Enlightenment Thinkers
Enlightenment thinker who argued that government power should be divided into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Montesquieu
Intellectual movement emphasizing reason, progress, and individual rights.
Enlightenment
Colonial protest group led by Samuel Adams that organized boycotts.
Sons of Liberty
1773 protest in which colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor.
Boston Tea Party
Law that forbade settlement west of the Appalachians to reduce conflict with Native Americans.
Proclamation of 1763
French thinker who promoted freedom of thought, speech, and religious tolerance.
Voltaire
Concept that governments derive power from the consent of the governed.
Social Contract
1763 law banning colonial settlement west of the Appalachians.
Proclamation of 1763
1765 tax on printed materials, the first internal tax imposed by Britain on the colonies.
The stamp act
Act that taxed paper, legal documents, and printed materials in the colonies.
Stamp Act
Philosopher whose theory of natural rights heavily influenced the Declaration of Independence.
Who is John Locke
Philosophy that God created the universe but does not interfere in human affairs.
Deism
Meeting of colonial delegates that organized boycotts and marked the colonies’ first unified action
First Continental Congress
Punitive laws passed after the Boston Tea Party that closed the harbor and placed Massachusetts under martial law.
Intolerable Acts
Series of acts including closing Boston Harbor and quartering troops in colonial homes.
Intolerable Acts
Advocate for women’s rights in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).
Mary Wollstonecraft
Principle that fairness and justice should govern society, like natural laws govern the universe.
Natural Law
1775 petition asking King George for peace, which he rejected
Olive Branch Petition
Pamphlet by an English writer that convinced colonists they had a right to independence.
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
British policy allowing colonies to largely self-govern and ignore certain trade laws.
Salutary Neglect
Philosopher who wrote The Social Contract and promoted the “general will.”
Rousseau
This principle emphasizes each person’s freedom and unique perspective in shaping society.
Individualism
British policy that allowed colonies to largely govern themselves before the French and Indian War.
What is Salutary Neglect
Uprising by Native Americans resisting British control after the French and Indian War.
Pontiac’s Rebellion
Act that officially ended the Stamp Act but reaffirmed Parliament’s right to tax colonies.
Declaratory Act