed in freedom of speech and claimed that each person had the right to liberty. Their ideas spread across Europe.
7th – Notes: Chapter 10.4 A. Who was Voltaire? • Francois-Marie Arouet was a French philosopher. He went by the name Voltaire.
• Voltaire wrote many novels, plays, and essays. The opinions he expressed in his writings were controversial and he was jailed more than once for criticizing and mocking government and religion.
• This experience led Voltaire to oppose censorship—the removal of information considered harmful.
o Famous quote: “I [may] disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
• Voltaire often criticized the Catholic Church for keeping knowledge from people in order to maintain their power.
• He said that the government should not favor one religion and forbid others.
• He argued for religious tolerance
• He supported deism, a religious belief that God created the universe and then allowed the universe to run itself by natural law.
B. Diderot’s Encyclopedia • Denis Diderot was also a French philosopher who was committed to spreading Enlightenment ideas.
• He wanted to bring together the latest knowledge in a wide range of topics to combat old ideas and traditional practices.
• He produced a 28-volume Encyclopedia—a collection of articles by more than 100 experts on science, technology, and history.
• Many articles supported freedom of religion and called for changes to society.
C. Women and the Enlightenment • By the 1700s a small group of women began to call for equal rights with men.
• A female British writer named Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792.
• She believed in equality of the sexes and argued that women should have the same rights as men
• Her writing inspired the main principles of the women’s movement in the 1800s.
D. Who was Rousseau? • Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Swiss philosopher
• He wrote The Social Contract in 1762
• Rousseau argued that governments should express the will of the people—this is called popular sovereignty (the people rule).
• Rousseau explained that citizens submit to the authority of government to protect their own interests—a “social contract”. 7th – Notes: Chapter 10.4 • They give the government the power to make and enforce laws only as long as it serves the people
• He said that the government should give up its power if it does not serve the people.
III. Absolute Monarchs • Many monarchs in the 1600s and 1700s believed they ruled by divine right, or the will of God.
• They believed God had given them the right to rule as they chose.
• They did not think they should be limited by groups such as England’s parliament.
o France, for example, was one of Europe’s most powerful nations.
o In 1643 King Louis XVI inherited the throne. He held all of the power in the French government and his refusal to share power or reduce his spending would eventually result in the French Revolution.
• Some other European monarchs, however, applied Enlightenment ideas to their governments.
• They had absolute power, but they tried to improve their societies because they thought it would make their countries stronger.
A. German Rulers • The two most powerful German states were Prussia and Austria.
• Frederick II of Prussia was an absolute monarch who strengthened the army and gained new lands.
• He dedicated himself to the good of his people. He permitted some freedom of speech and religious tolerance.
• He approved reforms in law and education
• In 1740 Maria Theresa of the Hapsburg family became the ruler of Austria.
• She set up schools and tried to improve the living conditions of the serfs, who were treated harshly by the landowners.
• Her son, Joseph II became the next ruler. He tried to add to her reforms.
• He freed the serfs and made land taxes equal for nobles and farmers, but the nobles opposed his reforms and he was forced to back down.
B. Russia’s Reforming Czars • Peter I (also known as Peter the Great) was one of the most powerful czars, or monarchs, of Russia in the early 1700s. • He was an absolute monarch who began reforms to help the government run more smoothly. • He improved the Russian military and created a navy • He founded the city of St. Petersburg, which would become the capital in 1712. o A series of weak rulers followed Peter I, then in 1762 a German princess came to the throne and served as an absolute monarch. o Empress Catherine the Great of Russia expanded Russia’s territory. o She supported the ideas of the Enlightenment. 7th – Notes: Chapter 10.4 o She gave the Russian nobility greater rights and powers. o She wanted to free the serfs until a serf revolt changed her mind.
• Enlightenment ideas led to the creation of modern democracy, a system of government in which all citizens have an equal vote in the election of government representatives based upon the principle of majority decision-making
• Two colonial leaders would apply Enlightenment ideas to express the colonists’ complaints: o Thomas Jefferson was a farmer, scientist, and scholar. . He also thought Britain had no right to govern or impose taxes on the colonies . He supported independence for the colonies
o Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, based upon many Enlightenment ideas.
o He would later become the third president of the United States
o The Congress selected Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, a document declaring the colonies’ independence from British rule.
o It was signed by the delegates in July 1776
• The Declaration of Independence contained some of John Locke’s ideas about equality and the natural rights of people to life and liberty.
• It built on the ideas of Locke and Rousseau when it declared that people have a right to change their government when they are unhappy with it.
IV. FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE “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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.”