The Enlightenment - The Age of Reason

Enlightenment Beginnings For hundreds of years, religion was the central authority in Europe, as well as most of the civilizations of the world During the 18th-century, some European thinkers began to question the roles and authority of God, and the kings/nobles that ruled them Due to colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization, a strong middle class Had been developing in Europe—particularly in Great Britain and France These gentry classes had been growing in wealth and power for more than two centuries, and by the late 18th century, they were ready to run the gov. Besides their desire to bypass the Divine Right of Kings and noble authority, some ideas from England the France influenced their thoughts and actions

New Political Ideas BY the 1600s, an Englishman named John Locke had seen many, many corrupt kings and lords misuse and abuse their power He came up with two major Enlightenment concepts heavily argued for by the gentry: natural rights and consent of the governed Natural Rights – all humans are born with the rights to life, liberty, and property – all of which should be protected by the gov. Consent of the Governed – if the gov. is ever taking any of these natural rights from you, the people have the right or duty to overthrow that gov. Additionally, a written document (constitution) should have a set of rules or limits for the gov. to protect the natural rights of citizens

New Political Ideas Cont. A Frenchman, Montesquieu expanded on this: in order to prevent the gov. from oppressing these rights, the powers of the gov. should be separate To him, the powers of the gov. (making laws, enforcing laws, etc.) should be separated rather than in the hands of one ruler Not only that God does not choose kings, but that never should any one ruler or group rule absolutely

Philosophes Voltaire – one of the most famous philosophes of the Enlightenment, Voltaire was vehemently anti-religious To Voltaire, religion was the cause of intolerance, conflict, and oppression -Religious Wars (30 Years War), conflicts with Islam, oppression of Jews, etc. He also argued religion allowed rulers to rule unjustly and oppressively, and allowed such rulers to deny people their basic, natural rights Thinkers such as Rousseau also advocated governing through the general will To Rousseau, no one person can determine what the will (or desire) of the people, therefore, the population must be the ones making the laws

Impact of Enlightenment While these ideals were initially oppressed by governments, they spread quickly in Eur/The Americas The questioning of religion and governments, basing life and society instead on reason and popular (the people) involvement inspired many revolutions American Revolution (1776-1783) – challenged the authority of the British monarch and started a constitutional republic protecting individual rights French Revolution (1789) – challenged and overthrew the oppressive monarchy and nobility and gave law-making power to the people / wrote a constitution Latin-American Revolutions (early 1800s) – questioned and challenged the rule of oppressive, imperial governments – Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, etc.