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Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes believed that the government was sudpost to protect the people and that, "men are evil". He believed in social contract which is a theory that says that addresses the questions of the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. -
John Locke
Locke believed in man's "Natural Rights'. Natural Rights are the rights every man is born with, Life, Liberty, and Right to have Property. Locke believed in Social Contract like Thomas Hobbes. -
Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
Montesquieu believed in the separation of powers, checks and ballances, and 3 branches of government. He was said to have written and anonymously published "The Spirit of the Law." -
François-Marie Arouet. A.K.A. Voltaire
Voltaire Believed in the freedom of speech, religion, and a fair trial. These were put into the bill of rights less than 200 years later. -
Rousseau
Wrote a book called "Social Contract", his most notable work, and is remebered as a great thinker of the Age of Reason. His big contribution of the Enlightenment was that "Social Contract" inspired political reforms in Europe. -
George Washington
Washington is one of our Founding Fathers. He was a member of the First Continental Congress. He was the president of the Constitutional Convention and became the first president of the United States. -
John Adams
Adams is another founding father of the United States. He was a part of the First and Second Continental Congressess. He signed the Declaration of Independence and helped negotiate the Tready of Paris that ended the American Revolution. He then became the first vice president and second president of the United States -
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was the third founding father of the United States. He was a delegate at the Second Continental Congress and he signed the Declaration of Independence. He was sent to France as a diplomat after the Revolution then came back and became the second vice president and the third president of the United States. -
The American Revolution
The American Revolution, a.k.a. the Revolutionany War, took place between the years 1765 and 1783. It was a war between us and England for our independence from England. This relates to The Enlightenment because we are saying that we are breaking away form England and delcaring Independence!! -
The grievamces of British subjects in the American colonies.
The Stamp Act was when the Government started taxing citizens for stamps. This connects back to the Enlightenment by not respecting the natural rights of men. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the document that made us free from England. It was signed on July 4th, 1776. It was written between June 11 and June 28 1776. It relates back to the Enlightenment by saying that we are equal. -
Articles of Confederation and the Problems
The Articles of Confederation were a good start but had many things wrong with them. First off, they only awarded one vote to each state regardless of size or population. The goverment also had no way to make money because they had no power to tax. No executive branch to enforce the law. No court system. Needed unanimous vote to pass any amendments to the constitution. -
Federalist and Anti-Federalist authors and arguments
There was a long standing debate, between the people that support more national rights, Federalists, and the people that believed in more state rights, the Anti-Federalists. This links back to the Enlightenment because of philosophs saying that every man had natural rights and could support what they wanted to. -
The Constitution
The Constitution was a great improvement from the Articles of Confederation. It gave congress the power to tax and it gave the US a court system. It regulated inerstate trade as well as a set currency of all US states. The US was also given the power to assemble an army for all the states. The connections back to the enlightenment is that we have they right to select out leader, checks and balences, direct democracy, religous freedom, and no torture are all used in the constitution. -
Northwest Ordinance
It was an Ordinance that was passed in 1787 that added the NW territory to the USA. It added states like OH, and bodies of water like the MI River to the USA. -
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the US constitution to protect americans rights. It goes back to the enlightenment because of human rights and equality.
