The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that began in the late 1600s in which thinkers believed that reason, science, and humanism could improve society. Major Enlightenment philosophers like Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau developed ideas about natural rights, separation of powers, freedom of thought, and the social contract. These ideas influenced revolutions around the world, including the American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution reflected Enlightenment principles of natural rights, representative government, and checks and balances.

1. THE ENLIGHTENMENT

2. PHILOSOPHY IN THE AGE OF REASON
• Enlightenment sparked by scientific revolution of
1500s and 1600s
• Scientific discoveries of 1500s and 1600s changed the way
people looked at the world
• Natural law- laws that govern human nature
• People started to believe that reason could solve social
problems as well as scientific problems= The Enlightenment
Left: Rene Descartes, French scientist of the late
Renaissance, stressed human reasoning in
understanding the world
Right: Immanuel Kant, German philosopher of
late Renaissance/early Enlightenment era, first to
speak of an “enlightenment”

3. OPPOSING VIEWS OF SOCIETY
• Thomas Hobbes
• supported strong government (absolute monarchy), thinks
people are basically terrible
• developed idea of a social contract – an agreement by which
people give up the state of nature for an organized society

4. OPPOSING VIEWS OF SOCIETY
• John Locke
• Best government had limited power and was accepted by all
citizens
• Thinks people are basically reasonable and moral
• People have natural rights – rights that belonged to them at
birth – life, liberty, and property
John Locke, whose
ideas inspired
revolution around
the world!
Of Hobbes and Locke,
which do you think had
more of an impact on
the American Revolution?

5. THE PHILOSOPHES
• Lovers of wisdom
• Montesquieu and the Separation of Powers
• Freedom of Thought: Voltaire
• Denis Diderot’s works
• The Social Contract: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• What the women thought
Left: Voltaire, French author of Candide
Right: Rousseau, author of The Social Contract

6. MONTESQUIEU
• Published The Spirit of the Laws in 1748
• Discussed British government and how Britain had
separated the powers of the monarchy into three
branches of government
• Believed that separation of powers was the best
way to protect liberty
• Believed in checks and balances

7. VOLTAIRE
• Spent his life defending the freedoms of thought
and speech through his writing
• Forced into exile by the Catholic church for his
writing

8. DENIS DIDEROT
• Spend 25 years writing the Encyclopedia
• Purpose: to change the general way of thinking by
explaining the new thinking on government,
philosophy, and religion
• Wasn’t just information; contained articles
denouncing slaver, praising freedom of expression,
and urging education for all
• Translated into other languages
and helped to spread
Enlightenment ideas across
Europe and into the Americas

9. JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
• Most controversial philosophe
• Believed people in their natural state were basically
good = natural innocence
• Over time, corrupted by the evils of society (esp.
unequal distribution of property)
• The Social Contract (1762): people are born good,
corrupted by society, and (ideally) people would
make laws and would obey them willingly
• felt that the individual should
be subordinate to the community

10. WHAT WOMEN THOUGHT
• “free and equal” did not apply to women
• had natural rights – limited to home and family
• Woman’s first duty = to be a good mother
• Mary Wollstonecraft
• Published A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman (1792) – called for the
same education as men; only then
could women function equally
alongside men in society

11. NEW ECONOMIC THINKING
• Physiocrats – thinkers who looked for natural laws to
define a rational economic system
• Mercantilism- government regulates prices and
tariffs to gain favorable balance of trade
• Laissez-faire economics= government should stay
out of the economy, free trade
• Adam Smith- argued for free market (the natural
forces of supply and demand)
• Smith also believed government should stay out of
economy, but did have a responsibility to protect
society

12. REVIEW QUESTIONS:
• Define:
• Natural laws
• Social contract
• Natural rights
• Philosophe
• Physiocrat
• Laissez faire
• Free market

13. REVIEW QUESTIONS:
• How did the Scientific Revolution that took
place during the Renaissance affect the
Enlightenment?
• How were the opinions of Hobbes and
Locke different, as they relate to
government’s role?
• How did Rousseau’s and Voltaire’s beliefs
differ?

14. ENLIGHTENMENT IDEAS SPREAD
• New ideas challenge society
• People began to question “divine right” & class system
• Church & government censored writers, banned books
• Writers sometimes wrote fiction to expose corruption without
getting in trouble (Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Montesquieu)
Re-creation of a French Salon from the
Museum of Decorative Arts in Lyon, France

15. ENLIGHTENMENT IDEAS SPREAD
• Salons in women’s homes, Philosophes’ ideas spread
• Started with noblewomen hosting poetry readings in
homes in the 1600s
• By the 1700s, middle class women began to do it as well
• Many women held salons to learn from the discussions of
men

16. ENLIGHTENED DESPOTS
• Absolute rulers who used their power to bring about political
and social change
• Frederick the Great
• Catherine the Great
• Joseph II

17. FREDERICK THE GREAT
• King of Prussia 1740-1786
• Saw himself as a “servant of the state” – duty to
work for the common good
• Admired Voltaire
• Forced peasants to grow new crops like potatoes
• Religious tolerance
• More efficient government:
simplified laws and
reorganized the civil service

18. CATHERINE THE GREAT
• Catherine II of Russia; empress in 1762
• Granted nobles a charter of rights
• Spoke out against serfdom
• Expanded Russian empire

19. JOSEPH II
• Austrian emperor
• Travelled in disguise among his subjects to learn of their
problems
• Nicknamed “the peasant emperor”
• Continued the modernization Austria’s government
• Chose middle-class officials to run offices
• Imposed a range of political and legal reforms
• Granted religious tolerance
• Ended censorship
• Attempted to bring Catholic
Church under royal control
• Sold unproductive property of
Church and used money to
build hospitals
• Abolished serfdom

20. ENLIGHTENED DESPOTS LIKE THE NEW IDEAS
• Reform attempts by Frederick II
• Prussian king from 1740 to 1786, absolute monarch
• Allowed free press, religious toleration, reduced
torture use
• Catherine the Great’s response
• She studied works of Philosophes & admired them
• Religious toleration, reduction of torture, criticism
of serfdom
• More reforms by Joseph II
• Traveled in disguise to get a feel for regular people
• Like his mom(Maria Theresa), wanted to improve peasants’ lives
• Religious equality for Protestants and Jews, abolition of serfdom
• Many of his reforms were canceled after his death

21. NEW IDEAS REFLECTED IN LITERATURE
AND THE ARTS
• Movement of Baroque to Rococo
• Baroque = grand, complex style of art
• Heavy, bright, grandiose to light, charming, and elegant
• Religious and military themed art to lighter topics
• Popular in spite of Philosophes dislike
Portrait of Carl Gustaf Wrangel
by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl
Jean-Frédéric Schall -
Gardener in Straw Hat
Which of these
paintings is
baroque, and
which is rococo?

22. • Introduction of what we call classical music
• Opera (a play set to music) and ballet become popular all over
Western Europe
• Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart
• Drawing of Mozart painting of
• By Doris Stock, 1789 J.S. Bach
• New literary form: the Novel
• Growing middle class wanted stories in prose form
• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Composers inspired by Enlightenment

23. LIVES OF THE MAJORITY
• Slow to change
• Early 1700’s
• Most people lived in country, didn’t hear new ideas
• Late 1700’s
• Enlightenment ideas started to spread to even the lower classes
• Some people didn’t want change, just wanted stable lives
• Others started revolutions to try to bring about social change
Three Peasants
Engraving by Albrecht Dürer

24. PEASANT LIFE
• Western Europe
• More prosperous
• Serfdom had largely disappeared
• Laborers worked their own land, paid yearly rent, or hired
out to help others work their land
• Eastern Europe
• Serfdom was firmly rooted
• Peasants bound to the land, owed labor services to their
lords, could be bought and sold with the land or sent to
work in mines or the imperial army

25. REVIEW QUESTIONS
• Define
• Salon
• Enlightened despot
• Baroque
• Describe three ways in which Enlightenment ideas
spread.
• Why did those ideas threaten the old ways of thinking?
• What were the goals of enlightened despots?
• How did peasant life vary across Europe?

26. BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC
• Britain as a global power
• Location- island, large navy= good position to control trade
• Few restrictions on trade= good for business
• Won wars against France
• gained control of Spanish slave trade (later abolished slavery in
their territories)
• 1707= union of England, Scotland, & Wales (Ireland added later)
• King George III
• 60 year reign started 1760
• Placed his friends in important positions to strengthen his power
• Got them to Parliament to gain support for his policies
• Many of his policies did not work out well for him

27. CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
• A government whose power is defined and limited by law
• British constitution made up of acts of Parliament
over centuries; unlike US Constitution
• Includes Magna Carta and Bill of Rights and unwritten
traditions
• 2 Political Parties
• Tories = aristocrats who wanted to preserve traditions;
supported broad royal powers and dominant Anglican
church
• Whigs = backed liberal policies of Glorious Revolution;
reflected urban business interests; supported religious
tolerance; favored Parliament over the crown
• Not like the ones we know today; powerful people
linked by family or personal agreements

28. CABINET SYSTEM
• Began in 1714 with George I
• From Germany
• Spoke no English
• Relied on Parliament to help him rule
• Handful of Parliament advisers set policy
• Called the cabinet because they met in a small room
• Gained official status
• Made up of leaders of the majority party of House of
Commons
• If Commons voted against Cabinet decision, Cabinet resigned.
Otherwise, Cabinet had support of Commons
• Headed by Prime minister
• leader of the majority party in parliament and chief official of
the British government

29. MID-1700S IN AMERICAN COLONIES
• String of 13 colonies on east coast of what would become US, not
united or connected
• Britain applied mercantilist policies to force colonists to buy from
them and sell to them
• Navigation Acts were supposed to regulate trade and production,
(were not enforced)
• Smuggling was so common that the colonists didn’t see anything
wrong with it
• Colonists were more diverse than in Great Britain, social lines were
blurred
• Colonists set up their own assemblies and practiced open and free
discussion

30. COLONISTS UNHAPPY WITH THE SITUATION
• Various actions by Parliament and King George III were
making colonists mad (taxes)
• No taxation without representation
• Colonists rebel
• March 1770= Boston Massacre
• 1773- Boston Tea Party
• First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to discuss options
• Colonists declare their independence
• April 1775= Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts
• 1776= 2nd Continental Congress set up the Continental Army with
George Washington in charge
• Thomas Jefferson wrote Declaration of Independence,
full of Enlightenment ideas
• Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness Popular sovereignty=
government by consent of the governed
Adopted by Continental Congress on July 4, 1776

31. AMERICAN REVOLUTION
• Advantages:
• Britain: better trained soldiers, huge navy, natural resources,
support of about 1/3 of colonists and some Native tribes
• Colonists: home court advantage, strong leadership, dedicated
to winning their independence
• France supports the colonies
• 1777- Colonists won the Battle of Saratoga, France decided to join
(so did other nations)
• Washington held his troops together in dire circumstances
• Treaty of Paris ends the war
• 1781- French blockade of Chesapeake Bay forced British to
surrender (Yorktown)
• 1783- Treaty of Paris ended the war, forced Britain to recognize
the United States of America

32. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
• Written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776
• Claimed colonists had “certain unalienable rights:
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
• Basically told the King that colonists were revolting
against his unjust rule by declaring independence
from Britain
• Outlined colonists’ grievances against the King
• Enlightenment Influences
• Reflected the ideas of John Locke (life, liberty, property)

33. A NEW CONSTITUTION
• Articles of Confederation
• Too weak, focused on states’ rights, not central gov’t
• 1787- framers met to write new constitution (Washington,
Madison, Franklin, etc.)
• Huge impact of Enlightenment ideas
• Took Montesquieu’s idea of separation of powers & checks and
balances
• Federal Republic- states within a nation, each with rights
• Government as social contract (Locke, Rousseau)
• elected president and legislature (could be replaced)
• Bill of Rights – first 10 amendments to the Constitution-
guaranteeing certain freedoms
• Became supreme law of the land in 1789 (over 220 years old!)
• Set up representative government with an elected legislature

34. SYMBOL OF FREEDOM
• Our struggle for independence inspired revolutions
in Latin America and France
• Many other nations have constitutions that are
based on ours!

35. REVIEW QUESTIONS
• Identify:
• Tories
• Whigs
• Declaration of Independence
• Bill of Rights
• Define:
• Constitutional government
• Prime minister

36. QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:
• What Enlightenment ideas are found in the
Declaration of Independence?
• What advantages did the colonists have in the
American Revolution?
• What Enlightenment ideas are found in the
Constitution?
• How did the ideals of the American Revolution
influence other nations?

37. WORKS CITED:
• Ellis, E. G., & Esler, A. (2007).Prentice Hall world
history. Boston, Mass.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
• All photographs are from Wikimedia Commons and
are in public domain due to one of the following
reasons:
• Copyright expired due to age of the work
• Reproduction of a work already in public domain
• No copyright exists