The Enlightenment and the American Revolution

1
The Enlightenment and the American Revolution
2
Progress and Reason

• The Scientific revolution of the 1500s and the
  1600s transformed the way Europe looked at the
  world.
• In the 1700s Joseph Priestley and Antoine
  Lavoisier built the framework for chemistry.
  Edward Jenner developed a vaccine for small pox.

3
Two views of the Social Contract

• Thomas Hobbes said in his book Leviathan that
  people were naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish.
  
• Hobbes believed that people entered into a social
  contract, an agreement by which they gave up the
  state of nature for an organized society.

4
Two views of Social contract

• John Locke believed that people were basically
  reasonable and moral.
• Locke believed that people had certain natural
  rights- rights that belong to all humans from
  birth. These include the right to life, liberty,
  and property.

5
Separation of Powers

• Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws. He
  wrote about the governments throughout history.
  He especially liked the British limited monarchy.
• Montesquieu liked the idea of having three
  branches legislative, executive, and judicial.
  Montesquieu also felt that each branch should
  serve as a check and balances.

6
The Philosophes and Society

• Philosophes are thinkers who love wisdom.
• Voltaire defends freedom of thought. Voltaire
  used wit as a weapon to expose the abuse of his
  day. He targeted corrupt officials and
  aristocrats. He was against the slave trade and
  deplored religious prejudice. Voltaire's
  outspoken attacks offended both the French
  government and the Catholic Church. He was
  imprisoned and forced to exile.

7
The Encyclopedia

• Denis Diderot spent 25 years to produce a 28
  volume Encyclopedia. He wanted to change the
  general way of thinking. Diderot included
  articles from the leading thinkers of the day
  such as Montesquieu and Voltaire.
• They denounced slavery, and praised freedom of
  expression. They attacked divine right and
  traditional religions.
• The French government was against the
  Encyclopedia and the Pope threaten to
  excommunicate people who bought the book.
• However 20,000 copies of the book were sold
  between 1751 and 1789. When translated it helped
  to spread Enlightenment ideas throughout Europe.

8
Rousseau

• Rousseau was the most controversial philosophe he
  came from a poor family.
• Rousseau believed people in their natural state
  were good. He felt that they became corrupt by
  the evils of society and especially with the
  unequal distribution of property.

9
Rousseau

• In 1762 Rousseau expressed his ideas about
  government and society in his book Social
  Contract He believed that society placed too many
  limitations on people.
• Rousseau believed in the general will or the best
  conscience of the people. Rousseau thought that
  good of the community should be placed above the
  good of the individual. This also made him
  different from the other Enlightment thinkers.

10
Women and the Enlightenment

• Women were being excluded from the social
  contract.
• Wollstonecraft was a well-known British social
  critic.
• She did not think that a woman should be
  dependent on a man.
• She published A Vindication of the Right of Women
  she called on equal education for boys and girls.

11
New Economic Thinking

• Other thinkers known as physiocrats focused on
  economic relief.
• They were against mercantilism, which requires
  government regulations. They supported a policy
  of laissez faire, allowing business to operate
  with little or no government interference.

12
Adam Smith

• Adam Smith was a British economist.
• In his influential work, The Wealth of Nations,
  he argues that the free market should be allowed
  to regulate business activity.

13
The challenge of New Ideas

• Government and the Church fought hard to protect
  their old order. To protect against the
  enlightenment, they waged a war of censorship, or
  restricting access to ideas or information. They
  banned and burned books and imprisoned writers.
• Some writers such as Voltaire disguised their
  ideas as works of fiction.

14
Salons

• The new literature, art, science, and philosophy
  were regular topics of discussion in salons,
  informal social gatherings.
• The most famous of these salons was in the house
  of Madame Geoffrin. She had Wolfgang Amadeus play
  for her guests and Diderot spoke regularly.

15
Enlightened Despots

• Some monarchs did accept Enlightenment ideas.
  They became enlightenment despots, or absolute
  rulers who used their power to bring about
  political and social change.
• Three rulers who embodied this way were Frederick
  the Great, Catherine the Great, and Joseph II.

16
The Arts and Literature

• In the age of Louis XIV art was in the tradition
  of complex style known as baroque. Baroque
  paintings were huge, colorful, and full of
  excitement.
• By the mid 1700s architects and designers
  developed the rococo style. Unlike the heavy
  splendor of the baroque, rococo was personal,
  elegant, and charming.

17
Britain at Mid- Century

• Why did Britain, a small island kingdom on the
  edge of Europe, rise to global power?
• Englands location put them in the middle of
  trade during the Renaissance.
• In the 1700s Britain was generally on the
  winning side in European conflicts.
• England offered a favorable climate for trade.

18
Growth of Constitutional Government

• After the glorious Revolution, three new
  political institutions arose political parties,
  the cabinet, and the office of prime minister.
• The appearance of these institutions was a part
  of the evolution of Britain's constitutional
  government, a government whose power is defined
  and limited by law.

19
Political Parties

• Two political parties emerged in England the
  Tories and Whigs.
• These groups represented exclusive social circles
  among rich, powerful men in Parliament.
• The modern political party, which represents
  groups of voters and has a distinct platform, did
  not appear until the 1800s.

20
The Cabinet System

• A handful of parliamentary advisors met in a
  small room or in a cabinet so they were called
  the cabinet.
• In time, the cabinet gained official status. It
  was made up of the leaders of the majority party
  in the House of Commons.

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Prime Minister

• Heading the cabinet was the prime minister.
• The prime minister was the leader of the majority
  party in Parliament and in time the chief
  official of the British government.

22
Political Cartoon

• Today we will create a political cartoon. We will
  divided up into our groups.
• As a group you need to decide who will draw the
  picture, who will come up with the caption for
  the picture, and who will present the picture to
  the class. The final person should be the leader
  making sure everyone is on task and helping the
  other members as needed.

23
The Characters
Hobbes
Locke
24
Political Cartoons
25
Birth of the American Republic

• In 1750 13 British colonies stretched along the
  eastern coast of North America. These colonies
  linked the west with the global trade.
• Parliament passed the Navigation Acts to regulate
  colonial trade and manufacturing.
• The colonists felt they were entitled to the
  English rights. The northern colonist differed
  from the southern. Many also wanted to be
  separate from Britain.

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Growing Discontent

• Wars drained the British treasure. Britain began
  to enforce new laws to increase the amount of
  taxes the colonist would pay.
• The colonist saw this as an attack on their
  rights. They protested No taxation without
  representation since they had no representatives
  in Parliament they had no right to tax them.

27
Early Clashes

• In 1770 five colonist were killed by British
  soldiers this became to be known as the Boston
  Massacre.
• In 1773 colonist hurled a cargo of British tea
  into the harbor this became known as the Boston
  Tea Party.

28
Declaring Independence

• The colonies set up a Continental Army, with
  George Washington as their leader.
• In 1776 the second Continental Congress declared
  independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson was
  the principal author of the Declaration of
  Independence.
• The Declaration said that people had the right to
  abolish unjust governments and they had a right
  to revolt. They also emphasized the principle of
  popular sovereignty which says that government
  powers come from the people.

29
The American Revolution

• At first it looked bleak for the colonists. The
  British had professional soldiers, a huge fleet,
  and plentiful of money. The also had loyalist
  people in the colonies that supported Britain.
• The Continental Congress had a few military
  resources. They were fighting on their own soil
  though.

30
French Alliance

• When the Americans defeated the British in the
  Battle of Saratoga they won the support of the
  French.
• The French wanted to join against their old
  rival, Britain.
• The French alliance brought supplies, trained
  soldiers, and French warships.

31
Treaty of Paris

• In 1781 Washington forced the British army to
  surrender at Yorktown.
• Two years later the American, French, and the
  British diplomats signed the Treaty of Paris
  ending the war.

32
A New Constitution

• The Articles of Confederation was too weak to
  rule the new Untied States.
• The new Constitution created a federal republic,
  with power divided between the federal, or
  national government and the states.
• A central frame was the separation of powers
  legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

33
A new constitution

• The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to
  the Constitution, recognized the idea that people
  had basic rights.
• These freedoms included freedom of religion,
  speech, and the press.

34
Limited freedom

• In 1789, the Constitution became the supreme law
  of the land. It set up a representative
  government with a elected legislature to reflect
  the wishes of the people.
• Yet most Americans could not vote.