The Enlightenment Flashcards
What was the Enlightenment?
@ An intectual and cultural movement between the mid 17 and 18 centuries
@ Regarded as a milestone in political progress of modern Europe
@ Beliefs that people enjoyed ‘ Natural Rights ‘ such as equality and liberty. They opposed political and social inequalities.
What were the causes of The Enlightenment?
@ Change of Europeans’ values
@Europeans’ discontent with absolutism
- Absolute rulers maintain their rule by force. They promoted the theory of ‘divine right of kings’
What were the major ideas of The Enlightenment?
@ Laws of Nature
- The human society was also controlled by the laws of nature
* Natural rights
- Man enjoyed inborn human rights of equality and liberty, and thus no one could deprive them these rights.
@ Social contract
- People and government are two parties involed in the ‘social contract’, which specifies their mutual rights and duties
- When a government ‘breaks the contract’ and cannot protect people’s natural rights, people have the right to overthrow it
@ Seperation of powers
- Dividing powers among the three branches of government, namely the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. This could prevent abosolute rule.
* Legal protection
- There should be a constitution to limit the power of the ruler and to protect people’s rights
How did the Enlightenment ideas spread?
@ Academic journals were an important means for Europeans to absorb Enlightenment ideas
@ Publishers were eager to translate and print the works of Enlightenment thinkers and their ideas were widely spread in Europe and other continents
What were the impacts of the Enlightenment?
@ Futher liberating the minds of Europeans
- Enlightenment thinks critizied the ‘divine right of kings’ and promoted the ideas of natural rights
- This awakened Europeans to their political systems and pursuit of liberty
@ Fostering political reforms in the West
- Some ‘enlighten despots’ carried out reforms to grant more rights to its people
- Enlighten ideas directly contributed to the outbreak of the famous American Revolution and the French Revolution
