Term | Definition |
Enlightenment | A time of optimism and possibility from the late 1600s to the late 1700s also called the Age of Reason |
salons | Gatherings in which intellectual and political ideas were exchanged during the Enlightenment |
social contract | An agreement between a people and their government stating that people would give up some of their freedom and in return their government would provide them with peace security and order |
John Locke | English philosopher/founder of British empiricism he developed political/economic theories during the Enlightenment. He wrote Two Treatises on Government in which he declared that people have a right rebel against governments that doesn't protect rights |
Jean-Jacques Rousseau | Swiss-French political philosopher he valued the social contract and addressed the nature of man in his work On the Origin of Inequality |
Baron de Montesquieu | French jurist and political philosopher who explored democratic theories of government divided into three branches and greatly influenced the United States Constitution |
philosophes | Philosophers of the Enlightenment |
Voltaire | French philosopher and author who was a supporter of Deism the idea that god was no longer involved with the universe after creating it and also advocated a tolerant approach to religion |
enlightened despots | The absolute monarch in the 18th century Europe who ruled according to the principles of the Enlightened |
Stamp Act | A law passed by the British Parliament that raised tax money by requiring the American colonists to pay for an official stamp whenever they bought paper items |
Thomas Jefferson | American statesman third president of the United States who was a member of the Continental Congresses chairmen of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence the Declarations main author and one of its signers |
Benjamin Franklin | American statesman who was a philosopher scientist inventor writer publisher first US postmaster and member of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence |
George Washington | First president of the United States who commanded the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and served as a representative to the Continental Congress |
Treaty of Paris | The argument that was officially ended at American Revolution and established British recognition of the independence of the United States |
James Madison | American statesman who was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and the fourth president of the United States who was known as the Father of the Constitution |
federal system | A political and social system based on the granting of land in exchange for loyalty military assistance and other services |