Unit 5: The Enlightenment (1750 to 1900) 📚

Overview

• Time Period: 1750 to 1900
• Focus: Various revolutions and the ideological framework they sprang from—the Enlightenment.

What is the Enlightenment?

• Definition: An intellectual movement applying new ways of understanding based on rationalism and empiricism to both the natural world and human relationships.
• Key Components:
  • Rationalism: Reason is the most reliable source of knowledge, not emotion or external authority (use your thinky thinky parts).
  • Empiricism: Knowledge is gained through the senses, primarily via rigorous experimentation.
  • Historical Roots: Built on earlier developments from the Scientific Revolution (16th-17th century Europe).

Impact on Religion

• Shift of Authority: From external (God) to internal (individual).
• New Approaches to Religion:
  • Deism: God created the universe but no longer intervenes in it.
  • Atheism: Complete rejection of religious belief.

Key Enlightenment Ideas

1. Individualism
   • Society's most basic element is the individual, not groups.
   • Progress and expansion of the individual over society.
2. Natural Rights
   • Humans are born with rights that cannot be taken away (life, liberty, property).
   • John Locke: Rights endowed by God, unalienable by monarchs.
3. Social Contract
   • Governments are constructed to protect natural rights.
   • If governments become tyrannical, people have the right to overthrow them.

Effects of Enlightenment Ideas

1. Revolutions
   • Ideological context for American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions.
   • Led to the intensification of nationalism.
2. Expansion of Suffrage
   • Right to vote expanded: first to all white males, then to black males in the U.S.
   • Driven by Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality.
3. Abolition of Slavery
   • Criticized due to disregard for natural rights.
   • Britain abolished slavery in 1807, influenced by abolitionist movements and slave rebellions (e.g., the Great Jamaica Revolt, 1831).
4. End of Serfdom
   • Economic shifts and peasant revolts led to abolition in England, France, Russia.
5. Women’s Suffrage
   • Early feminist movements emerged; women demanded equal rights, including voting.
   • Notable Examples: Olympe de Gouges in France, Seneca Falls Convention (1848) in the U.S.

Study Tips

• AP World Heimler Review Guide: Helpful resource for acing exams; link provided in description.

Conclusion

• Enlightenment ideas laid the groundwork for significant political and social changes during 1750-1900.
• Keep reviewing to understand these changes in greater depth.

Next Steps: Continue reviewing Unit 5 and consider getting the AP World Heimler Review Guide for comprehensive study.

Stay enlightened! 🌟