The POWER of ideas!

1. 691-697- Compare excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of Man.- Describe the progression of the American Revolution.

2. The POWER of ideas! • The new ideas of the Enlightenment… • … led to the American Revolution… • … which led to the French Revolution!!

3. CompareandContrast • Create a Venn diagram comparing American documents to the French document • Read Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights • Read Declaration of the Rights of Man

4. Declaration of Independence & Bill of Rights Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen • Sovereignty • resides w/people • Refers to natural, • inalienable rights • Equality • Rt to overthrow • Protect rights of people • From a Powerful govt • Neither mentions • slavery or women’s • rights • Reads like a • law code • No conclusion, • or next step • Less persuasive • States general • rights • Uses emotional • language • Specific, logical • conclusion • Persuasive • Clear complaints

5. Revolutionary Goals: • Enlightenment ideas of liberty and equality greatly influenced the goals of political revolutions: • “Liberty consists of being able to do anything that does not harm another person.” (Declaration of the Rights of Man, French Revolution). • It was also a call for a new kind of government where the people held “sovereignty” rather than a king. • Social and political equality were also included, how- ever, not economic equality (only equal opportunity to gain property), nor did this idea include women. • Ancient Greek and Judeo-Christian tradition of individual-ism was strong as well: • The ideas of human dignity, faith in science, rational-ism, no censorship and progress were old ideas but grew popular during the Enlightenment.

6. Revolutionary Goals: • John Locke and the baron de Montesquieu were the two most influential philosophes of the period. • Locke that if a government fails to protect the natural rights of life, liberty and property it becomes a tyranny. • Montesquieu argued that a constitutional representative government is best to safeguard liberties and rights. • HOWEVER, this did not mean democracy, but rather voting right be limited to those who held “a stake in society” who owned property (the bourgeoisie). John Locke Montesquieu

7. Steps in The American Revolution (1775-1789) • After Seven Years War, England maintained a • colonial army. • “Stamp Act” (1765) was used to tax colonists. • Colonists accustomed to much liberty/freedom. • Boston Tea Party (1773). • Britain responded with the “Coercive Acts” (1773). • First Continental Congress (1774). • Fighting begins at Lexington and Concord (1775) • Paine’s “Common Sense” attacked the idea of • Britain controlling the colonies (1776). • Second Continental Congress signs Declaration • of Independence July 4, 1776.

8. Signing of the Declaration of Independence (1776)

9. Steps in The American Revolution (1775-1789) • After Seven Years War, England maintained a • colonial army • “Stamp Act” (1765) • Colonists accustomed to much liberty/freedom. • Boston Tea Party. • Coercive Acts. • First Continental Congress (1774) • Fighting begins at Lexington and Concord (1775) • Paine’s “Common Sense” attacked the idea of • Britain controlling the colonies. • Second Continental Congress signs Declaration • of Independence July 4, 1776. • France allies with American colonists leading to • victory at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

10. Cornwallis’ Surrender at Yorktown: 1781 “The World Turned Upside Down!” Painted by John Trumbull

11. North America After theTreaty of Paris, 1783

13. Components of the Constitution • Constitution (1787) was further • defined with the Bill of Rights (1789) • Established a “Federal System” • Stressed representative government • Checks and Balances • legislative • judicial • executive • This came to be called “Classical • Liberalism”- protecting individual • freedoms with safeguards in the • government.