The Enlightenment and Democratic Revolutions

1. The Enlightenment and Democratic Revolutions Main Idea: Enlightenment ideas helped to bring about the American and French Revolutions. These revolutions and the documents they produced have inspired other democratic movements CA Standards: 10.2.1 Compare the ideas of major Enlightenment philosophers (John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) and their effects on revolutions in U.S. Europe and Latin America

2. Enlightenment Thinkers and Ideas • Enlightenment – To achieve and/or give intellectual or spiritual light. • Men and women begin to use logic, reason and science in all aspects of life and society. • Scientific Revolution (Galileo, Newton, Copernicus) helped build stage for enlightenment as did the religious teachings of 3 major religions. • Idea was to find natural laws that could govern society like natural laws governed the universe.

3. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke • 2 English Philosophers who wrote early ideas of government. • Hobbes believed that people were selfish and needed a strong government to protect them from themselves. People agreed to limited freedom in return for security. • Locke believed that people had Natural Rights. • Natural Rights are life, liberty and property. • The#1 job of any government is to protect peoples Natural Rights. • Locke believed that people have the power to change their government if they are not doing their job.

4. Francois-Marie Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Both French philosophers who lived under an Absolute Monarch. • Voltaire wrote in favor of Freedom of religion and freedom of speech. He had to move to England to escape jail in France for his writings. The Church and King were often targets of his criticisms. • Rousseau – Wrote that a government could only be legitimate if it has the consent of the people. People in the community had a right to vote or choose what was best for himself and his community.

5. Baron de Montesquieu • Wrote a book called The Spirit of the Laws (1748) in which he says that any person or group in power always tries to increase its power. He concluded that the best way to control government power and keep citizens safe would be to divide government into 3 parts: • 1. Legislature to make laws • 2. Executive to enforce laws • 3.Court to interpret laws

6. Enlightenment Leads to Revolutions! • Colonists in North America resent having to pay taxes to England when they have no representation in government. • To protest unfair taxes and lack of political rights, they fight for independence from Britain and win the War for Independence in 1781. • Declaration of Independence is a list of all that England had done wrong to the colonies explaining why they are going to fight for freedom. Written by Thomas Jefferson but he borrowed heavily from John Locke

7. Enlightenment Shapes U.S. Constitution • Colonists use ideas of Rousseau to create a representative government. • Ideas of Voltaire – Freedom of Speech and Religion • Ideas of Montesquieu – Separation of Powers

8. Enlightenment and the French Revolution • Absolute Monarchs King Louis XIV (1643-1715), Louis VX (1715-1774) and King Louis XVI (1774-1792) had ruined France with large debts. Poor harvests left majority of population starving, thousands died from 1786-1789. • King called the Estates-General and asked for more taxes from the peasants (3rd Estate) even though Church (2nd Estate) and Nobles (1st Estate) paid none. • 3rd Estate protests and forms a National Assembly and creates Declaration of the Rights of Man. Influenced by U.S. revolution and Enlightenment thinkers.

9. Struggle for Democracy Continues • United Nations works as an International Democratic body. Countries come together to work on issues that effect members to improve living conditions in all nations. • Authority of U.N. comes from it’s members. U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms ideas of religious freedom, basic human rights, rule of law and social progress.