Enlightenment Age Dbq Essay

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The age of Enlightenment led to calls for revolution by bringing into question old beliefs of authority by casting doubt on ethic, government, and even religion. I argue that due to the Enlightenment Age with new ideas about man, government, science, and religion it’s what created a trickle effect of people’s fixed mindsets from before and because of that change people started to challenge religious beliefs as well as how monarchs ruled their everyday life, ultimately leading to new discoveries in Science, the universe, and the belief that freedom and democracy were God given rights. Perhaps one of the factors that led to calls for revolution was when men of high intellectual started to question the sacred knowledge that was passed down
Thomas Jefferson who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence demonstrated in the document some of the Enlightenment ideas like law and political thought. “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” pg. 777. Such words are chosen to not only declare independence from Great Britain but also to declare the independence from all individuals from the unlawful grip from monarch rule. As a result of Americas independence it showed the world that a country could be created by individuals with intellect and by applying principles of reason, likewise other nations soon followed the same example as Americas
“I desire you would remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors” pg. 781. Abigail Adams urges her husband John Adams to considered the women’s ideas and needs in the Declaration of Independence, and to not follow the ideas of old ancestors on how women were to be treated by hardly given any rights and were not considered equal to their male counterparts. There was a male dominance during the Enlightenment movement in the letter by Abigail Adams to John Adams she’s wanting a social organization were women can have equal rights as men. Abigail Adams warns her husband John Adams, “If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation” pg. 781. Abigail Adams warns John Adams not to suppress women and they can and will rebel when they don’t have any representation in a new nation. Incidentally in an ironic way that is the same reason why Declaration of Independence was written due to no taxation without representation in Great Britain

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