American Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a period of philosophical advancement in Western Europe. The four main enlightenment thinkers were Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, and Montesquieu. Voltaire emphasized the freedom of speech by writing attacks towards the Catholic Church even though he knew he would get punished for his writings. Rousseau was a French philosophe who emphasized the idea that all people are equal. Locke was an English writer during the Age of Enlightenment. His mostly focused on the issue of…

The European enlightenment did influence the American revolution and creation of the democratic republic government. Some philosophers who influenced the revolution were John Locke, Montesquieu, and Voltaire. The American revolution would never have happened if these philosophers never spoke what there opinions despite the punishments. These philosophers were all the crucial influencers of the American revolution. John Locke was an enlightenment philosopher who believed in the natural rights of…

Did you know that the key ideas and thoughts from Enlightenment built a solid foundation that paved the way for the American Revolution and to all of the things that make our country what is today? Courage, bravery, freedom, power, and happiness are just some of the things that were sparked during the Enlightenment that carried over into the United States. The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was period of a philosophical movement, that changed the way people thought and reasoned,…

With regards to the American Revolution there is a myth associated with it that is generally accepted by everyone. This is the myth that when America revolted against the British army they had no choice as Britain was cruel to them, as well that every American wanted to revolt. However, historians have thought that these are in fact myths, started by Americans as an act of patriotism. Like every great event in history, the American Revolution was built upon the events and ideas leading up to it…

on the east coast of the Americas. Although they won the war, it did come with a cost; a price that Britain threw onto the American colonists. The ideas enticed by the Enlightenment period, the results of the French and Indian War, and the passage of acts because of the colonists rebellious actions all provoked the American Revolution. During the time of the Enlightenment, a handful of influential scholars and leaders released their views on the world. Many of America’s founding fathers were…

A part of the European Enlightenment John Locke believed that the governments should get their authority from the peoples they rule. And people have fundamental rights that the government has a duty to protect these rights. After Pontiacs Rebellion in which the British gave the Indians a “gift” of blankets infected with smallpox as the solution to put down the rebellion, the British issued a proclamation forbidding the settlement of anything west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was the…

This statement claims that due to the fact that European and U.S colonial powers were a product of the European Enlightenment, they believed in the equality of all human beings. The Japanese also believed that within the spheres of race and culture, they shared these similarities with their colonized subjects. Therefore, European, U.S. and Japanese colonial endeavors were not a product of racist discrimination but a tactic developed to lift the status of women within in the areas that they…

Perhaps one of the largest and most brutal atrocities in human history was the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Spanish and other European countries conquered the Native Americans and exploited them and their land to increase their own wealth. Additionally, Europeans brought African slaves over to the Americas and forced them to perform hard labor on plantations in abysmal conditions. Spain, which colonized nearly all of Central and South America, created a social hierarchy that left…

The American Enlightenment was a period of change involving the way of thinking in the thirteen colonies during the eighteenth century. The main reason for this change was to make individuals use reason and logic in order to make decisions, rather than rely on blind faith. The major values were liberty, democracy, republicanism, and religious tolerance. A major figure during the American Enlightenment was Benjamin Franklin. He believed in the movement and decided to help in any way he could. In…

Democracy wasn’t created overnight. It was made from years of wisdom and experience. Eventually the American colonists decided to refuse the British King in the American Revolution, but the colonists didn’t just do that out of the blue. They were influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and the men who induced it, the philosophes. Europeans no longer lived in the middle ages. Ocean voyages and the printing press brought them to a new way of life which was never thought possible before. The…