1. Enlightenment & Revolutions Unit
The Enlightenment
Enlightenment & Revolutions Unit

2. Essential Question
How did the ideas of the Enlightenment motivate social and political change?

3. Warm Up Answer BOTH questions:
How much power do you think an ABSOLUTE monarch possesses?
What do you think are “natural rights?” Can you give an example? Where/who do we get them from?

4. Key Vocabulary
Enlightenment: A new movement that stressed reason, thought, and the power of individuals to solve problems.
Social Contract: Hobbes’s idea that people had to hand over their rights to a strong ruler in exchange for law and order.
Natural Rights: Locke’s idea that everybody is born free and has the right to life, liberty, and property.
Separation of Powers: Montesquieu’s idea that the government needs three different branches (executive, legislative, and judicial).

5. The Enlightenment: Views on Government
Thomas Hobbes:
Believed that without government, life would be chaos.
Need an absolute ruler to impose order and demand obedience.
Social contract.
John Locke:
The purpose of government is to protect your natural rights.
If a government fails to do so, citizens have a right to overthrow it.

6. Philosophers Advocate Reason
Voltaire
Fought for freedom of speech and religion.
“I do not agree with a word you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Montesquieu
Believed in separation of powers to keep one group from gaining total control of the government.

7. Rousseau
Wanted a direct democracy and since all people are equal, titles of nobility should be abolished and land should be equally distributed.
Beccaria
Argued that people have the right the right to a speedy trial and punishments should match the crime.

8. Assessment Prompt 1
Quickly describe what each philosopher advocated in less than five words each.

9. Women and the Enlightenment
Mary Astell
Believed that women needed educational opportunities and women should have an equal role in marriage.
“If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?’
Mary Wollstonecraft
Argued that women needed education and should enter the male dominated fields of medicine and politics.

10. Legacy of the Enlightenment
Progress
Reformers urged for greater social equality and a more democratic style of government.
Secular Views
People began to question their religious beliefs and the teachings of the church.
Individualism
People used their own ability to reason in order to judge what was right or wrong.

11. Assessment Prompt 2
In two sentences, describe the legacy of the Enlightenment.

12. A World of Ideas
Salons and the Encyclopedia helped spread Enlightened ideas.
Attracted the middle class.
Led to censorship of printed materials that were spreading Enlightened ideas.
Classical music developed
Bach and Mozart.
Authors wrote about the unknown and the endless possibilities the world held.

13. Enlightened Despots Frederick the Great (Prussia)
Granted religious freedom, reduced censorship, improved education, and abolished the use of torture.
“The first servant of the state.”
Did nothing to end the use of serfs.
Joseph II (Austria)
Introduced freedom of the press and religion and abolished serfdom.
Catherine the Great (Russia)
Recommended religious toleration, abolishing torture and capital punishment.
Favored an end to serfdom until a peasant revolt occurred.

14. Assessment Prompt 3 Enlightened Despots Frederick the Great Joseph II
Catherine the Great

15. Assignment
Read through the American Bill of Rights and highlight or underline Enlightenment ideas. Name the Enlightenment thinker or despot who advocated the idea.
Pay close attention to the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments.
Fill in the specific information on your graphic organizer.
For example: Voltaire, Freedom of Speech & Religion – First Amendment.

16. Journal
Answer the EQ: How did the ideas of the Enlightenment motivate social and political change?
Consider the following questions:
How did views of government change during the Enlightenment?
How did opinions of women change during the Enlightenment?
How did the Enlightenment affect European rulers?
How did the Enlightenment affect the thirteen colonies?