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Comparing The Great Awakening And Enlightenment In Colonial America

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The First Great Awakening was in the 1730s and 1740s.It was a period of revivalism that spread throughout Protestant Europe and British America, and specifically the American colonies. The American Enlightenment was during 1700s through the 1800s. This was a period of intellectual ferment in the thirteen American colonies. The Great Awakening and Enlightenment in Colonial America were related because they both challenged authority, both influenced the economy, and both had to do with religion. Economy served a small part in both movements. According to the article “Enlightenment And Economics” there were three basic principles that Adam Smith believed to be true in economics. “The first principle was the condemning of mercantilist use of …show more content…

He was one of the many people involved in the Enlightenment that had a take on the economic side of the movement. The Great Awakening economic pressures brought on by the Navigation Acts had dominated the second half of the seventeenth century according to Moore. He also stated in his article, “In order to function within the new economy, traditional walls of religious separation also required redefinition” (Moore). Practically the people started to view things from a different aspect so that the new economic situation would make sense. Authority had a slightly larger take on both of these major movements. During the middle of the Enlightenment, America was still fighting against Britain for their independence. The Enlightenment became a period of time where the Americans began to see that it was possible to challenge the King and the divine right (The Great Awakening And Enlightenment In Colonial America). In an article about the American Revolutionary War, Wepman said that neither America nor the British had gained any land or established any authority, from the battles yet it helped define the relationship of the two countries (Wepman). America tried to overthrow the authority of the British with acts such as The Boston Tea Party and The Boston Massacre along with acts that would be against the British. As the author of The Great Awakening And Enlightenment In Colonial America stated, “Another idea central to American Enlightenment thinking is liberalism, that is, the notion that humans have natural rights and that government authority is not absolute, but based on the will and consent of the governed” (The Great Awakening And Enlightenment In Colonial

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