Utopian Reform Movements

The Protestant Reformation, a period of change and strife, has significantly influenced the modern world socially, politically and economically. The Protestant Reformation began in the 16th century and was a major movement that aimed to reform the Roman Catholic Church, its beliefs and practices. The idea of Reformation began when people realised the extent of problems within the church. For example: the selling of indulgences, Papal Schism and open political struggles caused problems with Catholic Church’s public image. Martin Luther played a major role in the Reformation, and was responsible for the 1517 release of the 95 Theses. From a social aspect, the Reformation put emphasis on education, leading to more informed and knowledgeable people.

Pilgrims and puritans began a journey to a new land in search for religious freedom, and a fresh start to a brighter future. Both searched for a change to colonize their families, spread and develop their own beliefs of worship, and create a foundation to combine the wealth of opportunity and worship together without the strong influence of England. The geographical change would be the first challenge for the pilgrims and puritans. England held both parties until word of opportunity began to spread like wildfire.

The mid to early 1800s marked a dynamic period in America’s history. Powerful movements such as the Market revolution the Second Great Awakening gave way to new moral and socio-economic beliefs. These new found beliefs fueled a series of reform movement and earned this era the name the Age of Reforms. Although movements such as temperance restricted democracy in the US, to a greater extent, reform movements such as public education, women’s rights, and abolition expanded democracy by giving power and basic rights to women, slaves, and the lower class.

As a preface, those who had stood by the side of the Roman Catholic Church had enough with this institution that sought nothing, but power. Church officials took the people’s pure desire for salvation and scammed them into buying it instead. Ignorance is regularly the cause of such manipulation. The Protestant Reformation was effective in promoting the progress of mankind when it came to faith. Although it proved to be troublesome, particularly because of the splitting of the church, it was beneficial for those in the future.

The Second Great Awakening was extremely influential in shifting the minds towards reform in people across America. The mentality of the people at this time was closed minded and had acceoted their way of living. Among other factors, Charles Finney played and important role in the success of the Second Great Awakening. “Much of the impulse towards reform was rooted in the revivals of the broad religious movement that swept the Untied States after 1790.” Revivals during the Second Great Awakening awakened the faith of people during the 1790s with emotional preaching and strategic actions from Charles Finney and many other influential preachers, which later helped influence the reforms of the mid-1800s throughout America.

Early American colonies were the base of what it is now known the United States of America. Although almost all of the colonies were from the same time period each colony differed from each other. Some of the colonies differed by their economic system and also by their way of running their colony, their government. Also, the colonies differed from their culture and their way they lived. In addition, the New England and the Chesapeake colonies were not the exception they also differed from each other.

The Protestant Reformation began with a movement made by a monk simply to criticize and challenge the actions of the Church. From the disapproval of selling indulgence to the demand of equality, multiple forces have sparked the inception of the Protestant Revolution. Martin Luther’s decision to take public stand against the Church was revolutionary to the society. A movement for religious reforms, known as the Protestant Reformation, was born. Luther’s beliefs were soon adopted by and appealed to every levels of society. The opposition Luther took against the Church soon had an instant impact on peasants. Individuals began to form opinions on both political and religious fields, but they had failed to interpret the beliefs of Luther correctly.

During the antebellum period of the United States, different policies and political agendas were laid out to create a country that aspired to be better than the one from which it claimed its independence. The discussion of education began then, in hopes to create a more nationalistic society and to instill individual thought so that tyranny would never be able to take control. Education for who though, is where things began to get a little blurry. Most education in this time period began as disorganized and personal. Studying abroad was becoming unpatriotic—why send your children to other countries, when they could stay in the States so that they could learn to love their own country. So education became more domestic, but also more expensive.

The 19th century was a period of widespread social, economical and political problems in the United States, from the 1890s to the 1920s in need of reform. Both parties were created by the people’s dissatisfaction with the government and its ability to appeal to the majority.

Due to revivals the United states in the 1790 's-1830 's changed religion throughout the whole country. Which created the Second Great Awakening , this transformation changed Americans religon. In the beginning of the Revolution the largest denomomations were Puritan churches aslo called Congregationalist. Anglicans were also included,and Quakers. Methodism and Baptists, were also becoming a fast-growing relgions in the nation. During the Second Great Awakening camp meetings were held and many members would convert through preaching and audience participation. Evangelical churches generally had innovative organizational techniques, newly settled land, and usually relied on itinerant preachers to reach large areas without a minister.

People had both the right and the duty to make whatever changes were necessary to come up with a new government or new reforms to that government to better serve their needs. This is basically was the mindset of the people who believed that reform was need in society. The Second Great Awakening refers to a period of religious revivals at occurred in the United States in the 1830s. After this period, many reform movements took place to better serve society and the people in it. Many reform movements between 1825 and 1850 sought to expand democratic ideals by advocating many social and political changes including movements to prohibit alcoholic beverages, to increase public education, and to support rights for women.

Religion, democracy and mercantilism played major roles in the development of Colonial America. Religion affected development as it always does, checking those with extreme greed with the threat of hell and encouraging those with good intentions with the promise of heaven. Democracy played a major role in colonial America because in an age of people being fed up with the king democracy held increasing amounts of leverage in the government. While this was going on a strong sense of mercantilism fueled the budding country's economy. Religion, democracy, and mercantilism were the main factors that fueled the development of colonial America into the country we have today religion checked people with bad intentions and encouraged those with good purposes, democracy created a government run by the people for the people and mercantilism fueled the entire country.

Horace Mann was the leading voice in the common school movement. The purpose of the common school was to create a school, open to everyone, that was not “influenced by private or religious societies.” Mann’s vision of the common school is outlined in his annual reports to the Massachusetts Board of Education. In his tenth and twelfth report he pushed for universal, public education, revolving around similar curriculum. He emphasizes the importance of school as the place where children cultivate their moral character and are instilled with ethical values. He states that “moral education is a primal necessity of social existence.” His method of addressing teaching values within an institute was to separate the common school from a specific religious

The first Reformation of the 16th century, began with Martin Luther with the publication of his great, influential work, The Ninety-Five Theses. Luther’s mission to reform the Church and dispose of the corruption of priests and the sale of indulgences, inspired others such as lawyer-turned-reform advocate and preacher, John Calvin to act in the name of what he believed to be righteous. The ideals of the Reformations presented first by Luther, and then modified through the separate branch of Calvinism began a chain-reaction, motivating King Henry VIII to make use of the changing religious ideals to extend his political power. In this essay, the similarities and differences between the Calvinist Reformation of Geneva and Henry VIII’s Reformation

Education in the United States Public education has been in the United States since 1647, when the Massachussetts Bay Colony’s General Court declared that towns with more than fifty families were required to have a primary school (Source #). Today, over 70 million students in the U.S. are enrolled in public