Enlightenment Dbq

During the 18th century, a movement called the Enlightenment changed political, social, and economic theories. This movement was important because people began to question human life and move away from medieval thinking and turn to more modern thoughts. These new, modernized thoughts were important because many philosophes challenged old ideas. The movement was even called “the age of reason”. During the enlightenment, political, social, and economic theories change as philosophes challenged absolutism, religion lost prestige, women and the middle class gained social equality, and as capitalism replaced mercantilism.
During the enlightenment, people began to think politically instead of putting focus on religion and religious leaders. Because

of this, religion began to decline, and religious tolerance was executed. The philosophes, Voltaire focused on religious tolerance. “I say that we should regard all men as our brothers.” (Document 7, Voltaire) By this, Voltaire is saying that we should treat everyone equally, regardless of their religion. Because of the decline in the significance of one's religion, people began to stray from tradition and divine command. Philosophers began to use the natural law, which uses reason instead of faith.
Women also played a major role in the enlightenment. Women spread ideas through salons, which were places that men and women philosophes could go to share intellectual ideas. Because of these salons, new ideas during the enlightenment were shared. This broke tradition because women weren’t always allowed to speak about such intelligent matters. The Memoir of Baron de Grimm said, “Politics, religion, philosophy, anecdotes, news, nothing was excluded from the conversation, and, thanks to her care, the most trivial narrative gained, as naturally as possible, the place and notice it deserved.” (document two, Memoir of Baron de Grimm)” This statement is saying that through these salons, many important ideas were spread and all political topics were discussed. Although women were becoming more politically involved through their salons, women and men were still unequal. Women couldn’t go out in public and they had to stay at home. However, this motivated women to speak out and encourage education equality for men and women.
During the Enlightenment, there were many political changes as well. The idea of three branches of government came from the philosophe Montesquieu. He thought that there should be a judicial branch, an executive branch, and a legislative branch. These branches were for making laws, approving laws, and carrying the laws out. Montesquieu said, “Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers.” (Document 3, Montesquieu) Montesquieu is saying that if one branch held all of the power, it would not be fair, however if the power was separated, then there would be liberty. From this idea came the idea of checks and balances in which the separate government branches check each other in order to prevent one branch from gaining too much power.
Locke was another philosophe who thought that people in their natural state were good.

He believed that the best type of government would be a government by the people, or a republic. This means that the citizens would elect representatives to make decisions for them. He believed that the government should not hold complete power. He says that the purpose of government is to “preserve the member of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes…(John Locke, Document 1)” In this statement, Locke is saying that everyone has natural rights, or the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The philosphe Rousseau partly had the same views. He believed that people in the state of nature were good, but as society became more civilized, people began to have an unhealthy amount of self love. He believed that people began to revolve around pride and vanity and that this led people to become less like their natural, moral selves. Rousseau invented the social contract which provided the framework for the way the government and society interacts. The philosophe Hobbes, however had a different outlook on humanity than Locke and Rousseau. Hobbes believed that humans in their natural state are evil. He believed that absolutism, or total control was the right way to control the citizens. Hobbes support of absolutism was becoming rare and unpopular. Hobbes published his political theories in the

mid 16th centuries while Montesquieu’s and Locke’s ideas were published later. This indicates that absolutism was coming to an end.
During the Enlightenment, not only did political theories change, but the economy did also.

During this movement, capitalism emerged and began to replace mercantilism and feudalism. Adam Smith was a capitalist during this time who influenced the movement towards capitalism greatly. He proposed that a nation's wealth is determined by its commerce and productivity instead of land. This was a major change from the past because the wealth of someone used to be determined by the amount of land a person had and who the person was related

to.
The Enlightenment was a significant movement that brought many improvements and changes to society. Religious toleration became accepted which made society less religious. Women also were more respected with their work in spreading the ideas of different philosophes through salons. The enlightenment was also a time for improvements of the middle class. Meanwhile, new political theories were being published which led to the end of absolutism and the beginning of a government by the people. The economy also improved by the decline of mercantilism and feudalism and the start of capitalism which led to new opportunities for society.