What Were The Ideals Of The Enlightenment

During the 17th and 18th centuries, a revolutionary movement called the Enlightenment developed in Europe. In the wake of the Enlightenment, and the new ways of thinking it prompted, scholars and philosophers emerged who thought of innovative ideas which prompted and affected the course of the democratic revolutions in England and the United States. Their innovative ideas began a new age, where philosophers laid down old principles and began a new age where they challenged old accepted beliefs. They extended the boundaries of the known world in what became known as the Age of Exploration. Out of all this came new philosophies about government, human nature, and politics. Of course, the philosophers had irreconcilable differences, but they shared one common goal: to apply reason to all aspects of life. Their ideas and principles deriving from the Enlightenment would continue to affect Europe and the rest of the Western world for decades and even centuries to come.
The Enlightenment began from some major ideas put forth by two English political thinkers of the
The colonists had asked for their rights as the people in England had done 100 years before them, but the King George III refused. Therefore, the colonists were entitled to rebel against the king who had broken the social contract. The ideas formed by the philosophers had also fostered a yearning among the colonists for natural rights as well as liberty and a democratic government that protected their freedoms. This yearning for justice had helped the colonists fight against the British for their freedom. Since Locke had stated that people had the right to rebel against an unjust monarch, the colonists created a Declaration of Independence stating their separation from England as well as a list of abuses acted by King George III. In the end the American colonists astounded the world and won their long awaited