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Modern World History
Enlightenment & Revolution
Term | Definition |
---|---|
enlightenment | 18th century European movement in which thinkers attempted to apply the principles of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of life. |
social contract | An agreement in which people define and limit their rights in exchange for law and order. |
John Locke | An English philosopher who stated that people were born with three natural rights- life, liberty, and property and those rights should be protected by the government. |
philosophe | A French thinkers who believed that people could apply reason to all aspects of life. |
Voltaire | Francios Arouet, a French philosophe known as Voltaire, fought for tolerance, reason, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. |
Montesquieu | A French writer whose idea of the separation of powers in government became the basis of the United States Constitution. |
Rousseau | Disagreed with many French philosophes stating that reason, science, and art corrupts society and causes inequality. |
Mary Wollstonecraft | She fought for education for women and encouraged women to enter male-dominated fields of medicine and politics. |
Declaration of Independence | A document written using the ideas of John Locke and the Enlightenment expressing the American colonies right to separate from England on the basis of lack of representation. |
Thomas Jefferson | The writer of the Declaration of Independence influenced by the Enlightenment thinkers. |
checks and balances | A system of three branches of government in which each branch checks the action of the other two. |
federal system | The power of government is divided between national and state governments. |
Bill of Rights | The first ten amendments added to the U.S. Constitution which protects Americans' basic rights. |