Lesson 7 Enlightenment Ideas / Lesson 8 Founding Documents Views of Government Main Topic Topic 1 Enlightenment Movement Topic 2 Thomas Hobbes (1588 1679) Topic 3 John Locke (1632 1704) Topic 4 Charles Montesquieu (1689 1755) Bullet Points European movement of thought that was governed by reason and logic, instead of tradition and superstition Started in the 1600s The Enlightenment movement was a time for questioning why, in every area of study, including politics Enlightenment thinkers discussed who should govern and why, they also thought about what are basic rights every human should have A civil war broke out in England in 1649, they were arguing over who should rule England, parliament or the King Charles, the war ended with the beheading of the king After that, Thomas Hobbes wrote a book he called the Leviathan, which he compared to government, which he said should be a powerful state to impose order Hobbes argued that kings should have absolute power He believed that in the state of nature, all individuals had to fend for themselves and lived in continued fear and danger of violent death; and their life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. He believed the only way to build a better life was to give absolute power to a sovereign, or ruler, such as a king He came up with the idea of social contract, where he said people had to agree amongst themselves to give up their natural rights in order to let a king rule them He said the social contract should be only amongst the people, and not between people and their king, he believed that once people surrendered their natural rights, they had to obey the king or die Wrote the Two Treatises of Government in 1690 He favored a representative type of government, rather than a monarchy Agreed with Hobbes that the state of nature is brutal, but he disagreed that a king should have absolute power He said the social contract should not be just amongst the people, but between people and their government He thought people s natural rights are unalienable, or impossible to surrender Locke said that people s natural rights should limit the power of government As such, Locke believed that the governments purpose was only to protect people s natural rights, and if government stopped doing that, people should revolt and establish new government Less than 100 years later in 1776, Thomas Jefferson used his ideas in the Declaration of Independence: Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government. Meaning: Whenever the government stops protecting people s natural rights, they have the right to revolt. Wrote The Spirit of the Laws in 1748 He disagreed with Hobbes and Locke about the state of nature, he believed that in the state of nature humans are weak and timid and avoided violence
Topic 5 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 1778) Topic 6 Feudal System (Feudalism) He believed that as a result of need of food, humans would band together, once they were together in small tribes or nations, they became fearless, and this led to war between nations to compete for resources War between people and nations led to the need for laws and the organization of government However, he believed that government s purpose should only be maintain law, freedom and the prosperity of the individual He was opposed to monarchies and believed that representative governments should rule He believed there should be 3 branches to government: executive (to enforce laws), legislative (to make laws) and judicial (to interpret laws) Furthermore, in order to avoid a government from gaining too much power, it should be separated into 3 branches to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful, so each branch should check and balance the other s power From Montesquieu, we got the idea of separation of powers There is no greater tyranny, than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice. Meaning: shield of law = tyranny of the law The quote means that tyrants hide behind the law to oppress the people. He wrote The Social Contract in 1762 He agreed with Montesquieu about the state of nature in that he thought humans were peaceful before societies were formed He described savages in the state of nature as free, equal and peaceful However, he believed the reason humans became violent is because they started claiming ownership of property, once we started claiming property for ourselves, then inequality, murder and war resulted He disagreed with the other philosophers about government because he believed no one should rule for anyone else, that the people should rule for themselves in a direct democracy He said that idea of a social contract was a fraud against the people committed by the rich, he expressed that Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains In his ideal type of government, people would not give up their natural rights to a sovereign, instead they would give it up to each other, he described the people as the sovereign They would get together to make decisions for the whole community which would represent the general will of the people He said that if anyone would disobey the general will of the people, then they would be forced to be free and return to the state of nature on their own Rousseau s general will was later copied in the words We the people.. He believed that religion divided the community, since he stated that It is impossible to live in peace with people you think are damned. He said the only way that democracy would work is if everyone cared equally, he warned As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State, What does it matter to me? the State may be given up for lost. Meaning: In order for this society to survive, everyone has to participate and care equally. Feudalism was a system that organized society based on who controlled the land.
Under this system, the people in England belonged to one of 3 social groups: Nobles were the lords & ladies, who provided security to the king in exchange for the land. ROYALTY NOBILITY COMMON PEOPLE King, Queen & their families. Rented land to Nobles. Everyone else, knights, merchants and peasants (serfs). Topic 7 Magna Carta Year 1215 Topic 8 English Bill of Rights (1689) All land belonged to the monarch (king) The monarch gave some responsibility to govern the kingdom to the Nobles, who promised loyalty to the monarchy in exchange for the land The Nobles divided the land into the common people who worked the land and kept some of what they produced, in exchange, they owed the Nobles protection and loyalty There was an agreement between the 3 groups of people, which is why the feudal system was important, it led to the development of constitutional government, a government based on a contract It was during this time that monarchs started to share power with the nobility Latin for Great Charter It was the first document to limit the powers of the king since it granted rights to the Nobility Although Kings remained strong for the next 300 years, this document shows the beginning of the struggle between kings and nobility This document limited certain taxes and gave Nobles the right to a trial by jury This document influenced American colonists while they were trying to establish a new government for the United States because it introduced the idea of limited government and rule of law At first, these rights only applied to Nobles, but slowly, they spread to everyone else To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice. Meaning: Justice won t be sold, it doesn t matter if you are rich or poor, you will receive justice equally. No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned exiled, or in any way harmed save by the lawful judgment of his peers [equals] : Right to a trial by a jury of your peers when accused of a crime. This document marked the end of the struggle between the king and parliament It listed rights and freedoms for everyone and the king was forced to accept them, parliament now had more power than the king Rights included the right to petition the monarch, right to bear arms, introduces the idea of consent of the people to be governed and right o trial by a jury of your peers Englishmen gained their rights from the king after many years of British struggle and history American colonists had the same rights as Englishmen because they immigrated from England
Topic 9 Mayflower Compact (1620) Topic 10 Common Sense (1776) Natural rights Enlightenment Movement Philosopher Parliament Leviathan Civil war State of Nature Sovereign Implied agreement Social contract Limited Government Monarchy General will Public good Some English pilgrims came to America on a ship called the Mayflower They wanted to reach Jamestown, Virginia which had been established in 1607, but a storm blew their ship off course and they instead landed in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts They were forced to establish their own government, so they established a direct democracy through and agreement known as the Mayflower Compact The founding fathers of the United States have referred to the Mayflower Compact as the foundation for the US Constitution, since it established the will of the majority would rule for the benefit of survival of the community This document was originally written anonymously, but it was later revealed that Thomas Paine wrote it He wrote it in order to convince the public to declare independence from England, he promoted a movement for sovereignty of the people He disagreed with monarchies and thought all monarchies were tyrannies Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. Meaning: Living in communities is a blessing, however, even under the best form of government, some freedoms will always have to be surrendered. It is finitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance. Meaning: Establishing a new U.S. government will be easier at the beginning, than after conflicts arise. Paine argues that all men are created equal and the distinction between kings and subjects is a false one. Meaning: He means that man and king are born equal, and any difference is made up, or false (he thought monarchies were tyrannical). No country in the globe is so happily situated, or so internally capable of building a fleet as America. Meaning: American can sustain itself, it is in a great position to have enough resources to build its own navy. VOCABULARY Lesson 7 & 8 Basic rights every human should have, usually defined by Enlightenment thinkers as life, liberty and property European movement that started around the 1600s, which focused on reason and logic rather than tradition or superstition A person who thinks about relevant issues of our times to come up with solutions, also referred to as thinkers, scholars, or intellectuals English legislative branch, with two houses Mythological, whale-like sea monster that devoured whole ships A war between citizens of the same country Condition of what lives of people might have been before society was formed Having ultimate, or absolute power An agreement that has not been written or discussed in detail An implied agreement between the members of a society, such as giving up some individual freedoms for protection of the community as a whole When government is limited in their power by the rights of the people A system of government where a monarch (or king) has absolute power The will of the people as a whole For the benefit of the public at large
Representative Democracy Direct Democracy Feudalism Charter Compact Will of the majority (majority rule) Inalienable Constitutional Government A system of government where people have the power to choose their representatives A system of government where people have the power, but they each vote on decisions instead of choosing a representative System of government in medieval Europe where society is separated into 3 groups: royalty, nobles and peasants An agreement given from the monarchy to the people, granting them rights or freedoms Written agreement When a community makes rules and whatever more than half of people decide, everyone else must follow Impossible to surrender Government based on a written constitution that limits the power of the government