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The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening

Their Role in the Development of the Atlantic World

Primarily in England and France; kicked off by John Locke and Isaac Newton but also Germany, Scotland, America, Switzerland, Russia, and more No unified set of ideas or larger image,

these thinkers often disagreed with one another

Philosophy and Political thought: John Locke, Voltaire

Scientific discovery: Isaac Newton, others gather and create the first Encyclopedia

German Immanuel Kant, “Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason.”

Main idea: rationalism and rational thought were the key to understanding the worldThe Enlightenment

Jean Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract

Legitimacy for political order comes from the will of the people.

"Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they.”

The sovereign is not the government but the law. Sovereignty is in the hands of the people. People

are the true law makers. Ideally governments operate as direct

democracies.

Two Treatises of Civil Government (1688) – distinguishes between ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ civil governments and he argues to revolt against tyrannical governments

Also discusses his natural rights theory (life, liberty, and property)

Letter Concerning Toleration – argues for a separation of church and state

John Locke - Enlightenment

John LockeState of Nature People are born free, equal, and

independent “Natural Law” provided the right to life,

liberty, and propertySocial Contract If a government was in place and didn’t

protect these rights it was the people that could change the government.

Thomas HobbesState of Nature “during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man"

Everyone has a right to everything!Social Contract Individuals must sacrifice their liberties to an absolute sovereignty.

In The Spirit of the Laws (1748) describes separating political powers among a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary

Intended to present a form of government that wasn’t centralized in a single ruler

Based on Roman Republic and the British constitutional system (monarch, Parliament, and courts)Baron de Montesquieu

(French)

Etienne De La Boetie

“If a tyrant is one man and his subjects are many, why

do they consent to their own enslavement?”

The Politics of Obedience “Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not

ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.” 

Scottish economist An Inquiry into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) – criticizes mercantile system and discusses economics as based on human nature and social dynamics. “the butcher, the baker, the brewer” concept.

Adam Smith

As a response to the growing rationalism taking place in Europe and seeping into the British colonies (the colonists paid particular attention to thoughts emerging in Britain, Scotland, and France) many ministers grew concerned that the Enlightenment was undermining religious devotion.

Revivals of ‘evangelical religious fervor’ race throughout the British colonies.

The Great Awakening

Imagery Used Religious Belief

As you read…Jonathan Edwards

How does Edwards use the Enlightenment to his advantage in this sermon?

Really think, don’t take the easy way out!

What does this reading teach you about Franklin, Whitefield, and the Great Awakening?

English Revivalist George Whitefield – Benjamin Franklin

The Great Awakening reaches hysteria in its climax. Evidence: James Davenport removes his pants and

throws them into a fire to try to convey to his listeners that fine clothes have become barriers to their full commitment to God. His followers don’t join in the clothes burning…perhaps some revivalists are going to far.

The revivals continue right up to the Battles of Lexington and Concord kicking off the Revolutionary War to which people are forced to shift focus.

What impact may the Great Awakening have on Revolutionary soldiers and/or families and the ideas that spark the Revolution??What Ends the Great

Awakening??

• What effects might each of these movements have on the development of an American identity? Where can you see legacies of each movement in America today?

Enlightenment Great Awakening

Impact on American Identity

Were the Enlightenment and Great Awakening of equal importance in establishing American identity?