The Enlightenment Ideas Of The American Revolution

The Enlightenment was an 18th century philosophical movement that stressed the importance of reason in analyzing and investigating. It helped develop new ideas about government and basic human rights. The American Revolution was the political upheaval that occurred when the 13 original American colonies decided they no longer wished to be ruled by the British government. When the ideas of the Enlightenment reached the Colonies; those in places of importance starting spreading the ideas of John Locke, the ideas of natural rights: life, liberty, and property. The colonists started to realize that there was more than the ways of the British government, and they wanted these rights and were willing to fight to obtain them. When the Enlightenment spread to the colonies, the colonists took up arms and began the American Revolution to gain their freedom.

These ideals led to the conditions that helped to create the Constitution and other founding documents. These ideas influenced men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. They took the core concepts and built on them to lay down what would become the principles that we now live by over 200 years later. The words life and liberty even appear in the Declaration Of Independance. That is proof that Thomas Jefferson was profoundly affected by the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Another philosopher of the Enlightenment, Montesquieu, called for the separation of the church and state. Our founding fathers thought that this was a great idea, The colonies had lived under the rule of the British government for too long, and the monarchy lived by the rules of the church. That was not the direction the colonies wanted to go in. Those that came to America came to escape religious persecution. They came looking for freedom in all areas, and the ability to live their lives the way they