The Age of Kings, Reason and Hope

The Age of kings was a period in time when the kinds had total control.  In his readings, Walter Raleigh describes them as three things. The kings are like the gods. This is because they had control over every person. The controlled their body and their soul just like a god. If they were not listened to then you would have an angry god. He also described them as father who had control of the family; family meaning the country for example. The third thing Raleigh says about them is that they are like the head of the body. This means that they made all of the decisions. They were the “brain”. They had all of the right ideas.

The kings were not chosen. There was a simple way to determine who the king was. The king was the person who had the most gunpowder, not so much the gunpowder as the weapons though. The only way to obtain these weapons was to have money. So, whoever had the most money could buy the weapons then after a battle there was a king. This kind controlled many of the land’s powers. These were military, religious, economic, cultural and political. Military power means that they controlled the armies of the land. The kings made all of the military decisions such as strategy. Religious means that the king decided what the religion of his country was. If the king was Christian everybody else had to Christian. Economic power meant that the kings had control over all the goods, and all of the money. Cultural meant that the kings controlled all of the artists. He would have his picture painted and hung everywhere. Political means that the kings controlled the government.

The Age of Reason was going on at the same time as the age of Kings. The Age of Reason had to main movements: The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment. Some of the people how were in the Scientific Revolution were: Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes and Newton. Copernicus was a man that said the sun was the center of the solar system. Galileo confirmed what Copernicus said. Bacon created the scientific method. Descartes was a man who coined the phrase “I think therefore I am.” Newton discovered gravity. When people saw this they became puzzled. They didn’t think kings were all powerful anymore and they began to question god. Enlightenment continued what the Scientific Revolution did and extended it. They took to reason, law and toleration. Kings don’t tolerate different religions. Everything that happens is reasonable. If there were laws everyone would be treated fairly, kings hate laws. There was also a man named John Locke. He said that everybody has a right to life, liberty and property. He said that everyone should be able to choose their own path in life. He also said that no one should be able to touch your property. There was also a man names Adam Smith. He applied Locke’s ideas to economics. He said the people should figure out how much money they should make on their own.

The Age of Reason you could say “Gave Birth” to the age of hope. Using what happened in the Age of Reason, the people during the Age of Hope decided that they needed to revive something, democracy. Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence in 1775. Jefferson was taking his ideas from John Locke. They knew that the government gets all of its power from the people and if the people don’t like you then there is revolution. America was the first to try this idea and they were successful.  France was the second, however things didn’t work out so well for them.