For the second semester, our class started our Revolutions Unit. I was expecting to start right away with revolutions of countries, but that was not the case. We started the unit learning about the Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. I thought about why the unit starts this way, and I noticed a pattern and came to a realization.

In studying the Renaissance, which occurred from about the 1400s to the 1600s, we learned about new views of human life as shown in art and literature. We looked at the School of Athens painting and noted qualities in the artwork that were specific to the Renaissance. We learned about Renaissance people like Leon Alberti and Leonardo DaVinci who showed society’s message that people should strive to be excellent in many areas and subject matters. Also with the Renaissance, we looked at humanism, the belief that humans are God’s most wonderful creations. The writing of Mirandola clearly shows this way of thinking and goes on to say that humans are above the angels. These ideas were new at the time and changed the way people thought about human life and humanity’s place.

Along with the Renaissance is the Protestant Reformation of the early 1500s. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the Diet of Worms showed a shift in belief within the Catholic Church and led to the formation of Protestantism. People were beginning to move away from recognizing the pope as the authority of the Church and turned to the Bible as the authority of the Church. People were also starting to speak up against corruption in the Church regarding the pope and indulgences.

The Scientific Revolution, lasting approximately from the 1500s to the 1700s, brought about significant changes in the way people understood the world. A major change in understanding is the heliocentric theory. This is the concept that the sun is in the center of the solar system and contrasts with the geocentric theory in which the earth is the center of the solar system. The law of gravity as discovered by Isaac Newton gave a scientific perspective on matter in the Universe. Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes helped to develop the scientific method. The combined methods Bacon and Descartes stressed the importance of experimentation to gain knowledge in addition to implementing logical reasoning and mathematics.

The Enlightenment, lasting from the late 1600s to the early 1800s, saw the publication of John Locke’s “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” a philosophical work. This gave rise to the idea that human nature could be changed and knowledge is acquired through experience. People also started to trust and base decisions on their own reasoning instead of getting all of their information from church. People felt like they were gaining an ever-increasing understanding of the world and felt emboldened.

After thinking about all four of these time periods separately, I thought about how they overlap both with regards to time and concepts. The Renaissance covered change in social standards and expectations, and the Protestant Reformation dealt with religion. The Scientific Revolution involved new scientific knowledge and logic, and the Enlightenment seems to have combined all three. There was a wave of new thought entering the human experience all at the same time in many different aspects of life. Combining all of these things, I became aware that the beginning of the Revolutions Unit was all about changes in people’s views of themselves and the world. Now I see why these lessons precede the revolutions of countries. The reason is that physical revolutions of countries often begin with and stem from revolutions of human thought.