The Influence of The French Revolution on The Enlightenment

The central theme of the Enlightenment – and what made it revolutionary – was the idea of progress. Human society was not fixed by tradition or divine command but could be changed, and improved, by human action guided by reason.” which can be found in the textbook known as Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources, Western Kentucky University Edition, Volume Two. The Atlantic Enlightenment was a time in history which was remembered for encouraging individuality, non-traditional religious practices, and reason. IThis era evoked individualism by inspiring a want for freedom as well as a progression of logical thinking.

The individuality aspects of the Enlightenment period struck each person . For example, in the primary source Kartini, Letter to a Dutch Friend, the author, Raden Adjeng Kartini, tells about the experiences of a young, Indian girl growing up in the Islam culture. She describes the unfair traditions forced upon young Muslim girls, which she found to be demeaning. This uprising of individuality allowed her to contemplate leaving her religion for a chance to become a free-thinking individual. L’Ouverture rebelled against a long-practiced tradition to let individuals become free-living people. In this document, they too felt the struggle of obtaining individual freedom.

The enlightened people shared “a commitment to open-mindedness” which is expressed in Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources, Western Kentucky University Edition, Volume Two. During this time, people began to develop the mindset of looking outside of their traditional boundaries.

With a more open mind and a less traditional culture came a greater need for self-educated knowledge of the world around them. In the textbook, Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources, Western Kentucky University Edition, Volume Two, Robert W. Strayer and Eric W. Nelson proclaim, “Enlightenment thinkers shared the belief in the power of knowledge to transform the human society.” He was thinking outside of what the traditional views were at the time.

In these three Enlightenment documents, Simón de Bolívar’s Message to the Congress of Angostura (1819), Francois Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture’s Letters to the Directors of France, and Raden Adjeng Kartini’s Letter to a Dutch Friend, they have similar general concepts but a wide range of examples and stories.

Robert W. Strayer and Eric W. Nelson said, “Have the courage to use your own understanding’ is, thus, the motto of the enlightenment.” This revolutionary period of time was the idea of the power of knowledge and breaking social norms.

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