The Enlightenment Influence on American Government

The Enlightenment Influence on American Government

The principles behind America's government come from a variety of sources. Some concepts derive from Ancient Greece and Rome, while others come from the laws and tradition of America's colonial ruler, Great Britain. Still others come from the ideas that were given voice by the thinkers of the Enlightenment period. Philosophers, like Cesare Beccaria, put forth concepts that would influence the founding fathers of the United States in their attempt to making a lasting blueprint for American government.

The Enlightenment gave American thinkers a lot of ideas to consider when forming their government. The Age of Enlightenment happened in 1780-1815. It was a cultural movement that smart people used for the purpose to reform society. The people that were involved in the Age of Enlightenment was Franis Bacon, Renee Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Galilbeo, Kepler, Leibniz, Cesare Beccaria and etc.

One of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers was Cesare Beccaria. He was born on March 15, 1738 in Milan, Italy. In the early 1760s, he helped form a society called "The Academy of Fist", dedicated to economic, political and administrative reform. In 1764, he published his famous and in fluently crimology essay, "On Crime and Punishments". In 1768, he started a career in economics which lasted until his death on November 28, 1794, in Milan Italy.

Cesare Beccaria ideas were important to the creation of American government. He helped on one of the biggest parts which was crime and punishments. Cesare Beccaria always loved to work on things like that. Since he had wrote a book on it already he had many ideas as what to do when it came to crimes and punishments. His ideas were just right as what to do when someone committed a crime.

In Dei delitti e delle pene which three years later was translated into English