World History Enlightenment DBQ
Historical BackgroundDirections. Annotate this historical background. Selectively underline, put the main idea above the paragraph and put key points in the margin. Annotate each document and answer the study questions with specific text.
The Enlightenment was a sprawling intellectual, philosophical, cultural, and social movement that spread through England, France, Germany, and other parts of Europe during the 1600s -1700s. The Enlightenment represented about as big of a departure as possible from the Middle Ages
The millennium of the Middle Ages had been marked by unwavering religious devotion and unfathomable cruelty. Rarely before or after did the Church have as much power as it did during those thousand years. With the Holy Roman Empire as a foundation, missions such as the Crusades and Inquisition were conducted in part to find and persecute heretics, often with torture and death. Although standard at the time, such harsh injustices would eventually offend and scare Europeans into change. Science, though encouraged in the late Middle Ages as a form of piety and appreciation of God’s creation, was frequently regarded as heresy, and those who tried to explain miracles and other matters of faith faced harsh punishment. Society was highly hierarchical, with serfdom a widespread practice. There were no mandates regarding personal liberties or rights, and many Europeans feared religion—either at the hands of an unmerciful God or at the hands of the sometimes brutal Church itself.
The Enlightenment, however, opened a path for independent thought, and the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics, politics, economics, philosophy, and medicine were drastically updated and expanded. The amount of new knowledge that emerged was staggering. Just as important was the enthusiasm with which people approached the Enlightenment: intellectual salons popped up in France, philosophical discussions were held, and the increasingly literate population read books and passed them around feverishly. The Enlightenment and all of the new knowledge thus permeated nearly every facet of civilized life.
Whether considered from an intellectual, political, or social standpoint, the advancements of the Enlightenment transformed the Western world into an intelligent and self-aware civilization. Moreover, it directly inspired the creation of the world’s first great democracy, the United States of America.
Task: For each document write the main idea and answer the questions below in the box
Document One Second Treatise on Government– John Locke
. . Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit trust, that it shall be employed for their good and preservation of their property…
. . . So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man’s hands in the state of nature . . . it can have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the member of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes…
Main idea political protection of lives and property
Based on this document, what is the reason for political power?
People have entrusted government for the good and the protection of their freedoms and possessions
What does Locke mean where he says “ ..so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives and fortunes…”
government can’t for arbitrary reasons interfere with the lives and possessions of the people .
What does Locke mean by arbitrary?
Document Two Thomas Hobbes, “The Leviathan,” published in 1651
Thomas Hobbes was one of the first English Enlightenment philosophers. He believed in a strong government based on reason. The following is an excerpt from his most famous work
“Nature has made men so equal in with regards to the body and mind that the difference from man to another man is not so considerable (not very much).
From this equality of ability comes an equality of hope in attaining of our goals and desires. If any two men desire the same thing which they cannot both enjoy, they compete and become enemies. When this happens, and if there is no common power to keep them all in awe (keep them in check), they will engage (participate) in a condition which is called war.
In such condition (war) there is no place for business or prosperity (success) because war makes all things uncertain. As a result of this, culture goes away and knowledge is lost. There are no arts, no letters, and no society in times of war. Worst of all, there is continual fear and danger of violent death. The life of man is solitary (lonely), poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
In order to live a more contented (happy) life and escape that miserable condition of war, men must give up their freedom to the State (government). The power of the State must be absolute (complete, total) in order to keep men in awe, and tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants (moral agreements) with one another.
Main Idea:
Why does Hobbes believe we must give up freedom to the state?
Why would this be an enlightenment idea?
Document Three The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu
In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; the executive, in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law.
By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies; establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other simply the executive power of the state.
The political liberty of the subject is a tranquility of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of` another.
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may anse, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for the judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor.
Main idea
How does Montesquieu believe government should be divided? How is this different than previous ideas?
Document Four The Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau
The social contract's terms, when they are well understood, can be reduced to a single stipulation: the individual member alienates himself totally to the whole community together with all his rights. This is first because conditions will be the same for everyone when each individual gives himself totally, and secondly, because no one will be tempted to make that condition of shared equality worse for other men....
Once this multitude is united this way into a body, an offense against one of its members is an offense against the body politic. It would be even less possible to injure the body without its members feeling it. Duty and interest thus equally require the two contracting parties to aid each other mutually. The individual people should be motivated from their double roles as individuals and members of the body, to combine all the advantages which mutual aid offers them....
Main Idea
According to Rousseau, when individuals agree to the social contract, what happens to their rights? What is the motivation of the people when they submit to the social contract?
Document FiveLouis lVX famous quote 1661?
'L'etat c'est moi' ('I am the state')
Main Idea
What does Louis the lVX statement meant in relation to enlightenment thinking?
How might this influence enlightenment philosophers
Document Six Adam Smith Wealth of Nations
“If any trade, item, or object is beneficial (helpful) to the public, free and more general (widespread) competition will always make it more so (beneficial). It is a characteristic of man that no item or object is produced to his liking. He finds that there is need for improvement in everything.
The whole industry of human life is not employed (used) to obtain the supply of our three most basic needs, which are food, clothes and lodging (housing). The industry of mankind is employed to obtain the luxuries (nice things) of life according to the nicety and delicacy of our tastes (the styles people like).
Main Idea:
Why does Smith prefer competition?
Why does Smith believe only competition will allow people the finer things?"
Document SevenA Treatise on Toleration, Voltaire
It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?
Main Idea:
What is Voltaire advocating in A Treatise on Toleration? How is this a departure from previous attitudes?
Document Eight Second Paragraph Declaration of Independence 1716 (Thomas Jefferson)
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.
Main Idea:
How is Jefferson applying Locke’s ideas of Natural Law and Natural Rights .
Why do rights have to be unalienable?
DBQ Question: How has the principles of enlightenment influenced social, political and economic development of the United States?