How did the european thinkers influence the settler in america?
Answers
Answer:
wseNotessearch
Search for any book or any question
HOMEWORK HELP > NATION BUILDING
Has European thinking influenced the American Constitution? Is America 'the child of Europe' or is it it's own creation? I need to write on the origins of the ideas contained in The Constitution. Did...
Has European thinking influenced the American Constitution?
Is America 'the child of Europe' or is it it's own creation? I need to write on the origins of the ideas contained in The Constitution. Did The Founding Fathers create the political ideas found in the Constitution?
print Print document PDF list Cite
Expert Answers
ASHLEY KANNAN eNotes educator| CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
I think it's impossible to create an idea in a vacuum. There is always some intellectual genealogy or a previous connection that allows the development of new and advanced ideas. Certainly the Constitution is influenced by European Thinkers. Montesquieu develops the principle of divided government and its practical execution of checks and balances. The emphasis on human freedom and liberty is a Voltaire. The sometimes contradictory, but always vibrant conception of the First Amendment as a tool to enhance both positive and negative freedom (the right to be an active agent in one's own world and the right to be left alone from government influence) is a Rousseauian idea. The "Senate" is a Roman idea, and the fact that the Framers made a Senator a bit more powerful and possessing a lengthier tenure than the Representative counterpart, was also borrowed from the Roman Senate. Obviously, the previous posts have talked about the British contributions. Where the framers found success was being able to take these ideas and apply them to the context of America. For example, the Framers took Voltaire's ideas of freedom and this gained a great deal of traction in America because Britain had violated the economic and political freedom of the colonists in their acts and actions. Taking Montesquieu and applying it to the post- Revolutionary setting of America, where government was trapped between being ineffective or dictatorial allowed people to understand that government can function, but within established and communicated parameters. In these and other examples, we see the Framers taking European Ideas, and shaking them up in applying them to America.
Hope it helps u !!!
Explanation:
uh dydxysudueurdredbdudhxurhf