TOPIC 5.1 The Enlightenment

THEMATIC FOCUS

Cultural Developments and Interactions CDI

The development of ideas, beliefs, and religions illustrates how groups in society view themselves, and the interactions of societies and their beliefs often have political, social, and cultural implications

Learning Objective

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

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Unit 5: Learning Objective A  Explain the intellectual and ideological context in which revolutions swept across the Atlantic world from 1750 to 1900.

KC-5.3.I.A

Enlightenment philosophies applied new ways of

understanding and empiricist approaches to both the natural world and human relationships; they also reexamined the role that religion played in public life and emphasized the importance of reason. Philosophers developed new political

ideas about the individual, natural rights, and the social contract.

Unit 5: Learning Objective B Explain how the Enlightenment affected societies over time.

KC-5.3.I

The rise and diffusion of Enlightenment thought that questioned established traditions in all areas of life often preceded revolutions and rebellions against existing governments.

KC-5.3.II.i

Nationalism also became a major force shaping the historical development of states and empires

KC-5.3.I.C

Enlightenment ideas and religious ideals influenced various reform movements. These reform movements contributed to the expansion of rights, as seen in expanded suffrage, the abolition of slavery, and the end of serfdom.

KC-5.3.IV.B

Demands for women’s suffrage and an emergent feminism challenged political and gender hierarchies.

Demands: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of

the Rights of Women, Olympe de Gouges’s Declaration of theRights of Woman and of the FemaleCitizen,  Seneca Falls Conference (1848)

organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and

Lucretia Mott