The American Revolution Chapter 4 Analysis

Murry’s “Chapter Four,” “Chapter Five,” and “Chapter Six” highlighted multiple events in the seventeenth century that indicated a shift in society. During this time, there was a variety of new ideas that were proposed regarding religion, science, politics, and philosophy. The only topic of these chapters that I had previously learned about or discussed was the Enlightenment, so many of these other events, ideas, and people’s reactions to them surprised me.
“Chapter 4” discussed the relationship between the Church and new scientific ideas. From our previous discussions and readings, I knew that the Church was not very open to new ideas. However, I did not fully understand the extent of how harshly the Church treated people who they saw as “going
against” the Church with new science discoveries and ideas. For example, Galileo was harshly punished because he tried to share his idea that the sun was the center of the universe, not the Earth. This resulted in him people placed on house arrest until his death. With this reaction, it seems like the Church was willing to do anything necessary to remain powerful and have faithful followers. I was also fascinated by the new scientific inventions and research that was conducted during this time period. Compared to today, scientists in the seventeenth century lacked major technology. So, for scientists to be able to conduct such in-depth research about the universe and create the telescope and the barometer fascinates me by the amount of time and dedication this must have required.
“Chapter 5” discussed the shift of politics in the seventeenth century.
There were many philosophers, such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, who presented a variety of new ideas about politics. Many of these ideas were drastically different from one another, however, all the ideas were still widely supported. I believe this shows the variety of people’s opinions at the time and why a variety of leadership styles and leaders were capable of obtaining and maintaining power. The event that surprised me the most throughout all the chapters was how countries treated their poor compared to their warfare. The amount of poor in societies was drastically increasing, however, many leaders began to disallow their poor to beg and discouraged the wealthy from donating money to the poor. Leaders also created heavy taxation in order to fund helping the poor, however, most of the funds raised by taxes were not used for the poor but for warfare. These leaders seemed like they cared more about international problems than the domestic problems that were occurring in their country. The Scientific Revolution, State-Building, and the Enlightenment produced many new ideas regarding science, politics, and philosophical reasoning. These new ideas produced a wide variety of reactions from The Church, leaders, and citizens. These new ideas represent a change in society and its values. Many of the values and ideas that were discovered or established in the seventeenth century are still utilized in today’s
society. This time period was a very important part in founding today’s politics and modern scientific research.