5.1: The Enlightenment

• The Enlightenment refers to the rising shift in reason over tradition and individualism over community values
• The truth comes from the human mind, not by revelations by God

• Championed ideals like individualism, freedom, and self-determination
• These values challenged the roles of monarchs and church leaders

• These ideals also led to inspiration for revolutions in the US, France, etc

• The social and political changes that occurred during the Enlightenment paved the way for the Industrial Revolution

An Age of New Ideas

• Enlightenment grew from the Scientific Revolution and the humanism of the Renaissance

• Rise of new schools of thought (lots of them end with -ism)
• Ex: socialism and liberalism, conservatism, nationalism

• Clash between new values from the Enlightenment and old political structures led to revolutions
• These revolutions had two aims: independence from imperial powers and constitutional representation

New Ideas and Their Roots

Empiricism

• Belief that knowledge comes from our direct experiences and observations of the world around us
• Old way of knowing truth was from revelation, and in Europe this is the Bible

John Locke and the Social Contract

• Lived from 1632-1704

• In his book “Two Treatises of Government,” Locke said that the idea of the divine right of kings was a flawed idea

• Instead, humans have natural rights like “life, liberty, and property”
• natural rights = rights granted just by being a human being, not from a king or any other person

• As such, ordinary humans should be the one with power

• Argued humans and government were in a social contract with together
• The people willingly give up some of their power to a government willing to protect their natural rights
• If government is bad, people have the right to overthrow it

Nationalism

• Nationalism = feeling of intense loyalty to others who share one’s language and culture

• Many places during the Enlightenment increase growing nationalist sentiments

• Before, people usually were loyal to a ruler or city, but now people are loyal to a nation
• This led to rise in movements to create independent nation-states

Adam Smith and Capitalism

• In 1776, he publishes a very important book called “The Wealth of Nations”

• During his time period, mercantilist policies dominated Europe, in which the government played a big role in the economy

• Adam Smith instead advocates for laissez-faire economics (meaning “leave alone”)

• Government should not play role in economics and let businesses and consumers make their own choices

• These ideas gave rise to capitalism = economic system in which the means of production, such as factories and natural resources, are privately owned and are operated for profit

Principles of Laissez-faire Capitalism

• No limit on wealth

• People should be left alone to make decisions based on supply and demand
• government shouldn’t interfere

Deism

• Rise of deism during the Enlightenment

• Deism = idea that there is a higher power who created the universe but doesn't get involved in its day-to-day operations

• Significant as it shows how religion changed during this time period

Voltaire

• Campaigned for religious liberty and judicial reform in France

• Criticized Christianity (especially Roman Catholic Church) and disliked the persecution of religious minorities

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Expanded on the idea of the social contract between a government and its people

• Argued that in an ideal society, the general people would directly participate in the formation of policy and law

• Argued for equality of all individuals, regardless of class, before the law

The Age of New Ideas Continues

Classical Liberalism & Conservatism

• Classical liberals advocated for natural rights, constitutional government, laissez-faire economics, and reduced spending on armies and established churches

• Classical conservatives resisted many Enlightenment ideals, instead emphasizing tradition, social order, and gradual change

Feminism

• Women’s rights movements rose based on ideas of Enlightenment

• Mary Wollstonecraft argued that women should receive the same education as men

• Despite these feminist movements, many Enlightenment thinkers of this time didn’t think their principles applied to women
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau thought that women were best suited for domestic roles like being wives and mothers

Abolitionism

• Because of Enlightenment ideals like all human beings are created with certain unalienable rights, movements to end slavery and serfdom rose during this time

• Countries that banned the slave trade:
• Denmark in 1803, Britain in 1807, US in 1808
• Brazil, the last country in Americas to abolish slavery, abolished it in 1888

The End of Serfdom

• Serfdom also declined during this period in Europe
• Britain abolished serfdom in 1574
• French abolished feudalism in 1789
• Russia abolished it in 1861

Zionism

• Zionism also rose during this time period, specifically in late 1800s

• Zionism = movement to establish an independent homeland in the “promised land”

• Due to centuries of battling anti-Semitism and violent attacks, many European Jews concluded that they simply couldn’t live in Europe anymore