How Did The Enlightenment Influence The American Revolution

The Enlightenment or otherwise known as the Age of Reason was a revolution in itself of human thought. In the beginning of the late 17th­century the Enlightenment started as a cultural movement of philosophers in Western Europe, emphasizing individualism and reason while questioning traditional authority.1 They embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through a rational change. The Enlightenment spread outside of Europe to the United States, continuing to the end of the 18th century.2 The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by the Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence.
The ideas of the enlightenment influenced the American Revolution (1775­1783) and the American government. With the beliefs of English …show more content…
It influenced the French to create their own declaration such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) the inspiration and content of the document emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution. The Declaration also asserted the principles of popular sovereignty, in contrast to the divine right of kings that characterized the French monarchy, and social equality among citizens and eliminating the special rights of the nobility and clergy.6 There was also the Haitian Revolution (1791­1804) a slave revolt in the French colony. Described as one of the largest and most successful slave rebellions in the western Hemisphere influenced by the Enlightenment with that “all men
3 Bonnie G. Smith, Marc Van De Mieroop, Richard Von Glahn, and Kris Lane, Crossroads and Cultures: A History of the World’s Peoples (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012), 764.
4 Robert W. Strayer, Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013),