The Wenz Academy - 5.1 The Enlightenment

English Philosopher: John Locke
Three Natural Right: Life, Liberty, Property

The last period period laid the foundations for the changes you are about to see in this period. The people in the image/banner above don’t look very modern. They’re not. The Enlightenment was a movement in the 18th Century (1700s) that led to the changes in government that brought you such governments as The United States, the French Republic, Haiti, and the 5+ countries that Bolivar freed. Most of the influential writings in the Enlightenment happened in the last period or at the VERY beginning of this period (c. 1750). But, if you don’t understand the Enlightenment, you can’t understand the Revolutions. Think of the Scientific Revolution; but instead of blood circulation or astronomy; apply that logic and reasoning to government… Why do we have a King again? Because God said so? Nah… that can’t be right… This is the Enlightenment:

5.1 AMSCO Chapter

5.1 CED (AP's Required Content)

Objectives:
A. Explain the intellectual and ideological context in which revolutions swept the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1900.
B. Explain how the Enlightenment affected societies over time.

Themes:
A. CDI (Cultural Development)
B. SIO (Society)

Skills:

A. CDI
Explain the intellectual and ideological context in which revolutions swept the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1900.

Historical Development
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. However, nationalism also became a major force shaping the historical development of states and empires.

B. SIO
Explain how the Enlightenment affected societies over time.

Historical Development
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. Such demands usually in the form of writing such as; Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Olympe de Gouges’s Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen; and the Seneca Falls Conference (1848) which was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.