1. World History Chapter 22 Notes
Enlightenment & Revolution
Section 1
The Scientific Revolution
Scientific Revolution
• Middle Age scholars based their ideas on the works of ancient Greek thinkers
such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen
- Believed earth was flat and that it was the center of the universe
• 1600’s – Scientific Revolution began
Nicolaus Copernicus
• Proved that the earth was round and that it rotated on its axis as it revolved
around the sun
• Sun was at the center of the universe
• He was afraid to publish his ideas
Johannes Kepler
• Used mathematical formulas to show that the planets revolve around the sun
• Proved planets move in oval paths called ellipses
• Kepler challenged the teachings of academic and religious leaders (Protestant)
Galileo
• 1609 – built telescope and observed night skies
• became convinced that Copernicus’s theory was correct
• Catholic Church forced him to recant his work
- Continued to work in secret
• Helped to establish the universal laws of physics
Francis Bacon
• English philosopher who claimed that ideas based solely on tradition or unproven
facts should be completely discarded
• Helped develop the scientific method
Isaac Newton
• Developed theory of universal gravitation
• Developed calculus to prove his theory
William Harvey
• English physician who made advances understanding human anatomy
- Discovered that blood circulates through the body pumped by the heart
• Disproved many of Galen’s hypothesis
- Liver digested food and processed it into blood
Robert Hooke
• Used newly invented microscope to discover the cell
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2. Section 2
The Enlightenment in Europe
Political Ideas
• Philosophers began believing that political, economic and social relationships
could also be understood through reasoned analyses
• Political philosophers believed in the idea of natural law or universal moral law
that , like physical laws, could be understood by applying reason
• 1600’s – England struggled with political tensions of a Civil War
- Country was divided between people who wanted the king to have absolute
power and those who though the people should have the right to govern
themselves
• Thomas Hobbes – used natural law to argue that an absolute monarchy was the
best form of government
- Believed that violence and disorder came naturally to human beings and chaos
would occur with an absolute monarch
• John Locke – believed that government was base on a social contract and that it
was necessary to establish order
- Believed that people in a state of nature are reasonable and moral
- Natural rights – rights belonging to all humans from birth (Life, Liberty, and
Property)
- Thomas Jefferson based much of the Declaration of Independence on
Locke’s ideas
Reason Influenced Law and Religion
• Began incorporating scientific or reasoned thoughts in applying the law
- Placed less emphasize on heresy and confessions made under torture
- Helped to end unjust trials
• 1600’s – Several people made the 1st
attempts to create a body of international law
- William Penn – Founder of the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania
- Believed in pacifism (opposition to war and violence)
- Advocated an assembly of nations committed to world peace
• 1700’s – New religious philosophy called deism
- Believed in one God
- Denounced organized religion declaring that it exploited people’s ignorance and
superstitions
- Intended to construct a simpler and more natural religion based on reason and
natural law
Section 3
The Enlightenment Spreads
Age of Enlightenment
• Late 1600’s through the 1700’s
• People studied the world as though they were looking at it for the 1st
time
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3. - No longer held back by tradition
• Enlightened thinkers perceived the universe as a machine governed by fixed laws
- Saw God as the master mechanic of the universe (the builder of a machine who
provided laws and then allowed it to run on its own
- Believed in progress or the idea that the world and its people could be improved
• Started a philosophical revolution
Spreading Ideas
• Philosophes – Thinkers of the Enlightenment who spread new and exciting ideas
• 1751 – Encyclopedia 1st
published
- 28 volumes covered everything then known about the sciences technology and
history
- It criticized the church and government and praised religious tolerance
- Denis Diderot – sent to prison for it publication
• Baron de Montesquieu – Believed that government should be divided equally
among 3 branches of government
- Legislative, Executive, and Judicial
• Voltaire – writer who wrote plays, essays, and books that were often satirical
- believed in free speech “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it”
Enlightenment Opponents
• Some people saw the structure and ordered view of the universe as overly
rational and devoid of emotion and feeling
• Jean- Jacques Rousseau – criticized the era’s reliance on reason
- Believed that people should rely more on instinct and emotion
• Immanuel Kant – Believed that reason could not answer the problems of
metaphysics (Branch of philosophy that deals with spiritual issues such as the
existence of God)
• John Wesley – Led a movement called Methodism
- Stressed the value of personal religious experience
- Wanted more feeling in religion
Section 4
The American Revolution
Road to Revolt
• Mid 1700’s – 13 colonies thrived on the east coast of North America
• Population reached 1.5 million people by 1763
- People had migrated to escape religious persecution or to gain a new start on life
• Radical political ideas about republicanism, universal suffrage, liberty and
equality remained in the colonies
• Frontier hardships and easy access to land blurred class division
• Colonist were used to governing themselves
- Each colony had its own representative assembly
The British Empire in America
• Government left the colonies alone except for regulating trade
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4. • Colonies main role was to produce goods mostly raw materials that could not be
produced in Great Britain and to markets for British manufactured goods
• Colonies economies thrived
- South – plantations grew tobacco, rice and indigo
- Middle – grew enough food to feed families and trade throughout the year
- New England – turned to the sea as a result of poor soil
• 1600’s – England passed Navigation Acts
- Colonies were required export certain products only to Great Britain
- All goods going to the colonies 1st
had to pass through Great Britain (duty had
to be paid)
- Weren’t completely enforced
Colonial Political Power
• Most of the colonies were managed by a governor appointed by the king
• Each colony also had an elected assembly
• Higher percentage of the population voted (land easer to acquire)
• Assemblies and governors fought for power
- Most arguments were over money
• Colonies held firm to their right to approve any new taxes requested by the
Crown
Tightening Colonial Controls
• French and Indian War caused the British Government to interfere more in
colony affairs
- Needed money to pay for the cost of the war
• 1763 - George Greenville appointed 1st
Lord of the Treasury
- Issued a proclamation of 1763 that said colonist couldn’t settle west of the
Appalachian Mtns. (wanted to avoid conflicts with Indians)
- Began enforcing Navigation Acts (tried smugglers in British military courts)
• Stamp Act – tax on all printed materials,
- Required that all printed materials newspapers, shipping documents, playing
cards bear a stamp to show that a tax had been paid to Great Britain
- Direct Tax – tax paid directly to the government rather than being included in
the price of goods
Colonial Protest
• Boycotted British Goods (Refused to buy)
• Attacked Stamp Agents
• Colonies said they could not be taxed since they had no representatives in
Parliament (No taxation without representation)
• Boston Massacre – five people in a mob killed by British soldiers
• England repealed most of the taxes but kept a tax on tea
• Boston Tea Party – colonist dumped British tea into Boston harbor
• Intolerable Acts – Closed Boston harbor until tea had been paid for and required
citizens to house and feed soldiers
First Continental Congress
• September 5, 1774 – 56 delegates met in Philadelphia
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5. • 1st
time colonies were united as a group
• Congress resolved that the colonies were entitled to a free and exclusive power of
legislation
- Only colonial legislatures had the right to make laws
• Agreed not import goods from Great Britain after December 1774
• Agreed not to export goods to Greta Britain after September 1775
• Volunteer armies were organized in every colony (minutemen)
A War for Independence
• April 19, 1775 – Massachusetts governor ordered General Thomas Gauge to
seize colonist military supplies at Concord
- Paul Revere and William Dawes warned the minutemen
- British met resistance as they marched to Concord and back to Boston
Moving Toward Separation
• May 1775 – Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia
• Organized an army
- Named George Washington military commander
• Tried one last time to arrange a peaceful compromise
- Sent Olive Branch Petition to King George III
- British government refused the petition
- Ended chances of peaceful settlement
• Thomas Paine – wrote Common Sense
- Called upon colonist to break away from Great Britain
• Thomas Jefferson – wrote
- Stated the colonist reasons for The Declaration of Independence separation
from Great Britain
- Jefferson influenced by John Locke’s concept of the “social contract”
- July 4 1776 – Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence
- Made reconciliation with Great Britain impossible
The War for Independence
• Revolution – the violent overthrow of a government
• Britain had a stronger army
• Had to fight a long distance war
- Had to conquer the whole country to win
• Battle of Saratoga - turning point of the war
- Colonies victory convinced France help
- Spain followed in 1779
- England became less interested in defeating the colonies
• Battle of Yorktown – last battle of the
- British surrender in October 1781
The United States Government
• United States was a confederation or loose union of independent states in the
beginning
• Articles of Confederation – 1st
government in U.S
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6. - Too weak to deal with national problems
• The Constitution – set up a federal government in which political power was
divided between the national and states governments
- Also provided for separation of powers
- U.S. was a republic in which the President was elected
The Republic’s Significance
• Proved the Enlightenment values could work in practice
• Has inspired peoples throughout the world seeking freedom from oppression
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7. - Too weak to deal with national problems
• The Constitution – set up a federal government in which political power was
divided between the national and states governments
- Also provided for separation of powers
- U.S. was a republic in which the President was elected
The Republic’s Significance
• Proved the Enlightenment values could work in practice
• Has inspired peoples throughout the world seeking freedom from oppression
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