Revolution and 1600–1800 Giraudon/Art Resource, NY...

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Revolution andEnlightenment

1600–1800

.The Big Ideas,SECTION 1: The Glorious Revolution

Throughout history people have struggled for rights. During the English civil wars and the Glorious Revolution, nobles and wealthy commoners established the principle of representative government.

SECTION 2: The Enlightenment Moral and ethical principles influence the development of political thought.Enlightenment thinkers believed that human nature was rational and good, and wanted government and society to be based on reason.

SECTION 3: The American RevolutionThroughout history people have struggled for rights. Inspired by a belief in naturalrights theory, American colonists rebelled against Britain to found a new nation.

World History—Modern Times Video The Chapter 2 video,“Women of the Revolution,” chronicles the impact that women had on thecourse of the American Revolution.

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1550 1575 1600 1625 1650 1675

1534English Parliamentpasses Act ofSupremacy

1687Isaac Newtonpublishes thePrincipia

1689TolerationAct andEnglish Billof Rights

1603James I, first Stuart king, ascends Englishthrone

Henry VIII

1690Locke publishesTwo Treatises ofGovernment

1643Louis XIVbecomesking ofFrance

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Louis XIV at the French Royal Academy of Sciences

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the Glencoe WorldHistory—Modern Times Web site at

and click on Chapter 2–Chapter Overview topreview chapter information.

wh.mt.glencoe.com1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1825

1751Diderot becomeseditor of theEncyclopedia

1788The Constitution of theUnited States is ratifiedby nine states

1748Montesquieupublishes TheSpirit of the Laws

1776American coloniesdeclare indepen-dence from Britain

1792Mary Wollstonecraftpublishes A Vindicationof the Rights of Women

Denis Diderot

Mary WollstonecraftTate Gallery, London/Art Resource, NY

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http://wh.mt.glencoe.com

Careful readers piece together information as they read, rememberinginformation from different places in the text. They spot ideas as theygo—sometimes these are found in different sentences, pages, or evensections. When the reader makes sense of these related ideas, he or she issynthesizing.

By the end of a section, the reader can usually understand how the differ-ent ideas are related to one another. Sometimes authors include a paragraphat the end of a section that will trigger the connections that you, the reader,have already made. The ending paragraph might also forecast topics cov-ered in upcoming sections to help you prepare for additional connections.

Look at this concluding paragraph for Section 1 of Chapter 2. Seewhich two historical groups are referred to in connection with theGlorious Revolution.

SYNTHESIZINGYou synthesize when you connect events and ideas toreveal themes. Synthesizing theinfluences of the Glorious Revolu-tion, Enlightenment, and theAmerican Revolution demon-strates that rights and libertiesare a major theme in this period.

172 CHAPTER 2 Revolution and Enlightenment

. . . the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had a hugeimpact. It inspired French thinkers to speak outagainst absolutism. British colonists . . . applaudedParliament’s fight, and saw their own parliamentsin the colonies as having the same rights. Fullyaware of events in England, the colonists expandedtheir concept of rights and liberties.

As you read this chapter, keep trackof the factors that led to the GloriousRevolution as well as the results. Dothe same thing when you read aboutthe Enlightenment and the AmericanRevolution. When you are finished,look at your notes for all three devel-opments. Consider the kind of factorsthat operated in each and think abouthow they are related to one another.Can you draw any overall conclu-sions? If so, you are synthesizing.

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How do you think that Locke’s ideashave influenced people’s perceptionsof themselves and society over time?Make a list of the natural rights thatyou have just by being human. Howwould you modify the list that Lockeoriginally proposed?

One skill historians develop is the ability to examine a current idea or eventand trace it back to its origins. They are then able to analyze all theconsequences that came about. Tracking the influence of an idea through timeallows historians to see what ideas and events have been crucial to determiningour world today.

Read this selection from John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, an Enlighten-ment document published soon after the Glorious Revolution in England.

“Man being born . . . with a title to perfect freedom, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of allthe rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man, or number ofmen in the world, hath by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, hislife, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men; but to judge of,and punish the breaches of that law in others, as he is persuaded the offence deserves,even with death itself, in crimes where the heinousness of the fact, in his opinion,requires it.”

Locke wrote that all people were born with certain natural rights of life, liberty,and property. He was reacting to the rule of the Stuart kings in England, whoseemed to be acting like absolutist rulers. Locke rejected that kind of rule. Hisideas about the natural rights of all individuals influenced political thought inother parts of the world, especially in the American colonies.

Chronological and Spatial Thinking: Standard CS 1 Students compare thepresent with the past, evaluating the consequences of past events and decisionsand determining the lessons that were learned.

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The Birth of a Sonn early June of 1688, as the late-spring sun warmed theEnglish countryside, the royal family prepared for a birth.

Queen Mary, the mother-to-be, was the second wife of KingJames II. The king, who had come to the throne in 1685,already had two grown daughters, Mary and Anne, by hisfirst wife. Both were Protestant. Mary would succeed herfather, but a male heir would take precedence. The problemwas that any male heir would be Catholic, for the new queenwas Catholic. So too was James II.

As king, James II was head of the Protestant, or Anglican,Church of England. Most of the English people were Protes-tant, but James wanted to return England to the Catholic fold.His attitude was, as he said, “Know I am your King, I will beobeyed.” He even appointed Catholics as generals of thearmy. Would James then ignore the wishes of his ProtestantParliament? Would he take England back into the Catholiccamp?

On June 10, the queen gave birth to a son. Some of theking’s enemies argued—wrongly—that the child was notreally the king’s son but someone else’s infant who had beensmuggled into the queen’s bedroom. Outraged at the thoughtof a Catholic king, seven leaders of Parliament signed a letterinviting William of Orange, the Dutch leader and husband ofJames’s older daughter, Mary, to come and rule as a Protes-tant king. William came with an army, James II fled, and Eng-land experienced its Glorious Revolution.

I Why It MattersThe Glorious Revolution was animportant turning point in Englishhistory. When William and Maryaccepted the throne from Parlia-ment, they agreed to a declarationof rights. This declaration, soonenacted into law as a Bill of Rights,affirmed Parliament’s right to makelaws and raise taxes. Parliament wasnow recognized as a vital part ofgovernment, thus laying the founda-tions for a constitutional monarchy.Years later, with the expansion ofthe right to vote to all males, Eng-land would become a democracy.

History and You In the UnitedStates, the legislature, or Congress,had power from the very beginning,but not everyone was representedin Congress. Make a chart showingwhen each of these groups attainedrepresentation: all adult males,women, African Americans, and 18-year-olds.

British Parliament members offering the crown to William and Mary in 1689

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The Glorious Revolution

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

Section PreviewDuring the English civil war and the Glorious Revolution, nobles and wealthycommoners established the principle ofrepresentative government.

• In the 1600s, absolutist rulers in Europewere asserting that their power camedirectly from God, but in England Parlia-ment was expanding its political power.(p. 176)

• Civil war broke out in England in 1642between supporters of the king and theParliament, and in 1649 Parliamentproved victorious. (p. 179)

• England’s Glorious Revolution created aconstitutional, or limited, monarchy inwhich the monarch shared power withParliament. (p. 181)

Content Vocabularydivine right of kings, commonwealth, natural rights

Academic Vocabularyattribute, restraint, consensus, hypothetical, mutual

People to IdentifyElizabeth I, Puritans, Charles I, OliverCromwell, Charles II, James II, William ofOrange, John Locke

Reading Objectives1. Identify problems that troubled

Europe between 1560 and 1650.2. Explain how the Glorious Revolution

undermined the divine right of kings.

Reading Strategy Summarizing Information As you readthis section, use a chart like the onebelow to summarize the rulers’ positionson religion and power.

California Standards in This Section

Reading this section will help you master these California History–Social Science standards.

10.2: Students compare and contrast the Glorious Rev-olution of England, the American Revolution, andthe French Revolution and their enduring effectsworldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.

10.2.1: Compare the major ideas of philosophers andtheir effects on the democratic revolutions in Eng-land, the United States, France, and Latin America(e.g., John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu,Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Simón Bolívar, ThomasJefferson, James Madison).

10.2.2: List the principles of the Magna Carta, the EnglishBill of Rights (1689), the American Declaration ofIndependence (1776), the French Declaration ofthe Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), and theU.S. Bill of Rights (1791).

Position on issues ofRuler religion and power

Henry VIII

Elizabeth I

The Stuarts

Oliver Cromwell

William & Mary

1603Elizabeth I dies

1642Civil war in England begins

1649Charles I is executed

1688Glorious Revolution

✦1600 ✦1620 ✦1640 ✦1660 ✦1680 ✦1700

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Background to Revolution

In the 1600s, absolutist rulers in Europe wereasserting that their power came directly from God, but inEngland Parliament was expanding its political power.

Reading Connection Have you ever heard it said thatsomeone acted as if he or she were “above the law”? Read tolearn how the English Parliament challenged kings whoclaimed to be accountable only to God.

At the end of the seventeenth century, Englishnobles and landowners carried out an importantpolitical revolution called the Glorious Revolution. Itforced the king to recognize that he must rule inaccordance with the laws they approved.

This revolution was one of three great politicalevents in the Western world in this period—the othertwo were the American Revolution and the FrenchRevolution. Each made a different contribution to theideas that have shaped the modern world.

The Glorious Revolution introduced the principlethat the king must bow to the representative body ina nation. The American Revolution clearly spelledout the roles of government institutions and therights of citizens in a republic. The French Revolutionexperimented with several forms of government, andwent furthest in asserting the principles of liberty

and equality for all people, regardless of their eco-nomic status.

The Glorious Revolution was the first of thesethree great revolutions. During the sixteenth and sev-enteenth centuries, most European countries weregoverned by absolute rulers who asserted that theirpower came directly from God. Monarchs whobelieved in the divine right of kings did not considerthemselves accountable to their citizens, but only toGod. Individuals who dared to question a monarch’sactions could be put to death. They might be consid-ered sinners against an established religion becausethey had flaunted a king who was so close to God.

The most famous absolutist ruler was Louis XIV,who ruled France from 1643 to 1715. Louis had anunshakeable belief in divine right and saw no need toconsult his subjects, not even his great nobles. Louis’sreign can best be summed up by a famous sayingattributed to him: “I am the state.”

In England, the political system had developed inthe opposite direction. During the Tudor dynasty ofHenry VIII and Elizabeth I, the English monarchsdiscovered that having the support of Parliament—the body of nobles and wealthy commoners whoclaimed to represent the nation—was an advantage.

By 1700, however, English monarchs not onlyruled with Parliament, but had to recognize that Par-liament was the ultimate authority if there were dis-agreements. The idea that a parliament could limitthe monarch’s power is simple, but it took centuriesand violent conflict before it was accepted. In Eng-land, the conflict began in the 1640s and was not set-tled until 1688.

Jacques Bossuet, a seventeenth-century Frenchbishop, explained a popular viewpoint:

“It is God who establishes kings. They thus act as ministers of God and His lieutenants on earth. It is through them that he rules. This is why we have seen that the royal throne is not the throne of a man, but the throne of God himself. It appears from this that the person of kings is sacred, and to move against them is a crime.Since their power comes from on high, kings . . .should exercise it with fear and restraint as athing which has come to them from God, and forwhich God will demand an account.”

Bossuet’s ideas about kings became reality duringthe reign of King Louis XIV.

King Louis XIV of France

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How the Tudors Ruled From 1485 until 1603, Eng-land was governed by the Tudors, including KingHenry VIII, who reigned from 1509 to 1547, and hisdaughter Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 to 1603.Both were strong and shrewd rulers who regularlyconsulted Parliament to get support for their policies.Their practices helped create an expectation that Par-liament would be listened to.

Henry and Elizabeth needed Parliament’s help inone area especially: religious policies. Conflicts overreligion were dividing powerful interests in the king-dom. Henry really created the problem when hedemanded that the pope approve a divorce from hisfirst wife, Catherine. Catherine gave birth to severaldaughters, but Henry wanted a son to succeed him.He wanted the pope to declare his marriage invalidso he could remarry.

The pope refused, not only because declaring amarriage invalid was a rare event, but because Cather-ine’s royal family in Spain were strong papal support-ers. Henry finally decided to declare himself the headof the church in England. English archbishops andbishops were appalled, but Henry ignored them all—the pope, English church courts, and the advice ofgreat nobles. He had Parliament pass the Act ofSupremacy in 1534. The king was declared “the onlysupreme head on earth of the Church of England.”

Why did Parliament agree? First, the king was stillthe most powerful authority in the kingdom. Second,the king gave many members in Parliament a goodreason to support him. Church lands that were seizedwere sold to them. No family that had been enrichedwith land would ever want the Catholic Churchreestablished in England.

Henry’s church, the Anglican Church, was theproduct of a political struggle. By Elizabeth’s reign,conflict over religious doctrine was more intensebecause the Reformation had spread to England. Theestablished Anglican religion made England aProtestant power. England’s rivals for world power,Spain and France, were Catholic. Thus Englandbecame firmly committed to Protestantism.

At home, Elizabeth moved to solve religiousconflicts made worse by her half sister, Mary, adevout woman. Mary had passed laws to favorCatholicism during her five-year reign. Mary wantedto make England Catholic again and persecutedmany people.

Elizabeth repealed these laws when she took thethrone. Elizabeth wanted a national Anglican churchbecause it gave the monarch more power. She did notwant to upset Catholics too much, however—thatmight bring on bloody religious wars like those inFrance and the German states.


This 1570s painting celebrates the Tudors. Henry VIII is in the center and Queen Elizabeth at right.

National Museum and Gallery of Wales/Bridgeman Art Library

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Her solution was to support a moderate Protes-tantism. In many ways, the Anglican Church still wasvery Catholic: The prayers were not much different,the services looked almost the same, and priests woresimilar vestments.

As the Reformation intensified, Elizabeth’s mod-eration was unacceptable to fervent Protestants. Puri-tans, especially, were horrified by Anglican servicesthat looked so Catholic. Puritans were Calvinistswho wanted to purify the Anglican Church. Theythought that individual worshippers should focus onspiritual things at church, not indulge their senseswith organ music, stained glass, and incense.

Equally important, the Puritans wanted a congre-gation to be independent of the government and ofbishops who might be corrupted by their lust forpower. If congregations elected their own ministers,they would be more godly. These ideas challengedthe queen’s power since the queen as head of thechurch appointed the bishops.

As the conflict heated up, Puritans in Parliamentdrafted legislation to change religious policies. In1576, when one Puritan proposed to change theAnglican prayer book, Elizabeth imprisoned him.Government persecution increased, and many Puri-tans emigrated to found colonies in New England.There Puritanism made a significant contribution tohow future generations of Americans felt about therelation between state and church.

The Stuarts and Divine Right The Tudor dynastyended in 1603 because Elizabeth had no heir. Eliza-

beth’s cousin, the Stuart king of Scotland, thenbecame James I of England.

The problems between Parliament and themonarch began when the Stuarts came to the Englishthrone. The Stuarts did not understand how theTudors had ruled. The Stuarts believed in the divineright of kings and wanted to be absolutist rulers likethe glorious kings of France. The English Parliamentknew a very different tradition.

Conflicts began under James I and intensified dur-ing the reign of his son, Charles I. Both kings lookedto Louis XIV as their example. They believed theyshould be able to operate without any restraint fromParliament—to spend money as they wanted, tobuild fine buildings, or make alliances abroad if theyfelt like it.

Parliament was outraged. In 1628, Parliamentpassed a petition that said the king could not im-pose taxes without its consent. At first, Charles Iaccepted this petition, but later he realized that itrestricted his freedom far too much. He retaliated the next year by not allowing Parliament to meet atall. Some members of Parliament were imprisoned.Others arrived at Parliament only to find that thedoors had been bolted shut. They remained lockedfrom 1629 until 1640. During this period—known as the Eleven Years’ Tyranny—Charles ruled withoutParliament.

Contrasting How did the Stuarts’view of Parliament differ from that of the Tudors?

Reading Check

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History through Art

In this 1861 work by Ferdinand Piloty, QueenElizabeth I is shown rallying troops against Spain,England’s traditional enemy. Why does thepainting support national feeling?

AKG London/AKG London

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History through Art

Cromwell Opening the Coffin of Charles I, 1831French artist Paul Delaroche was famous for this painting onan English history theme. If this event actually occurred,do you think the painting would realistically captureCromwell’s attitude toward the executed king? Why orwhy not?Civil War and Aftermath

Civil war broke out in England in 1642between supporters of the king and the Parliament, and in1649 Parliament proved victorious.

Reading Connection If you felt a political leader wasacting against the law, what would you do to show your oppo-sition? Read to learn how English leaders expressed their oppo-sition to Charles I.

The English Parliament was very important togoverning the nation. From every county, the lordsand wealthy landowners and townspeople traveledto London to sit in the House of Lords and the Houseof Commons. These men were not simply wealthy,but actively involved in serving as a network of offi-cials, sheriffs, and judges in their counties. If a kingwanted to govern without Parliament’s support, hewould have had to do it by military force.

In 1642 a civil war, known as the English Revolu-tion, broke out between supporters of the king andsupporters of Parliament. The king’s supporters werecalled Cavaliers or Royalists. Parliament’s supporterswere called Roundheads because they disapprovedof long fashionable curls and cut their hair short.

Parliament won largely because of the New ModelArmy of Oliver Cromwell, a military genius whoknew how to use new tactics and discipline. Liketheir leader, the soldiers were zealous Puritans whowere fighting for their religion. In Cromwell’s words,“This is none other but the hand of God, and to Himalone belongs the glory.”

The victorious forces lost no time in taking control.Cromwell concluded that Charles I could not betrusted and must be put to death. When Parliamenthesitated, Cromwell purged Parliament of anyonewho disagreed with him.

What was left—the 50 to 60 members of the “RumpParliament”—had Charles I executed on January 30,1649. The beheading of the king divided families andhorrified much of Europe, especially members of theruling classes. One writer recounted that “a man in a[mask] . . . held up to the spectators the head, stream-ing with blood, and cried aloud, ‘This is the head of atraitor.’” Others saw Charles as a martyr. To this day,the British commemorate the anniversary of his deathby carrying wreaths to his statue in London.

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Cromwell’s Puritan Commonwealth FollowingCharles’s execution, Parliament abolished themonarchy and the House of Lords and declared Eng-land a republic, or commonwealth.

Cromwell found it difficult to work with theRump Parliament and finally dispersed it by force in1653. As the members of Parliament departed, heshouted, “It is you that have forced me to do this, forI have sought the Lord night and day that He wouldslay me rather than put upon me the doing of thiswork.” After eliminating both Parliament and theking, Cromwell set up a military dictatorship.

Under Cromwell’s puritanical rule, the Englishhad to give up going to the theater and most Sundayentertainment. The Puritans wanted a godly society.Used to a freer society, the English people becamedissatisfied. When Cromwell died, his son wasunable to maintain Cromwell’s system.

The Restoration Soon after Cromwell’s death, Parliament restored the Stuart heir to the Englishthrone—Charles II. Most people were relieved to bedone with Puritanism and dictatorship. Parliamenthad not forgotten, however, that the Stuarts had atendency toward absolutism and got certain agree-ments that Charles II would respect its power.

England’s time of troubles seemed at an end for awhile, but Charles II was sympathetic to Catholicism.

Fears of Catholicism surfaced again. If Catholicismwere restored, prominent Protestants would lose landand influence. The heir to the throne, Charles’s brotherJames, did not hide the fact that he was Catholic.

To counter any danger, Parliament introduced theExclusion Bill to bar James from the throne if he pro-fessed his Catholicism. This bill is famous because itcreated two political groups, later called parties: theWhigs, who did not want a Catholic on the throne;and the Tories, who wanted to follow the lawful suc-cession to the throne.

To foil the Exclusion Bill, Charles dismissed Par-liament in 1681. He died in 1685 and James II, adevout Catholic, succeeded him. Once again, religionwas a cause of conflict with Parliament. James beganfavoring Catholics for high positions in the govern-ment, army, navy, and universities.

Parliament was unhappy, but they did not yetrebel. James was old, and they hoped that thingswould improve when one of his daughters, Mary orAnne, succeeded. Both girls had been born to his firstwife and had been raised Protestant. In 1688, how-ever, James had a son by his second wife, a Catholic.The possibility of a Catholic monarchy and a restoredCatholic Church loomed large.

Explaining What was the basis forthe English civil war that broke out in 1642?

Reading Check


Cromwell is depicted dismissing Parliament in 1653, when he began his military dictatorship.

Ronald Sheridan/Art & Architecture Collection, Ltd.

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Glorious Revolution and LimitedMonarchy

England’s Glorious Revolution created a con-stitutional, or limited, monarchy in which the monarchshared power with Parliament.

Reading Connection Think of a recent conflict dividingyour country and how it was settled. Read how English lordsbrought about a “bloodless revolution” in 1688.

By 1688, England had seen decades of struggle overwhat institution should have the final authority in thekingdom. It had also seen decades of struggle overreligion. England’s lords and landowners reached aquiet consensus. They did not want a king to dictateto them, and they did not want a Catholic king.

A coup was under way. A group of English noble-men invited the Dutch leader, William of Orange,who was married to James’s Protestant daughterMary, to come to England. William and Mary raisedan army and in 1688 arrived without much opposi-tion in England. James and his wife and infant sonfled to France. With almost no bloodshed, Englandhad undergone a “Glorious Revolution.”

Now the issue was who would be monarch. In Jan-uary 1689, Parliament offered the throne to Williamand Mary if they would accept the Bill of Rights. Itset forth Parliament’s right to make laws and levytaxes. It also stated that standing armies could beraised only with Parliament’s consent. The Bill ofRights also confirmed citizens’ right to keep armsand have a jury trial.

The Bill of Rights helped create a system of government based on law and a freely elected Par-liament. Many of its provisions were used a cen-tury later as a foundation for the American Bill ofRights.

The same year, Parliament also passed the Tolera-tion Act of 1689. It granted Puritans, but notCatholics, the right to free public worship. Very fewEnglish citizens were ever again persecuted becauseof religion. England was one of the most tolerantnations in Europe, and many people persecuted else-where sought refuge there.

By deposing one king and establishing another,Parliament had destroyed the divine-right theory ofkingship. William, after all, was king by the grace ofParliament, not the grace of God. Parliament alsoasserted its right to be part of the government.

John Locke The English struggles of the 1600sinspired John Locke to write Two Treatises of Govern-ment, published in 1690. This work criticized abso-lutism and defended the Glorious Revolution. Lockedescribed how governments are formed, and whatjustifies them. He believed that before society wasorganized, human beings lived in a state of equalityand freedom. In this state of nature, humans had cer-

tain natural rights—rights they wereborn with.

In the real world, Locke feltthere were problems in thishypothetical idea of nature.People could not protect theirrights very well. That is whythey agreed to contract with agovernment to protect their

rights.Under this contract, the peo-

ple and the government hadmutual obligations. Government

would protect the rights of the people,and the people would act reasonably toward govern-ment. If a government broke the contract by not pro-tecting an individual’s natural rights, then people werejustified in rebelling and forming a new government.


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Route of William of Orange

Boundary of theHoly Roman EmpireRoute of William of Orange

In November 1688, William of Orange, shownhere with his wife Mary, set sail with his troops forEngland. William was the stadtholder, or chiefexecutive, of the Dutch Republic (later the Nether-lands). Upon arrival, he met with little opposition.

History

Peter Hoadley, William III and Mary Stuart, Rijksmuseum, Amersterdam

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To Locke, “people” meant the landholding elites,not common people who did not own land. Eventhough Locke did not advocate democracy, his ideaspromoted democracy. In the American and FrenchRevolutions, Locke’s arguments were used todemand the rule of law and individual rights. ; (Seepage 771 to read an excerpt from Locke’s Two Treatises ofGovernment in the Primary Sources Library.)

The Glorious Revolution, the American Revolu-tion, and the French Revolution all utilized naturalrights theory. The Glorious Revolution was differentin two ways from the two later revolutions, however.First, it was not violent—later historians have termedit the “bloodless revolution,” although there had beenmuch violence in the 1640s. Second, the Glorious Rev-olution was different because it was not the middleclass and lower class who were demanding rights, butnobles and wealthy members of Parliament.

Still, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had a hugeimpact. It inspired French thinkers to speak outagainst absolutism. British colonists also took animportant lesson from the Glorious Revolution. Theyapplauded Parliament’s fight and saw their own par-liaments in the colonies as having the same rights.Fully aware of events in England, the colonistsexpanded their concept of rights and liberties.

Describing Trace the events of thelate 1680s that led to the English Bill of Rights.

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: divine right of

kings, attribute, restraint, common-wealth, consensus, natural rights, hypo-thetical, mutual.

2. People Identify: Elizabeth I, Puritans,Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Charles II,James II, William of Orange, John Locke.

Reviewing Big Ideas3. Explain why Oliver Cromwell first

purged Parliament and then declared amilitary dictatorship.

Critical Thinking4. Connecting

Events Summarize the reasons behindthe formation of the Church of England.

5. Compare and Contrast the Catholicand Anglican Churches and explainwhy the Puritans rejected both of them.

Analyzing Visuals6. Examine the cameo of William and

Mary shown on page 181. How doesthis painting compare to portraits ofother rulers, such as the one of Louis

XIV on page 176? How is the purpose ofthis painting different from the purposeof other royal portraits?

CA HI 1

7. Persuasive Writing Compose a let-ter to Oliver Cromwell. Using exam-ples from history, attempt toconvince him that winning the sup-port of the English people is impor-tant and give him specificsuggestions of how to do it.

CA 10WA2.4c

Enlightenment thinker John Locke (shown in oval) was amajor influence on America’s founders Benjamin Franklin,John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. For help with the concepts in this section of Glencoe World

History—Modern Times, go to andclick on Study Central.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

Study CentralHISTORY

Bettmann/CORBIS

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The Enlightenment

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

Section PreviewEnlightenment thinkers, or philosophes,believed that human nature was rationaland good, and wanted government andsociety to be based on reason.

• The philosophes believed that theycould copy the rational methods of scientists to eliminate unjust laws and create a better society. (p. 184)

• The philosophes’ belief in logic and rea-son promoted the beginnings of thesocial sciences, such as economics andpolitical science. (p. 187)

• Enlightenment ideas spread in Francethrough salons and in the Westernworld through an expansion of thereading public. (p. 188)

Content Vocabularyphilosophe, deism, separation of powers,social contract, laissez-faire, salon

Academic Vocabularyevidence, affect, concept

People to IdentifyIsaac Newton, Voltaire, Montesquieu,Rousseau, Adam Smith, Cesare Beccaria,Denis Diderot, Mary Wollstonecraft

Places to LocateParis, London

Reading Objectives1. Define the central ideas of the Enlight-

enment.2. Explain the role that religion played

during the Enlightenment.

Reading StrategySummarizing Information Use a dia-gram like the one below to list main ideasof the Enlightenment.



10.2: Students compare and contrast the Glorious Rev-olution of England, the American Revolution, andthe French Revolution and their enduring effectsworldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.

10.2.1: Compare the major ideas of philosophers andtheir effects on the democratic revolutions inEngland, the United States, France, and LatinAmerica (e.g., John Locke, Charles-Louis Mon-tesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Simón Bolívar,Thomas Jefferson, James Madison).

10.2.2: List the principles of the Magna Carta, the Eng-lish Bill of Rights (1689), the American Declara-tion of Independence (1776), the FrenchDeclaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen(1789), and the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791).

10.2.3: Understand the unique character of the Ameri-can Revolution, its spread to other parts of theworld, and its continuing significance to othernations.

Major Ideas of the Enlightenment

1702The first daily newspaper is published in London

1762Rousseau publishesThe Social Contract

1776Adam Smith publishes TheWealth of Nations

1748Baron de Montesquieupublishes The Spirit of the Laws

✦1700 ✦1715 ✦1730 ✦1745 ✦1760 ✦1775 ✦1790

1763Voltaire writes his Treatise on Toleration


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The Enlightenment and thePhilosophes

The philosophes believed that they could copythe rational methods of scientists to eliminate unjust lawsand create a better society.

Reading Connection Think of a time when you experi-enced an injustice. Read to learn how imprisonment andforced exile affected the ideas of Voltaire.

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movementthat began in France. Its leaders were calledphilosophes (FEE•luh•ZAWFS). They were notphilosophers in the strict sense of the term, but writ-ers, professors, journalists, economists, and socialreformers. They came chiefly from the nobility andthe middle class.

These philosophes were amazed by the ScientificRevolution and saw that reason had enabled scien-tists to discover the secrets of the universe. Reasonbecame their guide and motto. If reason was appliedto politics and government, it would be a better, morejust society for all.

Although the Enlightenment began in France, twoof its heroes were Englishmen, Isaac Newton and

John Locke. Newton’s discoveries in math andastronomy showed evidence that the physical uni-verse followed regular natural laws. The philosopheswanted to be like Newton and find the natural lawsfor human society.

John Locke was another powerful influence in theEnlightenment. He had analyzed how a governmentshould rule in Two Treatises of Government, but inother essays he wrote about how people think andlearn. Locke said that when infants were born, theirminds were blank—they were a tabula rasa, or blankslate, on which anything could be written. Lockeargued that people learned everything from theirsenses and experiences.

From Locke, Enlightenment thinkers concludedthat if a more rational environment was created insociety, then people would be rational and good. Onewriter said that the philosophe is one who “applieshimself to the study of society with the purpose ofmaking his kind better and happier.”

The Enlightenment spanned almost a century.Centered in Paris, it was an international movementwhich evolved over time. For this reason, one canfind disagreements on certain issues, but all of thephilosophes focused on the themes of reason, naturallaw, hope, and progress.


The French intellectual Voltaire attacked religiousintolerance in The Ignorant Philosopher:

“I say, there is scarce any city or borough inEurope, where blood has not been spilled for reli-gious quarrels; I say, that the human species hasbeen perceptibly diminished, because women andgirls were massacred as well as men. I say thatEurope would have a third larger population ifthere had been no theological disputes. In fine, Isay, that so far from forgetting these abominabletimes, we should frequently take a view of them,to inspire an eternal horror for them. . . . It is forour age to make amends by toleration, for thislong collection of crimes, which has taken placethrough the lack of toleration during sixteen bar-barous centuries.”

Religious toleration was one of the major themesof the Enlightenment.

Isaac Newton analyzing light rays

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Voltaire Of all the great names in the Enlighten-ment, the greatest was François-Marie Arouet,known simply as Voltaire. A Parisian, Voltaire camefrom a prosperous middle-class family. He wrote analmost endless stream of pamphlets, novels, plays,letters, essays, and histories, which brought him bothfame and wealth.

In 1726, when he was 32, Voltaire clashed with anobleman in France, who resented an insult Voltairehad directed at him. The nobleman had powerfulconnections and succeeded in having Voltaire impris-oned. Voltaire was released only when he agreed toleave France and go into exile in England.

This experience affected Voltaire deeply. After hisrelease from prison, he often spoke out against cen-sorship and unjust laws. In the three years he spentin England, he saw a society that he felt was superior.As a man of ideas, he liked the freer air in England—for the most part, men and women could expresstheir opinions openly. On his return to France, hepublished a work that criticized French institutionsas compared to the English. The French king bannedthe book immediately.

Voltaire was a strong opponent of the CatholicChurch. His opposition had a lot to do with the factthat the Church in France supported absolutism.Voltaire opposed traditional Christianity, too, how-ever, because he believed it did not encourage peopleto think rationally. He mocked what he termedsuperstition wherever he saw it and campaigned forreligious toleration. His Treatise on Toleration of 1763reminded governments that “all men are brothersunder God.”

Voltaire himself was a deist. Deism is based onreason and natural law. The Supreme Being is not apersonal God, but an impersonal being. Deists imag-ined that God had created a world-machine that wasperfect. Once set in motion, the universe ran accord-ing to natural laws, without the need for constantsupervision or occasional miracles.

Montesquieu Charles-Louis de Secondat, the Baronde Montesquieu, came from the French nobility. Hismost famous work, The Spirit of the Laws, was pub-lished in 1748. Montesquieu used the scientificmethod to make a close study of governments. In away, Montesquieu was the first political scientist.

Montesquieu identified three basic kinds of gov-ernments: (1) republics, suitable for small states; (2)despotism, appropriate for large states; and (3)monarchies, ideal for moderate-size states. He usedEngland as an example of a monarchy.

Montesquieu believed that England’s governmenthad three branches: the executive (the monarch), thelegislative (Parliament), and the judicial (the courtsof law). He thought that the English governmentfunctioned through a separation of powers in whichthe executive, legislative, and judiciary placed limitsand controls on each other. By preventing one groupfrom having too much power, and by creating a sys-tem of checks and balances, the English had createdthe most freedom and security for the nation.

Montesquieu was actually inaccurate in his analy-sis of English government. Power was not strictlyseparated as he claimed, but distributed in a muchmore complex way. As just one example, the kinghad many connections to Parliament through noblefamilies. Yet essentially Montesquieu was right to saythat power was balanced in the English system.

It was in America that Montesquieu’s concept ofseparation of powers made a contribution. Mon-tesquieu’s work was translated into English, andAmericans read it. They followed his ideas aboutseparation of powers, and checks and balances, veryclosely in the United States Constitution.

Rousseau By the late 1760s, anew generation of philo-sophes had come to maturity.Most famous of these tal-ented writers and thinkerswas Jean-Jacques Rousseau(ru•SOH). Rousseau wasvery different from Voltaire,the sophisticated man of Paris,or from Montesquieu, anaristocrat.


A London coffeehouse, a typical setting for the discussion ofpolitics and new ideas

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Rousseau was born into a poor middle-class familyin Switzerland. As a young man, he wandered throughFrance and Italy, making a living by holding odd jobsfor low pay. Eventually he made his way to Paris,where he wrote several essays. His writings attractedthe attention of Voltaire and other philosophes, butRousseau was always the outsider. He did not like citylife and often withdrew to be alone for long periods.

In Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality ofMankind, Rousseau argued that people had adoptedlaws and government to preserve their property. Indoing so, they had become enslaved by government.What should people do to regain their freedom?

In his famous work The Social Contract, published in1762, Rousseau presented a strikingly new idea aboutsociety. John Locke had written about a contractbetween people and the government. Rousseau’ssocial contract was something different, an agreementamong a whole society that it would be governed bythe general will. Individuals who wanted to followtheir own self-interests must be forced to abide by thegeneral will. “This means nothing less than that [they]will be forced to be free,” said Rousseau. In Rousseau’stheory, the general will represents what is best for theentire community.

Another important work by Rousseau is Emile.Written in the form of a novel, Emile discusses theeducation of “the natural man.” Rousseau arguedthat education should foster, and not restrict, chil-dren’s natural instincts.

Most Enlightenment thinkers talked and wrote con-stantly about reason. Rousseau believed that emotionheld another kind of truth and was also important tohuman development. His goal was a balance betweenheart and mind, between emotion and reason.

Rousseau’s ideas about women were not veryadvanced. Women were “naturally” different frommen: “To fulfill her functions, . . . [a woman] needs asoft life. . . . How much care and tenderness does sheneed to hold her family together.” He thoughtwomen should learn obedience and nurturing skillsso that they could care for their husbands and chil-dren. He once wrote that he preferred the traditionalwoman. “I would a thousand times have a homelygirl, simply brought up than a learned lady and a witwho would make a literary circle of my house.” Noteveryone, however, agreed with Rousseau.

Comparing What were the majorcontributions of the Enlightenment thinkers?

Reading Check

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The intellectuals of the Enlightenment created a movementthat influenced the entire Western world.

1. Interpreting Maps Examine the key for the map. Whatkind of information does it contain?

2. Applying Geography Skills Pose and answer twoquestions about the geographic distributions shown on the map. Create a thematic chart that represents the same information.

CHAPTER 2 Revolution and Enlightenment

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Toward a New Social Science

The philosophes’ belief in logic and reasonpromoted the beginnings of the social sciences, such aseconomics and political science.

Reading Connection Have you heard of studies thatinfluence how politicians draft new laws? Read to learn aboutthe time when studies in the social sciences first began to influ-ence government.

The philosophes believed that scientific methodscould be used to study society. In time, this convic-tion led to new fields of study, the social sciences.Economics and political science were two of the firstsocial sciences to develop.

The founders of the modern social science of eco-nomics were the Physiocrats in France and thephilosopher Adam Smith in Scotland.

The Physiocrats argued that if individuals werefree to pursue their economic self-interest, everyonewould be better off in the end. Believing in this prin-ciple, the Physiocrats argued that the state should notinterrupt the free play of natural economic forces byimposing government regulations. The state shouldleave the economy alone.

This doctrine became known by its French name,laissez-faire (LEH•SAY FEHR), meaning “to let (peo-ple) do (what they want).” The best statement of lais-sez-faire was made in 1776 by Adam Smith in his

famous work The Wealth of Nations. Like the Phys-iocrats, Smith believed that the state should not inter-fere in the economy. Instead, Smith argued that thelaw of supply and demand would naturally regulatethe economy for everyone’s best interest.

In fact, Smith argued that the government hadonly three very basic roles: protecting society frominvasion (the army); keeping up certain publicworks, such as roads and canals, that private indi-viduals could not afford; and defending citizens frominjustice (the police).

The power of the Enlightenment ideas can be seenin writings on another aspect of society: crime andpunishment. By the eighteenth century, most Euro-pean states had developed a system of courts to for-mally sentence criminals. Punishments were oftencruel. Governments felt extreme punishments werenecessary to deter crime because their police forceswere weak and thus unable to capture criminals.

Following the thinking of the philosophes, oneman came up with different conclusions. Cesare Beccaria proposed a new approach to justice in OnCrimes and Punishments, written in 1764. Beccariaargued that brutal punishments did not stop othersfrom turning to crime. Moreover, it set an example ofbarbarism: “Is it not absurd, that the laws, whichpunish murder, should, in order to prevent murder,publicly commit murder themselves?”

Explaining What is the concept oflaissez-faire?

Reading Check


Mary Wollstonecraft1759–1797—English writer

Mary Wollstonecraft is considered by many to be the founder of the Euro-pean and American movements for women’s rights. Wollstonecraft waslargely self-educated. For a while, she earned a living as a governess butsoon moved to a writing career and worked for a magazine publisher.

All along, Wollstonecraft continued to develop her ideas on educationand women’s rights. She wrote in 1792: “Make women rational creatures,and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; that is—if mendo not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers!”

Mary Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin in 1797.She died shortly after the birth of their daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft God-win Shelley, who wrote the famous novel Frankenstein.

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Magazines, Then and NowBookstores and newsstands carry thousands of

magazines that appeal to an enormous variety ofinterests. We can find magazines on fishing, car racing,fashion, politics, television, furniture making, tourism,wrestling, and a host of other subjects.

The first magazines in Europe were a product of agrowing reading public in the seventeenth and eigh-teenth centuries, especially among the middle classes.The first magazine was published in Germany in 1633.It contained poems and articles on religion, the chiefinterest of its editor, Johann Rist.

Many early magazines had serious goals. JosephAddison and Richard Steele’s Spectator, begun in1711, aimed to “bring Philosophy out of the closetsand libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubsand assemblies, at tea-tables and coffeehouses.”

Some publishers beganto broaden the appeal oftheir magazines. Someattracted women readers.Ladies’ Mercury, publishedin Britain, provided adviceon marriage, sewing pat-terns, and gossip. Its suc-cess inspired a host ofsimilar magazines.

Pretend you are an eighteenth-century magazine edi-tor assigned to write an article for the next edition.Choose a person or an event discussed in Chapter 2to be the subject of your article (use outsideresources if necessary). You could also select oneEnlightenment idea and present it to your readers.

Argentine magazine stand


Spread of the Enlightenment

Enlightenment ideas spread in France throughsalons and in the Western world through an expansion ofthe reading public.

Reading Connection Think about the careers open toAmerican women today. Read to learn how the Enlightenmentfirst promoted ideas about women’s rights.

It was wealthy elites who experienced the Enlight-enment to the fullest. However, the movement alsospread to literate people in urban areas of Europe.

Salons and the Growth of Reading In the eigh-teenth century, many more books began to be pub-lished. In 1750, French publishers came out withabout 300 titles, and by 1780, that number hadclimbed to about 1,600. Publishers were aiming at anew market, too, new readers among the middleclass, which included women and artisans and evena few workers in the cities.

Between 1751 and 1772, a French philosophenamed Denis Diderot published a 28-volume Ency-clopedia, or Classified Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts,

and Trades. The Encyclopedia became a major weaponin the philosophes’ crusade against the old Frenchsociety, attacking superstition and calling for politicalchanges. Many copies were sold, spreading Enlight-enment ideas. Magazines also changed ideas. InGreat Britain, an important center for the new maga-zines, 25 periodicals were published in 1700, 103 in1760, and 158 in 1780. Along with magazines camedaily newspapers. The first was printed in London in1702. Newspapers were relatively cheap and wereeven provided free in many coffeehouses.

Enlightenment ideas also spread through salons.Salons were the elegant drawing rooms of thewealthy upper class’s great urban houses. Guestsgathered in them to discuss ideas. Salons broughtwriters and artists together with aristocrats andwealthy middle-class people. This mixing of theclasses was itself a sign of progress.

HISTORY

Web Activity Visit the Glencoe World History—ModernTimes Web site at and click onChapter 2–Student Web Activity to learn more about thearts in the 1700s.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

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Women and the Enlightenment Salons werealways hosted by women. In this role, women foundthemselves in a position to sway political opinionand influence literary and artistic taste. At her fash-ionable home in Paris, for example, Marie-Thérèse deGeoffrin, the wife of a wealthy merchant, held gath-erings that became the talk of France and of allEurope. Distinguished foreigners, including a futureking of Sweden and a future king of Poland, com-peted to receive invitations.

For centuries, male intellectuals had argued thatwomen were naturally inferior to men and so it wasnecessary for men to dominate women. By the timeof the Enlightenment, however, female thinkers didnot find that these ideas met the test of reason. TheEnglish writer Mary Wollstonecraft made thestrongest statement for the rights of women. Manysee her as the original founder of the movement forwomen’s rights.

In A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Woll-stonecraft identified two problems with how someEnlightenment thinkers viewed women. She askedwhy the same people who argued that women mustobey men without question also said that an abso-lutist government was wrong.

Wollstonecraft also argued that the Enlightenmentwas based on an ideal of reason in all human beings.Because women have reason, they too are entitled tonatural rights. Women, Wollstonecraft declared,should have equal rights in education, as well as ineconomic and political life.

The Enlightenment in America The Enlighten-ment had a powerful effect on colonists in America.The British colonies were still part of European soci-ety in many ways, and educated men and womenread the same books and journals as the elites ofEurope—at least as soon as they could get them fortheir libraries or borrow them.

Thomas Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration ofIndependence, first encountered the writings ofEnlightenment thinkers when he was a college stu-dent in the early 1760s. He and James Madison,another influential American leader, were bothattracted to the ideas of John Locke.

One of the most obvious examples of Locke’sinfluence can be seen in the Declaration of Indepen-dence. Numerous phrases in the Declaration bear aresemblance to statements in Locke’s Two Treatises ofGovernment. Perhaps Locke had the most impactthrough his argument that citizens were justified inrebelling against a government that causes harm tothose it governs. Americans were certain that theBritish government of King George III had causedthem harm, and that they were justified in rebelling.

Evaluating How did Mary Woll-stonecraft use the Enlightenment ideal of reason?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: philosophe, evi-

dence, affect, deism, separation ofpowers, concept, social contract, laissez-faire, salon.

2. People Identify: Isaac Newton,Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, AdamSmith, Cesare Beccaria, Denis Diderot,Mary Wollstonecraft.

3. Places Locate: Paris, London.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. Explain the influence of Isaac Newton

and John Locke on Enlightenmentthinkers.

Critical Thinking5. Connecting

Ideas What did Rousseau mean whenhe stated that if any individual wants topursue his own self-interest at theexpense of the common good, “He willbe forced to be free”?

6. Summarizing Information Use a dia-gram like the one below to identify fac-tors that helped spread Enlightenmentideas throughout Europe.

Analyzing Visuals7. Describe the scene in the painting on

page 182, which portrays Thomas Jef-ferson, Benjamin Franklin, and JohnAdams drafting the Declaration of Inde-pendence. Does the scene suggest theseriousness of what they were doing?CA HI 1

Factors that SpreadEnlightenment

For help with the concepts in this section of Glencoe WorldHistory—Modern Times, go to andclick on Study Central.

wh.mt.glencoe.com


8. Persuasive Writing Mary Woll-stonecraft argued that women areentitled to the same rights as men.In an essay, present an argument fortoday’s audience on the same issue,using evidence and logic.

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The American Revolution

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

Section PreviewInspired by a belief in natural rights the-ory, American colonists rebelled againstBritain to found a new nation.

• In theory, the colonies were governedby the British, but in practice coloniallegislatures often acted independently.(p. 191)

• After the French and Indian War, theBritish angered colonists by imposingnew taxes to help pay for the war. (p. 191)

• Drawing on natural rights theory andthe ideas of John Locke, the Declarationof Independence declared the coloniesto be independent of the British Crown.(p. 192)

• Americans won their independencefrom Britain in 1783 and later ratified aconstitution that clearly spelled out therights of individuals and the limits ofgovernment. (p. 194)

• Americans struggled to find a balancebetween individual freedom and a uni-fied central government. (p. 196)

Content Vocabularycolony, Stamp Act, Declaration of Inde-pendence, Articles of Confederation, fed-eral system, Bill of Rights

Academic Vocabularytension, correspondence, amendments,assembly

People to IdentifyWilliam Pitt the Elder, King George III,George Washington, Thomas Jefferson

Places to LocateYorktown

Reading Objectives1. Identify the causes of the American

Revolution.2. Describe the short-term and long-term

impact of the American Revolution.

Reading StrategySummarizing Information Use a chartlike the one below to identify key aspectsof the government created by the Ameri-can colonists.



10.1.3: Consider the influence of the U.S. Constitutionon political systems in the contemporary world.

10.2: Students compare and contrast the Glorious Revo-lution of England, the American Revolution, andthe French Revolution and their enduring effectsworldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.

10.2.2: List the principles of the Magna Carta, the Eng-lish Bill of Rights (1689), the American Declara-tion of Independence (1776), the FrenchDeclaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen(1789), and the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791).

10.2.3: Understand the unique character of the Ameri-can Revolution, its spread to other parts of theworld, and its continuing significance to othernations.

1721Robert Walpole becomes cabinet head in Britain

1776American Revolution begins

1783Treaty of Paris recognizes Americanindependence

1757William Pitt the Elderbecomes cabinet head

✦1715 ✦1730 ✦1745 ✦1760 ✦1775 ✦1790

CHAPTER 2 Revolution and Enlightenment190

NewAmerican Government

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How the Colonies Learned Self-Government

In theory, the colonies were governed by theBritish, but in practice colonial legislatures often actedindependently.

Reading Connection What issues might make you wantto declare independence from your parents, teachers, andfriends? Read to discover why colonists took their first steps topolitical independence.

By 1750, more than one million people lived in thethirteen British colonies in North America. Locatedon the eastern coast of the present United States, theyattracted many settlers and became prosperous.

The colonies were established to supply raw mate-rials to Britain and to be a market for British goods.In theory, the British Board of Trade, and ultimatelythe Parliament, were in charge of them, but thecolonies had set up their own legislatures. Fordecades, these legislatures operated with little inter-ference from Britain.

Each of the 13 legislatures functioned like a minia-ture Parliament and made its own laws. White malecitizens who owned land elected the representatives.There were also county and local government insti-tutions which passed laws for towns and villages.

Comparing How did American andBritish views of their legislatures differ?

British and French Rivalry in NorthAmerica

After the French and Indian War, the Britishangered colonists by imposing new taxes to help pay forthe war.

Reading Connection Think about the various kinds oftaxes that may affect your life. Read this section to see howcolonists reacted to taxes they felt were unjust.

The French and British colonies in North Americawere set up differently. French North America, con-sisting of Canada and Louisiana, was run by theFrench government as a vast trading area. TheFrench state was unable to get people to move toNorth America, so its colonies were thinly populated,in contrast to those of Britain.

Between 1756 and 1763, Britain and France foughtone another in the Seven Years’ War. The Americanphase of the war is known as the French and IndianWar. The British and the French were fighting for con-trol of North America, especially for control of theOhio River valley. British settlers wanted to expandinto this vast area, and French forts stood in their way.

Reading Check


On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congressadopted a resolution declaring the independence ofthe American colonies. It read:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, thatall men are created equal, that they are endowedby their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuitof Happiness. That to secure these rights, Govern-ments are instituted among Men, deriving theirjust powers from the consent of the governed.That whenever any Form of Government becomesdestructive of these ends, it is the Right of thePeople to alter or to abolish it and to institute newGovernment.”

The ideas of the Enlightenment had clearly madean impact on the colonies in North America. Despitetheir close ties to their European mother countries,the colonies of Latin America and British NorthAmerica were developing in ways that sometimesdiffered significantly from those of Europe.

Thomas Jefferson

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At first, the French, with the help of their Indianallies, scored some victories. British fortunes wererevived by William Pitt the Elder, Britain’s primeminister. Pitt was convinced that the French colonialempire would have to be destroyed for Britain to haveits own empire. He used the British navy to defeat theweaker French fleet. The British had the advantage—the French now had a hard time reinforcing theirtroops in America.

In 1759, British forces defeated the French on thePlains of Abraham, outside Quebec. The French wereforced to make peace. By the Treaty of Paris, theytransferred Canada and the lands east of the Missis-sippi to Great Britain. Their ally Spain transferredSpanish Florida to British control. In return, theFrench gave their Louisiana territory to the Spanish.By 1763, Great Britain had become the world’s great-est colonial power.

After achieving victory in the Seven Years’ War,British leaders wanted to get new revenues from thecolonies. These revenues would be used to cover warcosts, as well as to pay for the expenses of maintain-ing an army to defend the colonies.

In 1765, Parliament imposed the Stamp Act on thecolonies. This act required that certain printed mate-rials, such as legal documents and newspapers, carrya stamp showing that a tax had been paid to Britain.

Opposition was widespread and often violent, andthe act was repealed in 1766. The crisis was over, butthe cause of the dispute was not resolved.

Why did British leaders impose theStamp Act on colonists, and what response did it elicit?

The American Revolution

Drawing on natural rights theory and theideas of John Locke, the Declaration of Independencedeclared the colonies to be independent of the BritishCrown.

Reading Connection What comes to mind when you celebrate the Fourth of July? Read to learn how and why the colonists took the bold and risky step of declaringindependence.

The tension between Great Britain and thecolonies had started before the Stamp Act waspassed. The British expected the colonies to importmostly British goods. Parliament passed taxes onnon-British goods to make them more expensive. Toavoid these tariffs, the colonists had been smugglingthem. The British then clamped down on smugglers,

Reading Check


The Battle of Quebec in 1759 was a great British victory over the French in the French and Indian War.

Library of Congress

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even searching private homes for illegal goods. Thecolonists were angry because they thought of them-selves as English citizens protected by English laws.

On the same day that Parliament repealed theStamp Act, it passed the Declaratory Act. TheDeclaratory Act said that Parliament had the right totax and make decisions for the colonies “in all cases.”New taxes on basic goods were passed. The newtaxes—and the undermining of the colonial legisla-tures—enraged the colonists. “No taxation withoutrepresentation!” became the rallying cry behind anti-British demonstrations, boycotts, and even destruc-tion of property.

As a result of the colonists’ actions, the British sentmore troops to the colonies. Clashes between theBritish soldiers and the colonists grew more volatile.One clash, the Boston Massacre, left five colonistsdead and led to the spread of anti-British propa-ganda. In order to restore the peace and reestablishtrade relations, the British repealed all taxes exceptfor the tea tax, and the colonists put an end to boy-cotts on British goods. However, the push for eco-nomic independence was growing stronger.

After two years of relative calm, tension mountedwhen Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773. This actallowed the struggling British East India Company tobypass American merchants and sell their tea directly to colonial shopkeepers. This made British tea cheaper than all other tea, gave the British a monopoly, and decreased profits for American merchants.

The Colonists Unite in Protest The colonists hadhad enough. Previously, at Thomas Jefferson’s urging,the colonies had formed committees of correspon-dence to allow them to communicate with each otherabout the British. They used these committees to keepEast India Company tea out of America. At BostonHarbor, two ships carrying the tea were forced to turnaround and another had its cargo seized. In December1773, colonists boarded one ship and dumped 342chests of tea into the harbor, an event that becameknown as the Boston Tea Party. Despite this radical act, most colonists were still not ready to throw offBritish rule.

When King George III heard about the Boston TeaParty, he ordered Parliament to pass the CoerciveActs to punish Massachusetts and put an end to colo-nial rebellion. The acts—renamed the IntolerableActs by the colonists—violated several traditionalEnglish rights, including the right to a trial by juryand the right to not be forced to quarter, or house,troops in one’s own home.

The Continental Congresses To counteract Britishactions, the colonies organized the First ContinentalCongress, which met in Philadelphia in September1774. The mood of many colonists could be summedup by the words of Patrick Henry, who said, “Thedistinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians,New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. . . . Iam not a Virginian, but an American.”

This Continental Congress called for the repeal ofthe 13 Parliament acts passed since 1763, the boycottof British goods, and the formation of colonial mili-tias. It sent the king a Declaration of Rights andGrievances that stated their loyalty but condemnedthe Coercive Acts. The delegates agreed to meetagain in 1775 if the crisis had not been resolved.

The reaction of King George III and Parliamentdid not calm the colonists. When colonial militiaswere formed, the king sent more British troops to thecolonies. In the spring of 1775, British troops inBoston were sent to seize the arms and supplies ofmilitias stored in Concord, Massachusetts. On theirway, the British ran into colonial militias in Lexing-ton. By the time the British got to Concord, they facedmore militias and found that the supplies had beenremoved. The British were harassed all the way backto Boston, with 99 killed and 174 wounded. News ofthe fighting spread to other colonies. In Boston, the

A British cartoonist’s image of the Boston Tea Party

193CORBIS

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colonial militia began to stream in and soon theBritish were surrounded.

The Second Continental Congress Because ofhow the British reacted, the Second Continental Con-gress was called and met in May 1775. The first issuewas the formation of an organized army, the Conti-nental Army, which was to be commanded byGeorge Washington. Before the Continental Armyhad a chance to organize, the British sent more sol-diers to Boston to suppress revolt. The colonial mili-tia found out about the plan and met the British at theBattle of Bunker Hill. Desperately short on supplies,the colonists managed to kill or wound 1,000 Britishsoldiers. A military stalemate resumed in Boston, butAmerican confidence was rising.

Still, the colonists did not rush headlong into war.After the fighting in Lexington and Concord, morethan a year passed before the decision was made todeclare independence from the British Empire.

In July 1775, the Second Continental Congress sentthe Olive Branch Petition to assure King George III oftheir desire for peace. The colonists asked the king toprotect their rights as English citizens, which they feltParliament had been taking away. King Georgerefused to look at the petition. Instead, he sent 30,000hired German troops to the colonies to fight the rebel-lious colonists.

Although some colonists, called Loyalists, wantedto remain loyal English citizens, others, called Patri-ots, began calling for independence. Beginning inJanuary 1776, Patriot Thomas Paine’s pamphlets,called Common Sense, began circulating throughoutthe colonies. Paine’s writings began to convince peo-ple that both Parliament and King George III wereacting like tyrants, and complete independence fromGreat Britain was necessary if Americans were tosecure their rights.

The Birth of a New Nation

Americans won their independence fromBritain in 1783 and later ratified a constitution that clearlyspelled out the rights of individuals and the limits of government.

Reading Connection Can you think of a time when agoal you had finally became a reality? Read to learn about thesteps colonists took when they finally won independence.

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congressapproved a declaration of independence written byThomas Jefferson. Based in large part on the ideas ofJohn Locke, the Declaration of Independencedeclared the colonies to be “free and independent


At the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Patriot leaders called for a Continental army.

Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia

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states absolved from all allegiance to the BritishCrown.” Like Locke, Jefferson stated that life, liberty,and property are natural rights and it is the govern-ment’s duty to protect those rights. When govern-ments do not, they can be rightfully overthrown. Thepeople of the American colonies reacted with cele-bration to the Declaration of Independence. TheAmerican Revolution had formally begun.

The Declaration of Independence amounted to adeclaration of war against Great Britain. Such a dec-laration was an enormous gamble. The ContinentalArmy was a brand-new creation. The soldiers were amotley group of ordinary citizens—small farmers,artisans, and merchants. They had no regular mili-tary training and usually agreed to serve for only ashort time. These so-called Patriots faced the world’sbest military force, one supported by a rich nationwith a healthy economy.

The Patriots had some important advantages,though. The British had to ship soldiers and suppliesacross the Atlantic, while the Patriots were fightingon home ground.

One of the most important advantages that thePatriots had was their motivation to fight. Most ofthe British and German soldiers were fighting as partof a job or for money. For the Patriots, it was a battlefor their freedom.

A critical factor for the American victory was thefinancial support from other countries, especially

France. The French, eager to inflict damage on theBritish in any way possible, gave arms and money tothe Americans from early in the war. French officersand soldiers served under General Washington. Onefamous Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, wrotethis about the American Revolution: “The future ofAmerica is closely bound up with the future of allmankind.” Spain and the Dutch Republic, otherBritish rivals, were also eager to fight against GreatBritain. The British had their hands full.

Both sides expected the war to be short, but itdragged on for about seven years, from 1776 to 1783.When the army of General Cornwallis was finallyforced to surrender to combined American andFrench forces under Washington at Yorktown in1781, the British decided to end the war.

The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, recognized theindependence of the American colonies and grantedthe Americans control of the western territory fromthe Appalachians to the Mississippi River.

Explaining Why did foreign coun-tries support the American cause?

Reading Check


History through Art

The March to Valley Forge, 1883 was painted byWilliam B.T. Trego. It conveyed the suffering GeneralWashington and his Continental Army endured duringthe brutal winter of 1777 at their headquarters in Pennsylvania. How do you think the public felt aboutthis event in the year it was painted?

The Valley Forge Historical Society

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Ruling a New Nation

Americans struggled to find a balancebetween individual freedom and a unified central government.

Reading Connection Have you heard the phrase cost-benefit analysis? Read to learn how Americans balanced thecosts and benefits of government.

The thirteen American colonies had gained theirindependence. The former colonies were now stateswhich had to come together to form a country.Because they had just fought a war to free themselvesfrom a king, the states feared the potential for con-centrated power. Also, each state was primarily con-cerned for its own interests. For these reasons, thestates had little enthusiasm for creating a unitednation with a strong central government.

The Articles of Confederation, the nation’s firstconstitution, thus did little to provide for a strongcentral government. It soon became clear that thegovernment under the Articles lacked the power todeal with many problems. A movement for a differ-ent form of national government arose.

The Articles of Confederation had been approvedin 1781. In the summer of 1787, 55 delegates met inPhiladelphia to revise the Articles. The convention’s

delegates decided to throw out the Articles of Con-federation and write a plan for an entirely newnational government. That meeting became knownas the Constitutional Convention.

The Constitution The proposed Constitution cre-ated a federal system in which power would beshared between the national government and thestate governments. The national, or federal, govern-ment was given the power to levy taxes, raise anarmy, regulate trade, and create a national currency.

The Framers, or writers, of the Constitution usedMontesquieu’s ideas and divided the federal govern-ment into three branches, each with some power tocheck the workings of the others. The first branchwas the executive branch, with a president serving asthe chief executive. The president had the power toexecute laws, veto the legislature’s acts, superviseforeign affairs, and direct military forces.

Like the British Parliament, the second, or legisla-tive, branch of government had two houses, a Senateand a House. State legislatures elected the Senate,while the people voted directly for the House of Rep-resentatives. Here, too, the Framers built in a systemof checks and balances.

The Supreme Court and other courts deemed nec-essary by Congress made up the judiciary, or thirdbranch of government. The courts would enforce theConstitution as the “supreme law of the land.”


This 1867 painting depicts the signing in Philadelphia of a new plan of government for the former British colonies—the United States Constitution.

Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York, (inset)Picture Research Consultants

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The Bill of Rights To take effect, the Constitutionhad to be ratified by nine states. The Constitutionwas finally approved, but in several states, the votingmargin was slim. It was the promise that a bill ofrights would be added to the Constitution that wonsufficient supporters.

Why did many colonists insist on a bill of rights?Americans had just gone through a terrible war fight-ing the tyranny of the British king and Parliament.They wanted to be sure that there were written guar-antees defining the limits of the government and therights of the individual.

In 1789 the new Congress proposed 12 amend-ments. The 10 amendments the states approvedbecame the Bill of Rights. They guaranteed freedomof religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly. TheBill of Rights clearly laid out a number of other rightsthat Americans considered absolute: the right againstunreasonable searches and arrests, the right to beararms, and the right to trial by jury. One of the mostwell-known of these rights is the right to due process.

A long history lies behind the Bill of Rights,including the Magna Carta set before King John in1215. The natural rights theory of the Enlightenmentwas, however, the most direct influence on this doc-ument. Even at the time, American and Europeanintellectuals felt that the U.S. Constitution embodiedthe ideas of the Enlightenment. The price of achiev-ing equality and freedom had been high, but now theway was open to build a better society.

A Model for Democracy The American Revolutiontook place when Enlightenment ideas were gaining

ground everywhere in the West. In France, the homeof the Enlightenment, educated people wanted asociety based on reason, not simply on outdated tra-ditions from medieval times. There were other causesfor the French Revolution, too—famine, a financialcrisis, and nobles’ discontent with the king. Yet thenew American republic was a great inspiration to theFrench. In 1789, the same year the American Bill ofRights was proposed, the French Revolution brokeout. It, too, created a new government, one based onrepresentative institutions and individual rights.

The American experience inspired Latin America,too. Between 1807 and 1825, while Europe was in tur-moil, landowners and middle-class merchants carriedout revolts against Spain in Mexico, Argentina, Peru,Chile, Venezuela, and Bolivia.

In the twentieth century, the American legacy con-tinued to inspire independence movements. National-ist leaders in Africa and Southeast Asia looked to theUnited States for political principles and a model forconstitutional government. The same was true forEastern Europeans and Russians. Even in China,where there is still no representative government, theAmerican Revolution has provided a stirring examplefor citizens who want a free and open society.

Contrasting What was the main differ-ence between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Vocabulary Define: colony, Stamp Act,

tension, correspondence, Declaration ofIndependence, Articles of Confedera-tion, federal system, amendments, Bill of Rights, assembly.

2. People Identify: William Pitt the Elder,King George III, George Washington,Thomas Jefferson.

3. Places Locate: Yorktown.

Reviewing Big Ideas4. List the freedoms guaranteed under

the American Bill of Rights.

Critical Thinking5. Analyzing

Cause and Effect Why did the Ameri-can colonies declare their independencefrom the British Empire?

6. Summarizing Information Use a chartlike the one below to identify the signif-icant events and conflicts that led to theAmerican Revolution.

Analyzing Visuals7. Examine the painting The March to

Valley Forge on page 195. Use detailsfrom the painting to explain whetherthis artist sympathizes with the Patriotsor Loyalists.

CA HI 2

8. Expository Writing Do furtherresearch on how the French sup-ported the colonies during theAmerican Revolution. Then write anessay analyzing the importance ofFrench assistance.

CA 10WA2.3a,bCA 10WS1.3

Conflicts Between British and Colonists

For help with the concepts in this section of Glencoe WorldHistory—Modern Times, go to andclick on Study Central.

wh.mt.glencoe.com


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Three influential Enlightenment authors wrote about how they thought progress should be recorded andmaintained. Read about their eighteenth-century views on the triumphs of civilization.

SOURCE 1: The Progress of ManEdward Gibbon (1737–1794) published the first volumeof The History of the Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire in 1776. Here, he celebrates how far mankindhas progressed and his belief in future progress.

. . . [A] philosopher may be permitted . . . to con-sider Europe as one great republic, whose variousinhabitants have attained almost the same level ofpoliteness and cultivation. . . . The savage nations ofthe globe are the common enemies of civilized soci-ety; and we may inquire with anxious curiosity,whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition ofthose calamities1 which formerly oppressed the armsand institutions of Rome. . . .

. . . [From an] abject condition, perhaps the primitiveand universal state of man, he has gradually arisen tocommand the animals, to fertilise the earth, to tra-verse the ocean, and to measure the heavens. His

progress in the improvement and exercise of his men-tal and corporeal2 faculties has been irregular andvarious, infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasingby degrees with redoubled velocity. . . . Yet the experi-ence of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes,and diminish our apprehensions; we cannot deter-mine to what height the human species may aspire intheir advances towards perfection; but it may safely bepresumed that no people, unless the face of nature ischanged, will relapse into their original barbarism. . . .

Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce,and religious zeal have diffused, among the savages ofthe Old and New World, those inestimable gifts: theyhave been successfully propagated3; they can never belost. We may therefore acquiesce4 in the pleasing con-clusion that every age of the world has increased, andstill increases, the real wealth, the happiness, theknowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race.

SOURCE 2: EncyclopédieThe Encyclopédie was published under the direction ofDenis Diderot (1713–1784) in 28 volumes. More than140 writers contributed articles. In defining ency-clopédie, Diderot focuses on why sharing knowledge isimportant to progress.

ENCYCLOPÉDIE, f. n. (Philosophy). Thisword means the interrelation of all knowl-edge. . . . [T]he aim of an encyclopédie is tocollect all the knowledge scattered over theface of the earth, to present its general out-lines and structure to the men with whomwe live, and to transmit this to those who willcome after us, so that the work of past cen-turies may be useful to the following cen-turies, that our children, by becoming moreeducated, may at the same time become

1calamities: disasters; misfortunes➤

2corporeal: physical; material3propagated: reproduced; spread4acquiesce: accept; be satisfied

The Enlightenment love of knowledge as seen in a 1766painting by Joseph Wright of Derby

Gira

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more virtuous and happier, and that we may not diewithout having deserved well of the human race. . . .

It would be desirable for the government to author-ize people to go into the factories and shops, to seethe craftsmen at their work, to question them, to drawthe tools, the machines, and even the premises. . . .

. . . What is the good of divulging the knowledge anation poss

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