Differences Between The Enlightenment And The Great Awakening

Words: 1122
Pages: 5

The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening contributed to numerous discrete things in America. The Enlightenment was a period where intellectual philosophers came up with intricate thoughts and ideas. These ideas about intellectual reason challenged the current beliefs regarding religious emotionalism. Therefore contemporary things began to develop in America which ignited change. These futuristic ideas led to the Great Awakening. The Great Britain colonies had become uninterested religiously and needed to be restored in their faith. Without these two very salient time periods in the history of the United States, the identity of America would not have been the same as it was in the eighteenth century, causing the colonies to not be …show more content…
The new thoughts in this period led to the independence of the American colonies. Anything that brought something new to light bolstered the colonies and helped them have a more facile and pleasurable life. Paine tried to show the people in the colonies that “independence is the only bond that can tie and keep us together”(Document A). Without this bond the American colonies now shared, they would not have been able to break free from Great Britain’s control. Independent thought also contributed to the people of the colonies knowing that if a printer needs to publish something, they should do it. This is due to that any “refusal is an immediate abridgement of the Freedom of the Press”(Document C). They should be able to be independent, and not worry about something trite in that moment causing them to not publish something of great prestige. Philosophers realized that not gaining the independence they deserved and “delaying it encourages her to hope for conquest”(Document A). This is saying that if America did not fight for its rightful freedom, Britain would surely get the colonies back under its control. But due to the astonishing ideas of people in the colonies, change was