Politics for the People The Enlightenment era was a time that internationally changed the realm of politics and human rights. Without the influence and the ideas of several philosophers from this time period, the basic rights and liberties that Americans have today would perhaps not exist. The American government, eventually formed from a revolution against Great Britain, could even be seen as a direct result of the Enlightenment ideas on politics, as many of the early documents are said to be inspired by the ideas in the writings of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and some of the founding fathers involved in the Continental Congress responsible for the Declaration of Independence were also significant philosophers of the Enlightenment
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. .” (Reader, pp. 448-449) These unalienable rights mentioned are rights that are presumed to be natural, as in universal to all people, but when the colonists were not being fairly represented by the government of Great Britain, which they were still expected to abide by, they felt like those rights were not being given to them, and so they revolted against their homeland. Prior to the beginning of the revolution, Great Britain had been doing things such as sending troops to wage war in the colonies, imposing unfair taxes and blocking off trade to other parts of the world, and making legislative decisions for the colonists without any say from the colonists themselves. (Reader, p. 450) The extensive listing of grievances to the king just went to show how fed up the colonists were, and made the revolution seem justifiable under the circumstances given. In contemporary America, specific ideas from the Declaration of Independence may not appear to be of any importance to human rights today, as the natural rights – life, liberty, and property (also known as the pursuit of happiness) – are only briefly mentioned in the beginning of the document, but without it, America would not have been able to move towards developing its own rights for their citizens that would later be documented in the Constitution and its eventual
. .” (Reader, pp. 448-449) These unalienable rights mentioned are rights that are presumed to be natural, as in universal to all people, but when the colonists were not being fairly represented by the government of Great Britain, which they were still expected to abide by, they felt like those rights were not being given to them, and so they revolted against their homeland. Prior to the beginning of the revolution, Great Britain had been doing things such as sending troops to wage war in the colonies, imposing unfair taxes and blocking off trade to other parts of the world, and making legislative decisions for the colonists without any say from the colonists themselves. (Reader, p. 450) The extensive listing of grievances to the king just went to show how fed up the colonists were, and made the revolution seem justifiable under the circumstances given. In contemporary America, specific ideas from the Declaration of Independence may not appear to be of any importance to human rights today, as the natural rights – life, liberty, and property (also known as the pursuit of happiness) – are only briefly mentioned in the beginning of the document, but without it, America would not have been able to move towards developing its own rights for their citizens that would later be documented in the Constitution and its eventual