Idea of popular sovereignty did not seek to challenge the monarch but ensure that they were responsible for the people they governed.
The advocates of popular sovereignty sought to have a understood contract between the ruler and the ruled.
John Locke’s perception on government itself included the idea that the rulers of an administrative body were first put into power to protect the interests of the people.
Citizens granted their rulers with the power to rule yet still possessed their rights to life, liberty, and property.
Locke believed that rulers themselves were only in power because they had the permission and backing of the people they ruled. Without this backing, the ruler was to be replaced by the people.
Locke’s work essentially removed sovereignty from the rulers in place to placing it in the hands of the people under them.
In-Depth Video Regarding the Works of John Locke
Individual Freedom
Voltaire was extremely influential in fighting against the persecution of religious minorities as well as the power of royal officials to censor written works that weren’t supported by the administrative body.
Voltaire demanded religious freedom and the opportunity to freely express their views (freedom of speech).
When written works were censored in France, publishers would often send their works to printers in Switzerland or the Netherlands to print them and have them smuggled back into France.
Political and Legal Equality
During this time period the privileges that wealthy aristocrats had became widely abhorred by other classes.
Enlightenment thinkers desired desired for a new society to be formed in which all the members of a society would be held to the same standard as one another.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the strongest proponent of political equality and was passionately against the rights that the upper classes enjoyed and resonated strongly with the people of the lower classes.
In Rousseau’s novel, The Social Contract, he stated that members of a society were all in an equal manner, made up the sovereign.
Rousseau promoted the idea that all the people of the governed body should be involved in the formulation of rules and laws.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the strongest proponent of political equality.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Social Contract"
Video Describing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Ideals
Enlightenment Principles Synthesis
The effects the enlightenment principles had on many different colonies and empires of the world in regards in their movements toward independence is similar to the movements of the Ming dynasty to establish their independence from the Mongols who had asserted a quite oppressive rule over the people of East Asia. The people of the British colonies of North America declared their independence, just as the people of the Yuan dynasty did. Both groups committed to such a rebellion in hopes of establishing a political and cultural structure they deemed fit, which was common of the modern/industrial era.
Nationialism
The driving force behind the creation of the ideologies of nationalism were the intense feelings of national identity that the Europeans were experiencing during this time.
Those who were proponents of nationalism had a deep belief that the needs of the country should come before all and that the citizens must possess a strong political loyalty.
Strong national activists held that each member of their communities have the same destinies and as a result of this it was of paramount importance that they rally together to support not only themselves but a strong national environment for themselves.
Nationalists perceived the governing body to promote and protect the interests of the people, which oftentimes comes through acts of wars with other groups.
Many of the pioneer nationalists believed that deepening the importance and appreciation for historical events of their national community were important for developing a prideful respect for the country as a whole.
In response to the work of the Enlightenment thinkers with their desire to understand more about science and natural phenomena, cultural nationalists tended to focus their attention on the distinctness of various individual communities.
For example during the late 1700s, Johann Gottfried von Herder created and sang songs which praised the German Volk and their influential language.
Cultural nationalists were fond of the idea that historical scholarship was they key to highlighting the different aspects of their various societies.
The Germans, in specific, also studied literature very intently because it was believed that this study was the best guide to the Volksgeist, which was the popular soul/spirit of their community.
This is one of the main reasons that Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (German brothers) collected powerful forms of literature such as poems and songs as a means of expressing the views of the German Volk.
Synthesis
The concept of nationalism itself parallels well with the effects of that of other concepts designed to bolster support for the national government such as the concept of filial piety. Both nationalism and filial piety were especially important in creating support for the government, although the way it was managed this feat was much different. Both methods were effective in creating a certain degree of loyalty between the subjects and the rulers above them. Both concepts also glorified the rulers above them to ensure that subjects could feel comfortable in developing a extremely loyal relationship with their leaders in which they could put the needs of their rulers above their own.
The divisive nature nationalism brought about in society was one of the main factors for the development of Zionism.
Zionism was a movement to establish a Jewish State in Palestine which rose up during the late 19th century.
Jews themselves did not possess their own defined land, instead living dispersed in Europe.
Nationalism caused national communities to strengthen their relations, oftentimes leaving minority groups as “outsiders”.
This connects to the rise in anti-Semitic movements in Europe as society began perceiving Jews as more and more trustworthy.
Violence boiled over against Jews in areas such as Russia and Poland where army units controlled by the government usually become involved in the conflict.
As a result of these conflicts occurring throughout Europe, Theodor Herzl, a Jewish journalist (Vienna), decided to create a Zionist movement and establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
This area was significant because it was the land that the Hebrew kings Solomon and David ruled during the 10th century.
Over the next 500 years after the movement began, Jews slowly moved into Palestine, creating conflicts between the Palestinians who were displaced by the new migrants.
Theodor Herzl, creator of the Zionist movement
Palestine, as claimed by the Zionist Movement
Synthesis
The principles of Zionism are similar to the Trail of Tears initiated by President Andrew Jackson. Both movements were results of persecution of a given ethnic group, forcing them to move into a designated land. Zionism resulted in the movement of Jews to their holy land in Palestine, while the Trail of Tears resulted in a variety of Native American groups being forced into designated sanctuaries set aside for them in the vicinity of modern-day Oklahoma. The two movements were also similar in the sense that they involved 2 ethnic groups who were widely considered minorities in their respective lands and therefore persecuted by majority populations who sought to assert their supremacy as a raee.