Enlightenment ideas

• Reason was important over revelation.
• The core belief was that people who were in disagreement could listen to each other and create a solution.
• The ideas were spread through literature.
• Affected the middle class mostly
• They spread ideas about politics for example, should people have a say in government, and if it should be a monarchy or a republic. And also social issues like womans rights
• They wanted at least a constitutional monarchy, participation in government, the right and responsibility to overthrow a government if their unalienable rights were violated, and the right to life, liberty, pursuit of property, and the pursuit of happiness.
• The enlightenment was against the slave trade.
• Reason was valued over tradition and individualism was valued over community values.
• Individualism, freedom, and self determination challenged the roles of monarch and church leaders.

  Enlightenment caused revolutions.
• Applying reason to natural laws would result in progress. Natural laws governed the social and political spheres.
• Developed the isms; Socialism and liberalism against conservatism.

  Conservationists were mainly the European ruling class.