The enlightenment principles influenced the American revolution by incerige the people to protest and not pay taxes, fight for representation, and create a more balanced government resulting in colonies gaining independence...
By Nolan1066
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John Lock
“His political theory of government by the consent of the governed as a means to protect the three natural rights of ‘life, liberty and estate’ deeply influenced the United States’ founding documents.”
John Locke's three natural rights were established to protect the colonists and to influence the United states founding documents, by creating an example of democracy and rights for citizens. -
Thesis Continued
and creating a democracy in America. -
Montesquieu
Separation of Powers “... a system in which different bodies exercised legislative, executive, and judicial power, and in which all those bodies were bound by the rule of law. This theory of the separation of powers had an enormous impact on liberal political theory, and on the framers of the constitution of the United States of America.” -
Montesquieu 2
There should be equal power among everyone and they should have no differences between the branches of government. In other words, no one person of the government should be more powerful than another. -
Voltaire
Separation between church and state
“he acknowledged that politics strongly favored prejudice rather than tolerance…”
He wants the politicians to acknowledge tolerance more than prejudice. In other words, the government should not force the people to practice only their religion but be free to practice any religion. -
Rousseau
social contract theory between government and the people “constructing political institutions that allow for the co-existence of free and equal citizens in a community where they themselves are sovereign…”
There should be equal citizens in a community and in the government, ensuring that the people are able to change the government if they feel it is not protecting them like it should. -
Quartering Act
“perhaps the most provocative provision was the Quartering Act, which allowed British military officials to demand accommodations for their troops in unoccupied houses and buildings in towns, rather than having to stay out in the countryside.”
The British military can come into your house and they can do anything but not in the countryside. This will cause the colonists to get up and decide they should have better rights, as suggested by John Locke. -
Stamp act
“To recoup some of the massive debt left over from the war with France, Parliament passed laws such as the Stamp Act…” The British enacted this act making it so that they can tax anyone and any amount of money. This is going to cause the colonists to get angry and use the ideas from many Enlightenment philosophers to revolt against the crown. -
Son of Liberty
A group called the Sons of Liberty formed in 1765 in Boston and soon spread throughout the colonies.”
The Sons of Liberty was a group of people that left their homes because of high taxes and the power the English crown had against them. They no longer wanted to deal with the high taxes and wanted to fight against the king of England. -
Boston Protest
“Several patriots in Boston protested this act by boarding ships in Boston harbor and dumping their tea into the water."
They dumped tea in the water because they did not want to pay taxes. The colonists of England had finally had enough of the import taxes and wanted the British to feel the pain they were feeling by dumping their precious tea into the water. This showed how the colonists were revolting against the crown like Rousseau suggested.