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.

The core ideas of the Enlightenment were liberty, equality, and justice.

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

wanted.
A third philosopher, Rousseau believed in the equal distribution of property. The British government owned everything. The colonist started the revolution so that they could have what they had earned and built with their own 2 hands. Rousseau felt that the government should have some control, and be freely elected by the people the would govern. He also felt the welfare of the community should come before the welfare of the individual. That seems to be a concept we continue on with today, otherwise we would have a lawless society. The government sets the rules that we must live by, and we elect those officials.
When the Enlightenment came to the colonies, it was only a matter of time until the colonists took up arms and the American Revolution began. The ideas that the European philosophers brought forth seemed like the answers to all the problems that the colonists felt they had. They wanted those freedoms, they wanted what they believed was theirs, and they weren’t afraid to fight to get them. The British government never stood a chance when the Enlightenment came to the colonies, because it brought the American Revolution with it.