Scottish Enlightenment

Even though the Middle Ages is usually referred to as the “Dark Ages”, due to the troubles and hardships faced by those who lived during that time, it was also a great vivacity and enthusiasm because that was when Europe’s golden revolution started to emerge. According to Gray Boyce, “Even at its worst it performed the function of guarding… but even more it was creative and inventive, and transmitted to later ages great riches of its own.” (Boyce 69). At this time, Europe had begun to preserve…

The 18th century Enlightenment was constant battle between freedom and order in every aspect that makes up a country. This is because an enlightenment is the balancing of liberty and order in all aspects that make up a country. Although traditionally thought of as a simple philosophical movement, the European enlightenment specifically contains much more than first brought to the eye. Politically between an absolute government and a democracy, morally for the sake of science, socially with the…

The French Revolution commenced in 1789. A good majority of historians can come to an understanding that the French Revolution was an affair that altered Europe forever, very similar to the American Revolution, and that happen just ten years prior. The reasons for the French Revolution are not easy to specifically state an exact cause. Overseas, quite a few major wars had occurred in the 30 plus years preceding the French Revolution, also France was involved somewhat, in most of them. The…

intellectual evolution in Europe, commonly referred to as the Age of Enlightenment. Freed from the previous supposition that humanity was subject to the unknowable will of God, and emboldened by recent scientific advances that made the mysteries of the natural world suddenly knowable, the Enlightenment Thinkers believed in the power of investing intellectual capital to improve the human condition. One of the most influential of the Enlightenment Thinkers, John Locke, was an English philosopher…

In this essay I will be going over two major causes and effects of the Latin American and French Revolution. One major cause of the French revolution was was the rebellion of the 3rd estate. France was made up of three estates. The Clergy belonged to the First Estate. The Clergy was sub­divided into two groups i.e. the higher clergy and the lower clergy. They did not pay any tax to the monarch. The Nobility was regarded as the Second Estate in the French Society. They also did not pay any tax…

They’re Not Just Dead People The most influential individuals of the Enlightenment Beccaria, Copernicus, Galilei, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Newton, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, and Voltaire are all people you have probably heard of before; but did you know that they all have affected the way you live right now. Authors, philosophers, scientists, and martyrs from the Enlightenment still make an impact on your life hundreds of years after their dead. How you might ask. The…

Thomas Robert Malthus, known as Robert, was born at the Rookery on February 13, 1766. At an early age he showed signs of high intelligence. He received private tutoring until in 1784 he entered Jesus College located in Cambridge. He studied for clergy while simultaneously reading about mathematics and philosophy. Similarly to Adam Smith, Malthus was impressed by Newton and read Newton’s books including Philosophias Naturalis Principia Mathematica. The Master of Jesus College warned Malthus that…

The Industrial Revolution came with great economic development for the United States. Taking place in the 18th to 19th centuries, what you found for the most part was agricultural, rural societies in Europe and America advancing to industrial and urban societies. Preceeding to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing was often accomplished in the home's of the people, with basic machines and hand tools. Economic development marked a change to powered,…

The Enlightenment was key in influencing and determining nearly every part of the colonies and the colonial independence movement, especially on government, politics, and religion. If it wasn’t for the figures and central ideas of the Enlightenment, the U.S. would have been very different because the Enlightenment influenced many key figures from American history such as Thomas Jefferson, ideas like freedom from oppression and natural rights came straight from Enlightenment, and almost every…

The Revolutions of 1848 were something that should have been expected, as the signs are clear when one looks upon it in retrospect. The purpose for revolution varied from country to country but in all they key points weren’t too different, there were three main things that historians can contribute to helping start the revolutions. One was political activism. All over the continent people felt that political repression was occurring and they started speaking against it. The others were the rise…