Prologue Section 4

The

Enlightenment and Democratic

Revolutions

Enlightenment Thinkers and Ideas

• 17th and 18th century movement that tried to apply the principles of reason and the methods of science to all aspects of society.

Thomas Hobbes:

• Leviathan (1651)

• People naturally selfish and ambitious

• Believed in Absolute Monarchy

• Social Contract

John Locke:

• Two Treatise of Government (1690)

• Believed that government should protect the people

• Humans had the right to life, liberty, and property.

• Natural Rights

• People had the right to rebel against any government that violated or failed to protect their rights.

• Governments power comes from the people

Voltaire:

• 18th century French historian

• Tolerance

• Freedom of Religion

• Free Speech

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• The Social Contract (1762)

• Advocated Democracy

• Social Contract- a social contract is an agreement among free individuals to create a government that would respond to the people’s will.

Baron de Montesquieu:

• The Spirit of Laws (1748)

• Pointed out that a person or group of people will always attempt to increase their power.

• Separation of Powers 1. Legislature – make laws

2. Executive – enforce them

3. Courts – interpret them.

Beginnings of Democracy in America

• Mid 1700s 13 British colonies were founded.

• New France was to the North and West of these colonies.

• 1754 Britain and France engage in the French and Indian War for control of North America.

• France and England also fought in Europe- 7 Years War

America Protests British Policies:

• Stamp Act 1765

• No taxation without Representation

• No settling of land west of the Appalachian Mountains

Americans Win Independence:

• Battle of Lexington and Concord – April 19, 1775

• Declaration of Independence – July 4, 1776

• British Army surrendered 1781.

• Articles of Confederation

Enlightenment Ideas Shape the Constitution

• Constitution of the United States (1787)

• Representative Government

• Federal System – Federal, State, Local

• Separation of Powers

French Revolution

• Under Louis XIV (1643 – 1715) people lived under absolute monarchy.

• France was left in debt.

• Only the poor paid taxes.

Causes of the Revolution

• Louis XVI

• American Revolution

• Poor harvests (1780)

Early Reforms of the Revolution

• 1789 – France about to become bankrupt

• Estates-General called (last meeting 1614)

• National Assembly formed

• Falling of the Bastille