AP World History Unit 5: Revolutions

• The Enlightenment period emphasized reason over tradition and individualism over community values in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• The Scientific Revolution and the Humanism of the Renaissance were events that inspired the Enlightenment.
• Many writers believed that applying reason to natural laws would result in progress during the Enlightenment.
• While not denying the existence of God, Enlightenment thinkers emphasized human accomplishments in understanding the natural world.
• The belief that natural laws governed the social and political spheres as well was a common belief during the Enlightenment.
• Revolutions during the Enlightenment often had two aims: independence from imperial powers and constitutional representation.
• The concept of nationalism, a feeling of intense loyalty to others who share one’s language and culture, threatened to destroy all of Europe’s multiethnic empires during the Enlightenment.
• Empiricism, the belief that knowledge comes from sensed experience, including through experiments, was a common belief during the Enlightenment.
• Increased Urbanization and Industrialization were two reactions in America (from Enlightenment).
• The term Feminism was coined during the Enlightenment period, seeing the rapid emergence of the movement for women’s rights and equality based on Enlightenment ideas.
• Abolitionism refers to reform movements to provide rights and equality, including the freeing of slaves and the end of serfdom.
• Empiricism: Knowledge comes from the

  senses and your experiences.
• Thomas Hobbes: Promoted the idea of a

  SOCIAL CONTRACT(Give up some rights to a government in exchange

  for law and order).
• John Locke: Promoted natural rights such as

  life, liberty, & property
• Conservatism: Promoted the idea of tradition

  and traditional institutions
• Utopian Socialists: A idea where the people

  own the resources and distribute them in a way

  that meets their needs
• Liberalism: A believe in pursuing changes

  within a society to reflect the changing needs

  of its population.