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AP World History Unit 5 - Lesson 5.1

The Enlightenment

An Age of New Ideas

  • Intellectuals during the 17th and 8th century began to emphasize reason over tradition and individualism over community values.

  • Enlightenment did not bash traditional religion but made it less persuasive for political and social affairs.

  • The Age of Isms: Schools of ideologies rose as they taught socialism and liberalism to society.

  • Nationalism: Idea that emphasizes the unification or pride for a group with social, ethnic, historical, or lingual ties.

  • Revolutionary ideas brought revolts and the desire to create states for a unified group, breaking apart European imperial empire.

New Ideas and Their Roots

  • Empiricism: Belief that true knowledge comes from experiences and observations rather than established principles.

  • Social Contract: idea started by John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, people give their natural rights to governments in exchange for protection, law, and order. Although only Locke believed the people had a right to revolt.

  • Tabula Rasa: Influential idea from John Locke, proposed that people were born as a clean slate and ready to absorb knowledge. This argued traditional ideas that ancestry decided fate.

  • Philosophes: 18th century group of writers and thinkers new ways to look at political, social, and economic theories. Ex: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith.

  • Laissez Faire system: Proposed that governments should leave economic activities alone and allow a free market where businesses and consumers could thrive with free choice.

  • Capitalism: Economic system where industries and factories are owned by private owners for profit.

  • Deism: Belief that a divinity simply set natural laws in motion and does not intervene.

Age of New Ideas Continues

  • As industrialization and urbanization increased, argument rose over who is to blame for the social ills that came with and whether government help is needed.

  • Conservatism: Belief in traditional institutions, favoring reliance on practical experience over ideological thinking.

  • Socialism: A system of public or direct worker ownership over production of goods/needs (community ownership.

  • Classical Liberalism: Belief in natural rights constitutional government, laissez faire economy, and reducing money spent on churches and armies.

  • Feminism fought for the increase in women rights such as voting, education, and participation in professional society.

    • Seneca Falls Convention was the first womens right convention in America.

  • Abolitionism: Movement to end the Atlantic slave trade and free enslaved people.

    • In most parts of the Americas, slavery was abolished within 30 years of the end of the Atlantic slave trade system.

  • As industrialized economies increased, serfdom decreased and gradually was abolished from European countries.

  • Zionism: The belief of Jews that wanted to reestablish an independent homeland where their ancestors had lived in the middle east.

  • Anti-Semitism: Hatred towards the Jewish people.

  • Zionists faced difficulties in their mission as Muslim nations were already established in the middle east, but they did found Israel.

AP World History Unit 5 - Lesson 5.1

The Enlightenment

An Age of New Ideas

  • Intellectuals during the 17th and 8th century began to emphasize reason over tradition and individualism over community values.

  • Enlightenment did not bash traditional religion but made it less persuasive for political and social affairs.

  • The Age of Isms: Schools of ideologies rose as they taught socialism and liberalism to society.

  • Nationalism: Idea that emphasizes the unification or pride for a group with social, ethnic, historical, or lingual ties.

  • Revolutionary ideas brought revolts and the desire to create states for a unified group, breaking apart European imperial empire.

New Ideas and Their Roots

  • Empiricism: Belief that true knowledge comes from experiences and observations rather than established principles.

  • Social Contract: idea started by John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, people give their natural rights to governments in exchange for protection, law, and order. Although only Locke believed the people had a right to revolt.

  • Tabula Rasa: Influential idea from John Locke, proposed that people were born as a clean slate and ready to absorb knowledge. This argued traditional ideas that ancestry decided fate.

  • Philosophes: 18th century group of writers and thinkers new ways to look at political, social, and economic theories. Ex: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith.

  • Laissez Faire system: Proposed that governments should leave economic activities alone and allow a free market where businesses and consumers could thrive with free choice.

  • Capitalism: Economic system where industries and factories are owned by private owners for profit.

  • Deism: Belief that a divinity simply set natural laws in motion and does not intervene.

Age of New Ideas Continues

  • As industrialization and urbanization increased, argument rose over who is to blame for the social ills that came with and whether government help is needed.

  • Conservatism: Belief in traditional institutions, favoring reliance on practical experience over ideological thinking.

  • Socialism: A system of public or direct worker ownership over production of goods/needs (community ownership.

  • Classical Liberalism: Belief in natural rights constitutional government, laissez faire economy, and reducing money spent on churches and armies.

  • Feminism fought for the increase in women rights such as voting, education, and participation in professional society.

    • Seneca Falls Convention was the first womens right convention in America.

  • Abolitionism: Movement to end the Atlantic slave trade and free enslaved people.

    • In most parts of the Americas, slavery was abolished within 30 years of the end of the Atlantic slave trade system.

  • As industrialized economies increased, serfdom decreased and gradually was abolished from European countries.

  • Zionism: The belief of Jews that wanted to reestablish an independent homeland where their ancestors had lived in the middle east.

  • Anti-Semitism: Hatred towards the Jewish people.

  • Zionists faced difficulties in their mission as Muslim nations were already established in the middle east, but they did found Israel.

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