Enlightenment in America

Question 1

What did some colonist rely on to explain the natural world? (1)

Answer 1

• Folk wisdom
• Herbs
• God

Question 2

What challenged these beliefs? (2)

Answer 2

The scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Question 3

What were major factors/events/discoveries of the European Enlightenment? (3)

Answer 3

• Earth travelled around the sun (challenged Christian beleifs)
• Turn towards research and scientific reasoning
• Advancement of 4 ideas: order of natural world, power of human reason, “natural rights” and improvement of society

Question 4

What was the importance? (4)

Answer 4

• Challenged widely accepted beliefs (example: divine monarchy, how the government should be run)

Question 5

How did those in government/positions of power respond to this? (5)

Answer 5

• Some used Enlightenment thinking to back their radical beliefs (power in the people)
• Others used scientific reasoning/Enlightenment ideas to explain things

Question 6

How did Benjamin Franklin contribute to Enlightenment thinking? (6)

Answer 6

• Popularized the practical outlook of the Enlightenment in a book
• founded a philosophical society to promote useful knowledge
• Invented a few things
• He inspired others to publish non-religious magazines and newspapers

Question 7

What was the overall contribution of the European Enlightenment to the US? (7)

Answer 7

• Created a secular (non-religious) aspect to colonial culture

Question 8

What way of thinking was encouraged by the Enlightenment?

Answer 8

• Deism: Believed in natural laws not Godly intervention, reliance on natural reason (innate moral sense) to define right and wrong
• This allowed people to question their beliefs but only a small number of people in the US were deists