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The American republic was founded on ideals of liberal democracy rooted in concepts of individual freedom and equality. The political and social liberalism of the early 21st century is in many ways radically different from the ideals of the founding fathers. U.S. culture increasingly reflects this radical or modern liberalism created by two centuries of political and social evolution.
To understand the origins of modern liberalism, you have to go back to the time in Western civilization known as the Enlightenment. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe entered the thousand-year period of the Middle Ages. It was a time of political fragmentation and feudalism as well as an age of grand cathedrals and monarchs who claimed divine privilege.
Europe suffered confusion and horror in the 14th century with the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death (which killed a third of the population between India and Iceland) and the anarchy that followed in the wake of disease and war. During the next century the economic structure and social life of Europe experienced dramatic changes with the Renaissance—a revival of art, literature and music.
Medieval Catholic theologians believed the church was establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Earthly kings received their authority from the clergy. Corruption in the Roman church's hierarchy, and a papacy more concerned with temporal politics than spiritual purity, eroded trust in pontifical supremacy.
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