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Essay on thomas hobbes political philosophy
Comparing and contrasting the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
Comparing and contrasting the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
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When examining the bloody and often tumultuous history of Great Britain prior to their ascent to power, one would not have predicted that they would become the global leader of the 18th century. Prior to the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War, the Spanish and the Holy Roman Empire held much of the power in Europe. Only with the suppression of Catholicism and the development of national sovereignty did Great Britain have the opportunity to rise through the ranks. While much of continental Europe was seeking to strengthen their absolute monarchies and centralized style of governing, in the 17th and 18th centuries Great Britain was making significant political changes that reflected the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. The first of the political philosophers was Thomas Hobbes who first introduced the idea that the monarch ruled not by “divine right” but through the consent of the people. This was a radical idea with ramifications that are reflected in the great changed Great Britain made to to their government in the 17th century. Through a series of two violent civil wars between the monarchy and Parliament and the bloodless civil war known as the Glorious Revolution, Parliament was granted the authority to, in essence, “check” the power of the monarchy. The internal shifts of power in Great Britain and the savvy foreign policy skills demonstrated by the British in much of the conflict happening in continental Europe can be credited with England’s rise to power.
By the Glorious Revolution of the 17th century, England was already miles ahead of their European brethren. William of Orange and his wife, Mary, took over the English throne after King James fled to France on the heels of his failed attempts to rul...
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...to govern their local towns and were therefore motivated to pay taxes that eventually led to the strong military force and navy that were steadily building due to economic prosperity. Sir Robert Walpole is thought of the first prime minister of Great Britain and while he was in power “the English state combined considerable military power with both religious and political liberty” (The Western Heritage p 381) because he allowed his opposition to openly criticize him and his policies.
Works Cited
Glorious Revolution." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 7 Feb. 2010 .
Hooker, Robert. "The European Enlightenment." The European Enlightenment. Washington State University, 6 June 1999. Web. 07 Feb. 2010. .
The Western Heritage. 10th ed. Vol. 2. Prentice Hall, 1999. Print.
During the 18th century, the acts and policies Britain enforced on the colonists strengthened their resistance to British rule and their republican values. The British began to continuously abuse their power over the colonies. As a result, the colonies united against the British and started to fight against their rule.
Eliga H. Gould, The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution (North Carolina: Omohundro Institute, 2000),
In the world’s lens during the 1760s, the British empire had a clear and prominent control over the colonies. However, by the mid-1770s the Americans became enraged enough to declare war against the British for independence. Due to Britain’s massive imperial presence around the globe, the British civilians had a strong inclination for a successful outcome. Instead, the colonists pulled a surprising victory from what should have been a swift defeat. While the British had an abundance of advantages, they lost the Revolutionary War because the British army underestimated the colonists’ perseverance for freedom.
The European monarchs and rulers of the 17th and 18th centuries wanted to increase their power both domestically and globally by adding to their territories and populations. Both in merging their power internally and expanding their power externally, they employed three features of state-building: control, extraction, and integration. In the late 1700s, both the Industrial revolution and French revolution of 1789 strengthened the idea that Europeans were different from the rest of the world. It also strengthened that Europeans were “succeeding” promptly while the rest of the world seemed to be declining, that Europeans were somehow extraordinary and better than the rest.” (Robert Marks page 10).
The Austrian, Habsburg Empire and England faced issues common to many European nations of the time. Religion and leadership were at the forefront of these crises. What set the two nations apart and ensured England’s survival was that England, not necessarily consciously, made improvements to their government while they addressed their smaller individual problems. With each growing pain came compromise. Through compromise, the English developed into a Constitutional Monarchy; this representative type of government, guided by a Bill of Rights, established checks and balances that inherently support a strong, unified nation as opposed to the self interests of individual factions.
Given the short time frame in which the Revolution of 1830 occurred, it didn’t give England and the other super powers much time to make a decision on what had to be done. The situation was best describe by the British P...
Michael Barone wrote the book Our First Revolution, which details how the Glorious Revolution was essentially the stepping stone for the American Revolution and the creation of the United States. The author argues that the removal of James II and the agreement that followed to give William and Mary a joint monarchy was the blueprint for the American Revolution. Furthermore, the book details the events leading to the Revolution of 1688, it compares Britain in the political and religious aspect to the rest of the European countries in the late 1600’s, the issues taking place in Britain that essentially led to the removal of James, but most importantly, it describes the immense influence it had in America almost a century later.
Niles, Patricia. “The Enlightenment.” Novaonline. Niles and C.T. Evans, 7 May 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. .
Tyranny, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.” Many Americans saw British policy during the late 18th century to be highly tyrannical. But many of them failed to acknowledge the presence of previous policies that the ones they were aware of actually replaced. Ensuring that previously instituted policies are enforced cannot be considered tyrannical. I agree with this view, and this essay will serve to prove that British policy was in fact reformist rather than tyrannical in the 1760’s and early 1770’s.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
13 Dec. 2004. Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. Kreis, Steven.
Brooklyn College Department of History, The Shaping of The Modern World from the Enlightenment to the Present, Fifth Edition. New York: Pearson, 2010. 3-8.
Although England and the American colonies intended their relationship to be mutually beneficial, they increasingly worked at cross purposes over time. Founded by a number of independent groups, the colonists and England regarded the colonies as separate. But by the middle of the seventeenth century, Parliament attempted to impose order with various laws. A more unified American character and identity began to emerge in the colonies. The Enlightenment's political thought influenced Americans and its followers' scientific...
Melton, James V. H. The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Print.
The late eighteenth century was the beginning of a crucial turning point throughout Europe. In 1789, the people of France revolted against their government, proving that an absolute monarch did not hold all the power, and that citizens were not afraid to stand up for their rights. Known as the French Revolution, it lasted into the late 1790’s and paved the way for more freedom and equality among all citizens. Although this was a major movement for the future of European people in the nineteenth century, another equally significant accomplishment was beginning to unfold in England. The 1780’s marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England, which led the way for tremendous population and economic growth throughout Europe.