Enlightenment Causes

Enlightenment Overview & Causes

Match

Match the following

• the percentage of people who are able to read

• something you are allowed to do because you are a person.

• the power of the mind to think, understand, and make sense of the world

• a king or queen with complete control

• one who thinks about, questions, and studies the nature of life, truth, knowledge, and other important human matters

Literacy Rate

Rights

Reason

Absolute Monarch

Philosopher

• Literacy Rate

• Rights

• Reason

• Absolute Monarch

• Philosopher

Match

Match the following

• the process of making an area more city-like, usually through an increase in population

• the organized Christian church led by Pope centered in Rome

• the group of people that has power to make laws and important decisions for a community, state, or nation

• a period of time from the 1500s through the 1700s in which scholars started to question their beliefs about the world and base their conclusions on observation and reason rather than spiritual belief or what organizations like the Catholic Church told them

urbanization

Catholic Church

Government

Scientific Revolution

• urbanization

• Catholic Church

• Government

• Scientific Revolution

Read the text, and answer the questions on the following slides.

The Age of Enlightenment began in Europe in the late 17th century. It would bring about fundamental changes in the way the world was understood and how societies were organized. Until then, the church had dictated [told people] what to think and how to live. Dissent [disagreeing with those in power] was punished even by death. But with the Enlightenment, people began to embrace new ideas about freedom of expression and new rational methods to investigate the world. In England, Newton made the foundations of science as we know it by showing that the universe was governed by physical laws that could be discovered using observation and reason. In philosophy, Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire and Diderot argued that man, not God, was at the center of the world. Ideas were beginning to change, but in the 18th century most of Europe was still [ruled by] absolute monarchs. Empowered by Enlightenment thinking in both Europe and America, people began to demand real change.

Multiple Choice

What organization had the most influence on how people in Europe lived and what they thought? (Think before the Renaissance)

• Government

• Church

• People

• Scientist

Open Ended

Name at least 1 change that came about as a result of the Enlightenment.

1. Absolute Monarch

2. Reformation & Scientific Revolution

3. Printing Press

4. Urbanization

Multiple Choice

Which of the below is how absolute monarchs consolidated and maintained their power?

• offering positive incentives

• punishing those that spoke out against them

• giving the people more rights

• creating an alliance with the Catholic Church

Dropdown

The Reformation and the Scientific Revolution influenced the Enlightenment because they began to question ​

Select answer

Open Ended

Why would more people being able to read, lead to the Enlightenment spreading?

Open Ended

Bring it all together. In a few sentences, tell me how historical circumstances led to the Enlightenment?