1. Enlightenment and Age of Revolutions
Unit 6
Enlightenment and Age of Revolutions

2. Admit Slip
If you remember back from our study of the Renaissance, what institution is losing power?
What is this telling you about how people are beginning to think about the world around them differently?
When you hear the word “Science”, what do you think of? Hint: what do you do in science class?

3. Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution grew out of the Renaissance time period.
This time period saw a shift where individuals will begin to reject traditional ideas told to them by the Church and now focus on human reason and scientific experimentation to explain uncertainties in the world around them.
Again, during both the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, the church is losing power, and people are beginning to use observation and experimentation to explain ideas they are unsure of.

7. Admit Slip In your opinion, what is the role of government?
What should the government do for its people?
Based on your answer to the previous question, do you believe the government does what it is supposed to do?
What do you think the word enlighten means?

8. Enlightenment
The scientific revolution brought about a new way of thinking to describe why things happened in the universe
Scientists used reason, which was later used to discover natural laws, or laws that govern human behavior
This use of reason to solve problems in society brought about the period known as the Enlightenment

9. Enlightenment cont’d
During the Enlightenment period individuals began to:
Reject traditional ideas
Support human reason
View authority, power, government, and law in a new way
What type of government did many of the societies that you learned about last year in Global I have?
If you lived during this time, would you want to live under this government? Why?

10. Enlightenment thinkers
John Locke
All people have natural rights, or inalienable rights like life, liberty, and property
Government must protect these natural rights
If government fails to protect these natural rights, the people have the right to overthrow the government
Many of Locke’s ideas about natural rights and the role of government influenced Thomas Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of Independence and French Revolution!

11. Enlightenment Thinkers
Baron de Montesquieu
The powers of government need to be separated into three branches
Each branch will prevent the other branches from becoming too powerful
Does this sound familiar?.... What government today uses three branches?

12. Enlightenment thinkers
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Wrote a book entitled The Social Contract
Believed people were naturally good, but are corrupted by evils in society
What is good for everyone is more important than what is good for one person
Majority should always work for the common good

14. Admit Slip/Exit Slip
Name one Enlightenment Thinker and major belief related to government.
What specific reforms (changes) did the Enlightenment Thinkers want to bring to government?

15. Regents Practice:
1.) We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The ideas expressed in the quotation are based primarily on the writings of:
A.) Niccolo Machiavelli
B.) Charles Darwin
C.) Charlemagne
D.)John Locke
2.) Writers of the Enlightenment were primarily interested in
A.)changing the relationship between people and their government
B.) supporting the divine right theory
C.) debating the role of the church in society
D.) promoting increased power for European monarchs

16. 3.) John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau would be most likely to support
A.) a return to feudalism in Europe
B.) a government ruled by a divine right monarchy
C.)a society ruled by the Catholic Church
D.) a society in which the people chose the ruler

17. Admit Slip 9/10 What does the word revolution mean to you?
What do you think is happening in the portrait below?

18. Political Revolutions
American Revolution
The theories of Enlightenment thinkers helped inspire American Colonists to rebel against British rule.
Colonists believed that the King of England could not raise taxes without consulting those who were in charge of making the laws.
The colonists felt that they were being taken advantage of because they had no voice in the government.
They used the slogan “No taxation without representation”.

19. Influence of the Enlightenment
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
Pamphlet that help undecided American colonists to join the fight for independence.
Promoted a representative form of government
Stated that the colonists should not be ruled by a distant king
Used reason and natural law in his argument in breaking away from Great Britain.

20. Influence of the Enlightenment
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson was heavily influenced by both Locke and Rousseau when writing the Declaration of Independence.
Major Ideas:
- Governments should rule only with the consent of the
governed.
- Government needs to protect inalienable rights of
citizens
- If Government fails to protect these rights, the people
have the right to rebel.