During the eighteenth century, the newest ideas of western philosophies swept through Europe. These new ideas swept through the continent in a period of time called the Enlightenment, and people began to see that authority could only be correctly assigned through reason. The Enlightenment was spread mainly through the writings of the great philosophers of the time, who agreed that humans have a set of divine rights. Although the Enlightenment began in Europe, its new ideas were popular with the lower classes of society and quickly reached the United States. Then, the United States was part of the United Kingdom, a government that follows a parliamentary government, but the taxation from the British without any representatives in British Parliament lead many Americans to believe their own divine rights were being violated. The unfair rule of the British pushed Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, in which he included many of the radical new ideas of the Philosophers of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment Era ideas pushed for equal opportunity for all, an idea that the United States still follows today. These new ideas formed liberalism, which would be one of the founding principles of the United States.
Before the Revolutionary War, many Americans followed classic republicanism, but after the war started and the thirteen colonies formed their own nation, liberalism swept the country. Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers were greatly influenced by the writings of enlightenment thinkers, as shown in many documents written throughout the Revolution. The writings of the greatest enlightenment thinkers greatly supported liberalism; the idea of a small government which is generally ruled by the best fit person, instead of a monarch heir like the centuries before the enlightenment. Thomas Jefferson greatly supported the idea of liberalism; which he showed when he stated in The Declaration of Independence that “…All men are created equal.” In this simple phrase Jefferson shows his support of liberalism and the availability of equal opportunity for all citizens; a believe that was followed by dozens of enlightenment thinkers. (Political Views of the U.S. Founding Fathers) In later parts of the preamble to the Declaration, Jefferson would repeatedly show his support for enlightenment thinkers and the newly created idea of liberalism.
Throughout the Declaration of independence, especially in Thomas Jefferson’s preamble, there are many of the ideas of British Enlightenment thinker John Locke. Jefferson states in the preamble that, “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This line is evidence that Jefferson was greatly influenced by the writings of John Locke, especially his Two Treatises of Government. Locke also discussed the right of the people to rule over themselves, and the right to remove a corrupt government by force. Locke’s belief in the right to abolish a corrupt government was not only written down in the preamble to The Declaration of Independence, but was one of the main beliefs of the colonists as they fought The Revolution. After decades of the King of the United Kingdom unfairly harming the colonists, they showed strong belief in Locke’s ideas of a government run by the people. (Hayes)
The influence of Enlightenment Era ideas on Thomas Jefferson cannot only be seen in the Declaration of Independence, but also in many other historical writings of the era. In the Constitution, another writing that Jefferson had helped create, Baron de Montesquieu’s idea of a three-branch government is set as the base for America’s current government. Montesquieu’s idea of checks-and-balances would also be used in combination with the three-branch government. (Nugent) By including some of Montesquieu’s most important ideas in the Constitution, ideas that would be some of the most creations after the Enlightenment, Jefferson shows that many of his own ideas had been sculpted by the influence of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment Era. This hints that Jefferson was a great believer in the Enlightenment Era ideas, and that when he wrote The Declaration of independence he probably included many of the Enlightenment ideas. Therefore, the Enlightenment was able to influence Jefferson and his writing of The Declaration of Independence by greatly influencing his political views.
During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson expressed support for many of the ideas that had been created by Enlightenment Era thinkers. Jefferson was very open to these ideas because the ideas helped him and the other founding fathers turn the colonies from an opressed group of people to a country with the most freedom in the world. Also, although it was cosidered tyranny to go against the King of England, Jefferson was able to build on his views of liberalism with relative safety as compared to the Philosophers of other countries. This relative safety encouraged Jefferson to push forward with the ideas of the Enlightenment Era, which is part of the reason he included them in the Declaration of Independence. (Malone) If it was not for the safety of the colonies, and the King of England unfiarly infringing on the rights of colonists, Jefferson may never have written the Declaration of Independence in the same way he had. The Enlightenment was able to influence Thomas Jefferson and his writing of The Declaration of Indpendence by changing Jeffersons political views, which allowed him to create a nation that was well ahead of its time.
A shite first draft, pretty sure half the facts are wrong and plenty of errors.
Dont ask anyone to translate this, its too nasty.