Final answer:
The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening both profoundly affected colonial America by fostering skepticism towards authority, encouraging individual freedoms, and promoting education and scientific inquiry. The Enlightenment encouraged the intellectual elite and challenged traditional governance, while the Great Awakening led to religious diversification and unity among colonists. Both contributed to a distinct colonial identity and a readiness for autonomy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening significantly influenced colonial society in America during the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment, with its focus on reason, science, and the promotion of personal freedom and social improvement, inspired the American colonists to question institutionalized authority and champion the rights of English citizens. Figures like Benjamin Franklin, who exemplified Enlightenment ideals with his scientific and philanthropic endeavors, cast a long shadow on the colonies during this time.
The Great Awakening, on the other hand, was a powerful religious movement that emphasized personal faith and emotive religious experience. It played a crucial role in shaping American identity by promoting new evangelical denominations and calling into question old hierarchies within established churches. This religious fervor increased unity among the colonists while also fostering a distrust of the established church and, by extent, any form of centralized authority that seemed to restrict individual freedom.
Furthermore, the Colonial Wars such as the French and Indian War, were a reflection of both European geopolitical rivalries and colonial desires for autonomy and territory. These conflicts put the colonies in a position where they had to defend their homes and assert their interests, which in turn fostered a sense of distinct colonial identity separate from that of Britain's and a realization of their collective power.