Answer:
Enlightenment political ideas emphasized the ideas of the social contract and popular sovereignty. These ideas deeply influenced the American desire to declare (and fight for) independence from Great Britain in order to set up their own government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Explanation
- According to the political principle of a social contract, that there is an implicit agreement between a government and those it governs. The people establish the government, and the government in turn has an obligation to safeguard and serve the welfare of the people. John Locke was an early Enlightenment thinker who promoted this idea. It was a change from a previously-held idea of "divine right monarchy" -- that a king ruled because God appointed him to be the ruler. In his Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690), Locke argued for the rights of the people to create their own governments according to their own desires and for the sake of protecting their own life, liberty, and property.
- "Popular sovereignty" means the people are in charge of establishing a government over themselves. The founding fathers of the United States adopted the idea of popular sovereignty from Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke (of England) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (of France). The Declaration of Independence (1776), written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, asserted the concept of popular sovereignty. The Declaration insisted that people institute governments in order to secure their rights, saying: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
