In the late eighteenth century many people changed their mind about what made authority legitimate. Rather than basing political authority on divine right, some advocated new ideas about how the right to rule was bestowed. Many Enlightenment thinkers wanted broader participation in government and leaders who were more responsive to their people. This led to rebellions and independence movements against existing governments and the formation of new nations around the world. No longer content to be subjects of a king, new forms of group identity were formed around concepts such as culture, religion, shared history and race. Colonized people developed identities separate from the European societies from which they emerged.
I. The rise and diffusion of Enlightenment thought that questioned established traditions in all areas of life often preceded the revolutions and rebellions against existing governments.
A. During the previous era (1450-1750) a trend in western Europe began in which individuals felt more at ease in challenging established authorities on matters of culture, science and religion. The new method of understanding the world began with one's direct observations or experience, organizing the data of that experience, and only then developing an idea about how things are. In a movement known as the Enlightenment, European intellectuals applied these methods to human relationships around them. They did not hesitate to question assumptions about government and society that had gone unquestioned for centuries. Dismissing all inherited beliefs about social class and religion, they began from direct experience and asked why things had to be the way they were.
B. Since the middle ages, religion formed the basis of most every aspect of life in Europe. The Church sanctioned a hierarchical class system, supported the divine right of kings, and claimed to be the supreme authority on all knowledge claims. It did so by claiming to be the custodians of divine revelations which formed the basis of all that was true and were taken without question. During the Enlightenment, thinkers doubted the church's claim to possess a source of divinely revealed absolute truth. They instead emphasized the capacity of human reason and experience to arrive at knowledge. They despised all dogma, the belief in statements given by authorities which could never be challenged or examined for one's self.
