The Enlightenment

During the 1700s, the ideas proposed by the Enlightenment thinkers had a major impact. People began to question established beliefs and customs. These beliefs affected leaders and the development of nations. Although, the Enlightenment thinkers were largely English and French, you can see how their ideas spread to the Americas. The ideas inspired revolutions including in American colonies from British rule and in France.

Take a close look at this Google presentation on the different Enlightenment thinkers that inspired some Enlightened Monarchs such as Maria Theresa of Austria and Catherine the Great from Russia to use their power to make changes to the nation's government. In addition to the citizens that caused rebellions based on these ideas including the American Revolution, French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolutions that you will learn about later.

This chart below summarizes what each of the key thinkers views were on personal rights and what the role of government is.

As you can see in this map below, the ideas of the Enlightenment spread not only to the American colonies who based the American Revolution off of their key ideas and then set up a government using many of the premises but also to Haiti and Venezuela as well.