12/10/23

Topic: 5.1 Enlightenment

Enduring Issue: Power; Conflict

Aim: How did the Enlightenment and revolutions

impact societies over time during the period
1750-1900?

Objective: SWBAT evaluate how the Enlightenment affected

societies over time through critical analysis in a salon activity.
DO NOW: Select at least one of the questions
to answer and explain your reasoning.
• What rights do we have as human beings?
• Who gets those rights?
• What duty and obligation do we have towards each other?
• What is the role of government?
• Who has the right to rule?
 Historical Developments
• Enlightenment philosophies applied new ways of understanding
and empiricist approaches to both the natural world and human
relationships; they also reexamined the role that religion played in
public life and emphasized the importance of reason. Philosophers
developed new political ideas about the individual, natural rights,
and the social contract.
• The rise and diffusion of Enlightenment thought that questioned
established traditions in all areas of life often preceded revolutions
and rebellions against existing governments
• Nationalism also became a major force shaping the historical
development of states and empires.
• Enlightenment ideas and religious ideals influenced various reform
movements. These reform movements contributed to the
expansion of rights, as seen in expanded suffrage, the abolition of
slavery, and the end of serfdom.
• Demands for women’s suffrage and an emergent feminism
challenged political and gender hierarchies.
 ❖ Setting the Stage:
• Middle Ages
● Church and pope had supreme power over kings and governments
● Emphasis placed on spiritual life and getting into heaven
• Renaissance
● Bubonic plague got people thinking about enjoying life
● Emphasis now on secularism rather than spiritualism
• Reformation
● Advent of printing press allows new ideas to spread
● Corrupt nature of the Church exposed & reforms demanded
● Monarchs began to take power that Church lost
 Scientific Revolution
Scientific Revolution: Movement in which scientists improved
technology and developed the scientific method to improve their
knowledge of the Universe and challenged religious ideas.
❖ Main ideas:
● New understanding of the world through evidence
● Emphasis on reason and logical thought over faith
● Scientific method: a method for gathering evidence and testing ideas
about the world
● Inventions: Telescope, Microscope
❖ Scholars that challenged traditional thought
● Copernicus: Heliocentric Theory -> Sun is in the center of the
Universe
● Galileo: Improved the telescope and made observations that proved
Copernicus’s views, but was forced to recant by the Church.
● Sir Isaac Newton: Published Principa (1687) on gravitational force
● Francis Bacon: Developed an early scientific method called empiricism that
insisted upon the collection of data to support a hypothesis.
 How the Scientific Revolution Influenced the Enlightenment

• Rene Descartes: Doubt everything until it can be proven

with reason
● “I think, therefore I am”
• Scientific Revolution ideals of reason and natural law could
be applied to government and society
● World operated on natural laws that people could study
● Natural laws explain human behavior and help improve
society
● Used to justify personal freedom, individual rights, and
equality
● Basic ideas of democracy
 The Enlightenment
❖ The Enlightenment: the Age of Reason during the 17th and 18th centuries in
which philosophers (thinkers) applied reason and scientific laws to question
nature and traditional society (i.e. government, religion, oppression, freedom, &
rights).
❖ Ideals: Individualism, Freedom, Self-determination
❖ Challenged the roles of monarchs and the church
❖ Planted the seeds for Revolution
 Philosophers
(Social Contract)
Social Contract: People should consent to surrendering
some freedoms to the government in exchange for
protection:
• Thomas Hobbes: In return, strong central government (he
supports monarchy) will provide law and order
• John Locke: Government has duty to protect people’s natural
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.
• People have responsibility to overthrow unjust government
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Sovereign (ruler) has the duty to carry
out the General Will (common interest) of the people
 Philosophers
(Influence on U.S. Government )
Montesquieu: Believed government should be a
separation of powers to prevent unlimited power.
• Impact: U.S. government has executive, legislative, and
judicial branches)
Voltaire: French philosopher who fought for civil
liberties, judicial reform and religious freedom.
• Impact: U.S. Constitutional rights including freedom of
speech, press and religion, & the right to a fair trial
 Age of “Isms”
(Science vs. Religion)
● Empiricism: Knowledge comes from the sensed experience (i.e. observation
through experiments)
● Francis Bacon emphasized empirical methods of scientific inquiry
● Deism: Reexamines the belief in God through reason and the natural world
● Rene Descartes emphasized the natural world operates like a machine and
follows basic human laws
 Age of “Isms”
(Economic)
Capitalism: an economic system where the means of production
are privately owned and operated for profit.
• Adam Smith: Wrote Wealth of Nations in response to
mercantilism, advocating for laissez-faire
• Laissez-Faire: Government should be “hands off ” from
business involvement
• Businesses and consumers, guided by an “invisible
hand” (government) would make choices in their own
best interests, which in turn would be beneficial for
society.
 Age of “Isms”
(Socioeconomic)

• Conservatism: Belief in traditional institutions, favoring reliance on practical

experience over ideological theories.
• (Utopian) Socialism: System of public ownership of the means of production
• e.g. The cloth mills, the land needed to mine coal
• Classical liberalism: A belief in natural rights, constitutional gov’t,
laissez-faire economics, and reduced spending on armies and established churches.
 Age of “Isms”
(Social Reform)
• Feminism: Argued for a radical transformation of the position of
women using Enlightenment ideals
• Mary Wollstonecraft: Early feminist who wrote, A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1792). She used reason to argue that men and
women had natural rights and fought for universal education to
prepare women to support themselves professionally.
• Olympe de Gouges: Published Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the
Female Citizen (1791) in response to the French human civil rights
document that did not address women.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott: Leaders of the Women’s
Suffrage Movement. Organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.
Fought for the right to vote and hold office, manage property, manage
their own incomes, and be the legal guardians of their children. Won
full right to vote in 1928.
• Abolitionism: Movement to end Atlantic slave trade and free slaves
• Slavery largely ended globally between 1780-1890
• Little improvement in the economic lives of slaves
• Few gained political equality (i.e. segregation in the U.S.)
• End of Serfdom: Declined due to peasant revolts and shift to industrial
economy. Former serfs remained impoverished despite abolishment.
 Age of “Isms”
(Political)
Nationalism: Feeling of intense loyalty to others who share
one’s culture and should live together in an independent
nation-state
• Erosion of older ideas and loyalties
• Science weakened the hold of religion.
• Migration to cities or abroad weakened local allegiances
• Printing standardized languages.
• Nationalism was often presented as a reawakening of older
cultural identities.
• Some describe nation in racial terms
• Identify nationalism with a particular territory (encouraged
assimilation)
CHECK-IN: Explain how the Enlightenment shaped
ideological and intellectual thinking that affected reform
and revolution in the period 1750-1900.