The Enlightenment and the Formation of the U.S.

Thomas Hobbes

Apr 5, 1588

immportant ideas for the Enlightnement
-Social Contract
-Agreement between people and government
-Believes people are inherently evil

John Locke

Aug 29, 1652

-Natural Rights of Life, Liberty, and Property

Baron de Montesquieu

Jan 18, 1689

-Spirit of Laws
-3 branches of government
legislative, executive, judicial
-separartion of powers

François-Marie Arouet Voltaire

Nov 21, 1694

imortant ideas for the Enlightenment:
-Freedom of Speech
-Freedom of Religion
-Fair Trial

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jun 28, 1712

important ideas for the Enlightenment:
-Social Contract
-Common Good
-"Man is Born Free"
-Natural Rights

George Washington

Feb 22, 1732

-Memeber of First Continental Congress
-Chosen to lead Continental army
-President of the Constitutional Convention and became president of the U.S.

John Adams

Oct 30, 1735

-important figure in First and Second Continental Congress
-central to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence
-helped negociate the Treaty of Paris that ended the Americn Revolution
-1st vice president and 2nd president

Thomas Jefferson

Apr 13, 1743

-delagate to second continental congress
-part of commitee chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence
-picked to write the Declaration
-was sent to France as a diploment after the Revolution
-first vice president under John Adams and third president

Revolution

Oct 6, 1765

• came about after a series of unfair taxes upon the colonists by the British government
• the colonists declared these taxes unfair and stood up against oppression

Grievances of British Subjects

Oct 10, 1765

-Stamp Act
-no taxation without representation

Declaration of Independence

Jul 4, 1776

-written to announce and explain the United States' separation from Great Britain
-signed by the founding fathers
based off of Locke's idea of :life, liberty, and property"

Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

Oct 6, 1780

Anti-Federalists
-Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee
-opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government
Federalists
-against the constitution
-Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
-supports the Constitution

Articles of Confederation

Mar 1, 1781

-the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain
-established a weak central government
-no power of national taxation, no power to control trade
-no direct origin in the people themselves

Northwest Ordinance

Jul 13, 1787

-created the Northwest Territory
-first organized territory of the United States
- established the precedent by which the Federal government would expand westward across North America with the admission of new states

Constitution

Jun 21, 1788

-supreme law of the United States of America
-describes the national frame of government

Bill of Rights

Dec 15, 1791

-collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution
-influenced by the Enlightenment with its emphasis on natural rights