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Enlightenment and Revolution

Driving Question: How did Enlightenment ideas help spark revolution?

Driven by Enlightenment ideas of liberty and sovereignty, people took to the streets, demanding a role in government and an end to the rule of kings and emperors. In the Atlantic region and then beyond, revolutionaries forged a new world of nation-states.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Use evidence to evaluate the influence of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions.
  2. Use a graphic biography to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives of this period.
STEP 1

Opener: Enlightenment and Revolution

STEP 2

Revolutionary Ideas

Revolutions were fought with weapons, but it was the ideas behind them that gave revolutions their power. Enlightenment ideas surrounding rights and sovereignty aimed high, but as you’ll explore in these articles and activities, they had their limits.

STEP 3

Words of the Enlightenment

The ideas of the Enlightenment are often best analyzed through the words of those who shaped it. Compare original quotes and their modern “translations.”

STEP 4

Closer: Enlightenment and Revolution

Extension Materials
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You’ve explored how Enlightenment ideas helped spark revolution. Now you’ll see how economic hardship, inequality, and control over labor also fueled calls for change.
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More Than Ideas: The Economic Causes

In this extension article, you’ll explore how money, labor, hunger, and inequality helped spark revolts in America, France, and Haiti, and how those revolutions were connected through global networks.