Global 10.2

Enlightenment

Global 10.2

by Colleen Skadl

​The Enlightenment

​An intellectual movement that questioned:

• Traditional beliefs

• The role of government

• The best forms of government

• The relationship between the government and people

Open Ended

Describe the Enlightenment in your own words!

​John Locke - Father of Enlightenment

• ​Believed all people are born equal and shaped by their experiences 

• Believed all people are born with natural rights

  • Life, Liberty, Property

• Believed the job of government is to protect natural rights

• Believed revolution was justified if a government failed to protect natural rights

​Enlightenment Thinker: Montesquieu

• ​Wrote The Spirit of the Laws

• Believed governments must be divided into three separate but equal branches to prevent tyranny

  • Legislative makes the law

  • Executive carries out the law

  • Judicial makes sure laws are fair and do not violate rights

• Our government is based heavily on Montesquieu’s writing.

Multiple Choice

Which country has a government most closely based on the ideas of Montesquieu?

• Great Britain

• The United States

• China

• The Soviet Union

​Enlightenment Thinker: Rousseau

• ​Favored democracy as a form of government

• Argued the will of the majority should always be carried out.

• Defined the social contract as an agreement between the people and the government in which

  • People agree to obey the government

  • The government agrees to protect people's’ rights

Multiple Choice

The idea that all people are born with the natural rights of life, liberty, and property is most directly associated with the writings of

• John Locke

• Montesquieu

• Rousseau

• Jacques Begnine- Bossuet

​Enlightenment Ideas Lead to Reform

​

People begin to apply Enlightenment ideas to issues in the world of the late 1700s including:

• Inequality

• Women’s rights

• Abolition of Slavery

Poll

Which of these Enlightenment inspired movements do you think is most important?

• Inequality

• Women's Rights

• Abolition of Slavery

​Enlightenment Inspired Reformer: Mary Wollstonecraft

​British woman

• Argued that women and men are intellectually equal, only lack of education holds women back

• Argued women should have equal political and economic rights

• Wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women to argue for more rights

• Supported the French Revolution until the Terror began

​Enlightenment Inspired Reformer: William Wilberforce

• ​British member of Parliament who made it his life’s work to get the British empire to ban and outlaw slavery throughout its empire.

• 1833 - Parliament passes a bill abolishing slavery.  (Wilberforce dies three days later)

Multiple Choice

The Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies was written by William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament in 1823.

To all the inhabitants of the British Empire, who value the favour of God, or are alive to the interests or honour of their country – to all who have any respect for justice, or any feelings of humanity, I would solemnly address myself. I call upon them, as they shall hereafter answer, in the great day of account, for the use they shall have made of any power and influence with which Providence may have entrusted them, to employ their best endeavours, by all lawful and constitutional means, to mitigate, and, as soon as it may be safely done, to terminate the Negro Slavery of the British Colonies; a system of the grossest injustice, of the most heathenish irreligion and immorality, of the most unprecedented degradation, and unrelenting cruelty.

At any time, and under any circumstances, from such a heavy load of guilt as this oppression amounts to, it would be our interest no less than our duty to absolve ourselves. But I will not attempt to conceal, that the present embarrassments and distress of our country – a distress, indeed, in which the West Indians themselves have largely participated – powerfully enforce on me the urgency of the obligation under which we lie, to commence, without delay, the preparatory measures for putting an end to a national crime of the deepest moral malignity. [. . .] 

This document would be most useful to a person trying to prove that

• William Wilberforce was in favor of the international slave trade

• Slavery was considered by most people to be a crime

• Some members of British society wanted to abolish slavery

• Parliament saw slavery as an economic necessity

Multiple Choice

The Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies was written by William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament in 1823.

To all the inhabitants of the British Empire, who value the favour of God, or are alive to the interests or honour of their country – to all who have any respect for justice, or any feelings of humanity, I would solemnly address myself. I call upon them, as they shall hereafter answer, in the great day of account, for the use they shall have made of any power and influence with which Providence may have entrusted them, to employ their best endeavours, by all lawful and constitutional means, to mitigate, and, as soon as it may be safely done, to terminate the Negro Slavery of the British Colonies; a system of the grossest injustice, of the most heathenish irreligion and immorality, of the most unprecedented degradation, and unrelenting cruelty.

At any time, and under any circumstances, from such a heavy load of guilt as this oppression amounts to, it would be our interest no less than our duty to absolve ourselves. But I will not attempt to conceal, that the present embarrassments and distress of our country – a distress, indeed, in which the West Indians themselves have largely participated – powerfully enforce on me the urgency of the obligation under which we lie, to commence, without delay, the preparatory measures for putting an end to a national crime of the deepest moral malignity...

Who is William Wilberforce addressing in this excerpt?

• The British people and government

• The United States of America

• Enslaved peoples in the Caribbean

• European colonies in the Atlantic

Multiple Choice

The Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies was written by William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament in 1823.

To all the inhabitants of the British Empire, who value the favour of God, or are alive to the interests or honour of their country – to all who have any respect for justice, or any feelings of humanity, I would solemnly address myself. I call upon them, as they shall hereafter answer, in the great day of account, for the use they shall have made of any power and influence with which Providence may have entrusted them, to employ their best endeavours, by all lawful and constitutional means, to mitigate, and, as soon as it may be safely done, to terminate the Negro Slavery of the British Colonies; a system of the grossest injustice, of the most heathenish irreligion and immorality, of the most unprecedented degradation, and unrelenting cruelty.

At any time, and under any circumstances, from such a heavy load of guilt as this oppression amounts to, it would be our interest no less than our duty to absolve ourselves. But I will not attempt to conceal, that the present embarrassments and distress of our country – a distress, indeed, in which the West Indians themselves have largely participated – powerfully enforce on me the urgency of the obligation under which we lie, to commence, without delay, the preparatory measures for putting an end to a national crime of the deepest moral malignity.

Which group of people would be most opposed to the ideas expressed in this passage>

• Enlightenment thinkers

• The industrial middle class

• Colonial plantation owners

• The industrial working class