3.4 Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution

What was NOT the main desire even as late as 1775?

Independence from Great Britain

Where did the enlightenment originate from?

Europe

What were revolutionary ideas?

1. Enlightenment Ideas

• Elevation of the individual

• Natural Rights (John Locke)

• Social Contract (JL and Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

  • Power to govern is in the hands of the people and they agree to give up certain freedoms in exchange for government protection of their rights and security

2. Radical Whigs

• Group of British political theorists

• Warned against political corruption and tyranny

  • Comes from arbitrary power of monarchs and aristocrats

3. Religious Ideas

• Liberty = a gift from God

• The Awakening

  • Individual religious experience > submitting to formal church hierarchies

  • Learned to treat systems of authority with suspicion

What is the concept of the divine right of kings?

That God establishes monarchs and thus grants them to do whatever they want

What did the first continental Congress do?

• Held in 1774 in Philadelphia

  • Response to Intolerable Acts

  • Encourages continued boycotting of British goods

• Centralized resistance to British policies

  • Rather than relying on weaker, more localized resistance

What led to the second continental Congress?

Armed conflict

• Battles in Lexington and concord

• Battle of Bunker Hill

What did the second continental Congress do?

Provisional government organizing colonial response to British aggression

• Some delegates argued for negotiations with Britain

  • To re-establish a colonial relationship with their rights intact

What was the olive branch petition?

• Appealed directly to king George III

• re-established colonial rights

What did Patrick Henry argue?

A movement for independence

What led to people wanting to gain independence?

The publishing of common sense by Thomas Paine - highlighted that independence was the only way forward

• Used Enlightenment ideas

  • Natural rights, social Contract, republicanism

  • Britain’s behavior = tyranny

• Biblical arguments

  • Old testament monarchy = sin

• Anti-monarchical ideas

  • Combined with calls for popular support of revolution

  • Appealed to common people

Who wrote the declaration of independence?

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin