During the Scientific Revolution, scientists like Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton used the scientific method and observation to disprove long-held beliefs and establish scientific theories. The Enlightenment then spread these ideas and emphasized the use of reason to understand politics, law, and religion. In America, the British government increasingly taxed and controlled the colonies, leading to protests and eventually the American Revolution, where Enlightenment ideals of natural rights and consent of the governed inspired the Declaration of Independence and new democratic government.

1. World History Chapter 22 Notes
Enlightenment & Revolution
Section 1
The Scientific Revolution
Scientific Revolution
• Middle Age scholars based their ideas on the works of ancient Greek thinkers
such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen
- Believed earth was flat and that it was the center of the universe
• 1600’s – Scientific Revolution began
Nicolaus Copernicus
• Proved that the earth was round and that it rotated on its axis as it revolved
around the sun
• Sun was at the center of the universe
• He was afraid to publish his ideas
Johannes Kepler
• Used mathematical formulas to show that the planets revolve around the sun
• Proved planets move in oval paths called ellipses
• Kepler challenged the teachings of academic and religious leaders (Protestant)
Galileo
• 1609 – built telescope and observed night skies
• became convinced that Copernicus’s theory was correct
• Catholic Church forced him to recant his work
- Continued to work in secret
• Helped to establish the universal laws of physics
Francis Bacon
• English philosopher who claimed that ideas based solely on tradition or unproven
facts should be completely discarded
• Helped develop the scientific method
Isaac Newton
• Developed theory of universal gravitation
• Developed calculus to prove his theory
William Harvey
• English physician who made advances understanding human anatomy
- Discovered that blood circulates through the body pumped by the heart
• Disproved many of Galen’s hypothesis
- Liver digested food and processed it into blood
Robert Hooke
• Used newly invented microscope to discover the cell
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2. Section 2
The Enlightenment in Europe
Political Ideas
• Philosophers began believing that political, economic and social relationships
could also be understood through reasoned analyses
• Political philosophers believed in the idea of natural law or universal moral law
that , like physical laws, could be understood by applying reason
• 1600’s – England struggled with political tensions of a Civil War
- Country was divided between people who wanted the king to have absolute
power and those who though the people should have the right to govern
themselves
• Thomas Hobbes – used natural law to argue that an absolute monarchy was the
best form of government
- Believed that violence and disorder came naturally to human beings and chaos
would occur with an absolute monarch
• John Locke – believed that government was base on a social contract and that it
was necessary to establish order
- Believed that people in a state of nature are reasonable and moral
- Natural rights – rights belonging to all humans from birth (Life, Liberty, and
Property)
- Thomas Jefferson based much of the Declaration of Independence on
Locke’s ideas
Reason Influenced Law and Religion
• Began incorporating scientific or reasoned thoughts in applying the law
- Placed less emphasize on heresy and confessions made under torture
- Helped to end unjust trials
• 1600’s – Several people made the 1st
attempts to create a body of international law
- William Penn – Founder of the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania
- Believed in pacifism (opposition to war and violence)
- Advocated an assembly of nations committed to world peace
• 1700’s – New religious philosophy called deism
- Believed in one God
- Denounced organized religion declaring that it exploited people’s ignorance and
superstitions
- Intended to construct a simpler and more natural religion based on reason and
natural law
Section 3
The Enlightenment Spreads
Age of Enlightenment
• Late 1600’s through the 1700’s
• People studied the world as though they were looking at it for the 1st
time
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3. - No longer held back by tradition
• Enlightened thinkers perceived the universe as a machine governed by fixed laws
- Saw God as the master mechanic of the universe (the builder of a machine who
provided laws and then allowed it to run on its own
- Believed in progress or the idea that the world and its people could be improved
• Started a philosophical revolution
Spreading Ideas
• Philosophes – Thinkers of the Enlightenment who spread new and exciting ideas
• 1751 – Encyclopedia 1st
published
- 28 volumes covered everything then known about the sciences technology and
history
- It criticized the church and government and praised religious tolerance
- Denis Diderot – sent to prison for it publication
• Baron de Montesquieu – Believed that government should be divided equally
among 3 branches of government
- Legislative, Executive, and Judicial
• Voltaire – writer who wrote plays, essays, and books that were often satirical
- believed in free speech “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it”
Enlightenment Opponents
• Some people saw the structure and ordered view of the universe as overly
rational and devoid of emotion and feeling
• Jean- Jacques Rousseau – criticized the era’s reliance on reason
- Believed that people should rely more on instinct and emotion
• Immanuel Kant – Believed that reason could not answer the problems of
metaphysics (Branch of philosophy that deals with spiritual issues such as the
existence of God)
• John Wesley – Led a movement called Methodism
- Stressed the value of personal religious experience
- Wanted more feeling in religion
Section 4
The American Revolution
Road to Revolt
• Mid 1700’s – 13 colonies thrived on the east coast of North America
• Population reached 1.5 million people by 1763
- People had migrated to escape religious persecution or to gain a new start on life
• Radical political ideas about republicanism, universal suffrage, liberty and
equality remained in the colonies
• Frontier hardships and easy access to land blurred class division
• Colonist were used to governing themselves
- Each colony had its own representative assembly
The British Empire in America
• Government left the colonies alone except for regulating trade
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4. • Colonies main role was to produce goods mostly raw materials that could not be
produced in Great Britain and to markets for British manufactured goods
• Colonies economies thrived
- South – plantations grew tobacco, rice and indigo
- Middle – grew enough food to feed families and trade throughout the year
- New England – turned to the sea as a result of poor soil
• 1600’s – England passed Navigation Acts
- Colonies were required export certain products only to Great Britain
- All goods going to the colonies 1st
had to pass through Great Britain (duty had
to be paid)
- Weren’t completely enforced
Colonial Political Power
• Most of the colonies were managed by a governor appointed by the king
• Each colony also had an elected assembly
• Higher percentage of the population voted (land easer to acquire)
• Assemblies and governors fought for power
- Most arguments were over money
• Colonies held firm to their right to approve any new taxes requested by the
Crown
Tightening Colonial Controls
• French and Indian War caused the British Government to interfere more in
colony affairs
- Needed money to pay for the cost of the war
• 1763 - George Greenville appointed 1st
Lord of the Treasury
- Issued a proclamation of 1763 that said colonist couldn’t settle west of the
Appalachian Mtns. (wanted to avoid conflicts with Indians)
- Began enforcing Navigation Acts (tried smugglers in British military courts)
• Stamp Act – tax on all printed materials,
- Required that all printed materials newspapers, shipping documents, playing
cards bear a stamp to show that a tax had been paid to Great Britain
- Direct Tax – tax paid directly to the government rather than being included in
the price of goods
Colonial Protest
• Boycotted British Goods (Refused to buy)
• Attacked Stamp Agents
• Colonies said they could not be taxed since they had no representatives in
Parliament (No taxation without representation)
• Boston Massacre – five people in a mob killed by British soldiers
• England repealed most of the taxes but kept a tax on tea
• Boston Tea Party – colonist dumped British tea into Boston harbor
• Intolerable Acts – Closed Boston harbor until tea had been paid for and required
citizens to house and feed soldiers
First Continental Congress
• September 5, 1774 – 56 delegates met in Philadelphia
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5. • 1st
time colonies were united as a group
• Congress resolved that the colonies were entitled to a free and exclusive power of
legislation
- Only colonial legislatures had the right to make laws
• Agreed not import goods from Great Britain after December 1774
• Agreed not to export goods to Greta Britain after September 1775
• Volunteer armies were organized in every colony (minutemen)
A War for Independence
• April 19, 1775 – Massachusetts governor ordered General Thomas Gauge to
seize colonist military supplies at Concord
- Paul Revere and William Dawes warned the minutemen
- British met resistance as they marched to Concord and back to Boston
Moving Toward Separation
• May 1775 – Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia
• Organized an army
- Named George Washington military commander
• Tried one last time to arrange a peaceful compromise
- Sent Olive Branch Petition to King George III
- British government refused the petition
- Ended chances of peaceful settlement
• Thomas Paine – wrote Common Sense
- Called upon colonist to break away from Great Britain
• Thomas Jefferson – wrote
- Stated the colonist reasons for The Declaration of Independence separation
from Great Britain
- Jefferson influenced by John Locke’s concept of the “social contract”
- July 4 1776 – Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence
- Made reconciliation with Great Britain impossible
The War for Independence
• Revolution – the violent overthrow of a government
• Britain had a stronger army
• Had to fight a long distance war
- Had to conquer the whole country to win
• Battle of Saratoga - turning point of the war
- Colonies victory convinced France help
- Spain followed in 1779
- England became less interested in defeating the colonies
• Battle of Yorktown – last battle of the
- British surrender in October 1781
The United States Government
• United States was a confederation or loose union of independent states in the
beginning
• Articles of Confederation – 1st
government in U.S
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6. - Too weak to deal with national problems
• The Constitution – set up a federal government in which political power was
divided between the national and states governments
- Also provided for separation of powers
- U.S. was a republic in which the President was elected
The Republic’s Significance
• Proved the Enlightenment values could work in practice
• Has inspired peoples throughout the world seeking freedom from oppression
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7. - Too weak to deal with national problems
• The Constitution – set up a federal government in which political power was
divided between the national and states governments
- Also provided for separation of powers
- U.S. was a republic in which the President was elected
The Republic’s Significance
• Proved the Enlightenment values could work in practice
• Has inspired peoples throughout the world seeking freedom from oppression
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