Similarities Between The Enlightenment And The American Revolution

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The Enlightenment period was crucial for both French and the American nations, as it helped to contour their futures. Spanning the 17th and 18th centuries,the Enlightenment introduced a new wave of ideas and intellectual movements. As Rosenblatt describes, the Enlightenment aimed to “put Christianity on trial” and even to annihilate the religious interpretation of life” (Rosenblatt, Helena 2006, Chapter 15). This era emphasised scientific knowledge and empirical evidence over the traditional religious beliefs. During each nation's respective revolutionary periods, both countries grappled with issues related to social order and governance, unfair taxation, and the active pursuit of freedom as liberty as central Enlightenment ideals. Both revolutions marked a time of …show more content…

Both nations were facing several issues relating to their governance and social order. In America, they aimed to create a government that was run with a system of checks and balances and a clear separation of powers to prevent one branch from becoming too powerful, as well as this they created a social order, where the everyday man could have somewhat of a say in what happened in his country. John Locke was a fundamental philosopher during the American Revolution, because his ideas were, for the most part, agreed upon by the population. Locke used his theory of natural rights to argue that governments have an obligation to their citizens, should have only limited powers over their citizens, and can ultimately be overthrown by those citizens in dire circumstances, (Locke 1988, #105-106). Whereas the French, at the time were dealing with King Louis XVI, who was actively being persecuted by the Third Estate for the lack of say they got in any government hearing, to counteract this, the population fought to abolish the monarchy and the feudal privileges, by shifting to a more radical republican movement, where the rights of the man were

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