Introduction

The Age of Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, was an intellectual movement in eighteenth-century Europe that transformed politics, philosophy, and science. In the wake of the Enlightenment, many societies around the world pursued sovereignty, which is the right and the power of a person or a nation to govern themselves.

Sovereignty is a broad term that influences many modern concepts such as identity, individuality, and rationality (the use of reason). These ideas developed together during the long nineteenth century, which refers to the time between the Enlightenment (c. 1750) and World War I (1914). Without the concept of sovereignty, however, these ideas would make no sense.

Sovereignty and liberal ideals

The long nineteenth century saw many changes, including growing distrust in the authority of monarchs and religious institutions, and more interest in individualism, freedom, and rationality. Enlightenment thinkers saw people as a source of political power. According to the belief of popular sovereignty, a state’s power comes from the consent of the people and a government must represent the needs and ideas of the people who are governed.

In an absolute monarchy, sovereignty is in the hands of the king or queen. The people are subjects who must obey the ruler. Under popular sovereignty, the people are citizens with actual political rights who can take an active role in the political process. This meant that popular sovereignty encouraged the recognition of the individual and individual rights.

Believe it or not, it was once unusual to suggest that an individual who wasn’t a ruler deserved autonomy, or self-governance. Today we may take this for granted, but at the time this was a new concept.

Sovereignty for whom?

We must not confuse sovereignty with equality or civil rights. Although citizens had rights, that didn’t necessarily mean that all citizens had the same rights. So, who got left out? A person’s ability to participate in government was often dependent on their class, race, and gender. Typically, in Europe and European colonies, only white land-owning males received full rights. People who were conquered or enslaved didn’t become full citizens. Working-class people and women weren’t given the same kinds of rights as wealthy men. In other words, personal sovereignty and autonomy were luxuries offered to a small part of society.

In many ways, the achievement of sovereignty for some resulted in the loss of freedom for others. For example, in the United States, slavery was still legal, thriving, and important to the economy.

Need a powerful example of how sovereignty does not mean equality? When the American founders were writing the Constitution in 1787, they disagreed about whether enslaved people should be counted as part of the population. The number of people in each state would determine how many representatives the state received in Congress. They agreed to the Three-Fifths Compromise, which said that each enslaved person would be counted as three-fifths of a full citizen. Slavery is already fundamentally dehumanizing, but to have your humanity mathematically downgraded is one of history’s most literal and glaring examples of inequality.

Women, workers, and children

Children also faced unequal treatment. Middle- and upper-class families in Europe and the Americas were able to educate their children instead of putting them to work.

However, if you weren’t part of the small privileged class, it was another story. Under slavery and colonialism, children were forcibly separated from their parents. Many children of mixed heritage were born outside of marriage and would almost never get to be a part of a together family unit.

In colonial settings, many children were seen as the subjects of colonial masters. Children in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and India were forced to work under harsh conditions in plantations, factories, and mines.

Women were also often left out when it came to personal sovereignty. Some Enlightenment thinkers still saw women as inferior to men, while others pushed for women’s equality. The status of women also differed across race, class, and region. Working-class women, women of color, and colonial subjects didn’t have access to these new social and educational opportunities. In most places, women of the lower classes took on new roles out of economic need. Many single mothers had to work to support their families.

Citizenship and the modern subject

These cultural and social shifts were about much more than just a single issue. Some found that the state now gave them freedom to control their lives and bodies, while others found they had less control. For example, women were increasingly valued for raising the next generation of citizens. To educate their children, mothers needed to be educated, too. Motherhood became a political act! This created new opportunities for women. It also meant that a woman’s decision whether to have children at all was not necessarily hers to make.

Children were controlled more, partly through schools. The schools tried to promote children’s health and protect them from abuse, but also control their daily activity. In Canada, Australia, and the United States, governments often forced the children of native people into boarding schools. The purpose was for them to adopt European traditions and customs and leave their own behind. Similarly, in British India, school was used to instill European values in students to make them more useful as colonial subjects.

Enlightenment ideas about citizenship, sovereignty, and autonomy changed the face of the globe. It’s important to remember that these changes were very uneven. Different groups of people have been included and excluded from these values. However, these ideas surrounding personal sovereignty have continued to influence many political institutions to this day.