The Enlightenment movement made it possible for the people of Europe to question the principles of Europe’s order. Two revolutions, called the American Revolution and French Revolution, were the products of the Enlightenment movement. The American Revolution began in 1775 with the battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts and the French Revolution occurred in 1789-1790 upon the Storming of the Bastille in Paris, France. Both revolutions came to be because of the scientific revolution which led to the Enlightenment movement. The scientific revolution, occurring around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was when historic breakthroughs in mathematics, science, and gravity occurred. People like Isaac Newton and Galileo contributed a large amount to these breakthroughs. As a result of the scientific revolution, European intellectuals renewed their thinking with reason and hoped that by using the scientific method, they could change the society they inherited by reforming their government, religion, and women’s rights, and working towards justice. From this, the Enlightenment movement, an eighteenth-century philosophical movement in Europe, was established influe
ncing all of the Western world and creating developments in politics, art, philosophy, reading, and religion. This spread of Enlightenment eventually led to the revolt against British rule because of the unfair taxation and other unjust factors of the British Parliament. Colonists formed their own army and declared independence, therefore resulting in the American Revolution, which colonists thought of as a good representation of the Enlightenment’s political principles. The French Revolution was a major historical event in European history and established both a new political and social order. Ultimately, the French Revolution, American Revolution, The Enlightenment movement, and Scientific Method, all played a very important role in shaping Europe’s new political and social orders. Europes order has changed significantly, firstly, their government has reformed for the better by creating documents that contain specific laws to ensure equality among the people, their economy, however, was in bad shape due to food shortages and unemployment, and lastly, religion was reformed by adding other protestant religious orders that contrasts Europes main religion, Christianity.