The Enlightenment

• What was the Enlightenment? • An intellectual and cultural movement which spread across Europe in the 18th century, thinkers started to question traditional assumptions, ideas, and institutions, such as absolute monarchy
• Montesquieu - Wrote Spirit of Laws, believed in separation of powers.
• Voltaire - Religious freedom, wrote Candide in 1759.
• Hobbes - necessity for an absolute monarchy, wrote Leviathan in 1651.
• The Enlightenment was only prominent when the established order had collapsed completely and it was obvious that the systems would have to be rebuilt that it came into practice as it suggested new ideas about how to govern France
• American Revolution - 1775, gave an example of how political authority could be overcome, demonstration of the success of revolution.
• Paine made drastic pleas to decrease the power of the monarchy.
• Salons were informal social gatherings where writers, artists, and philosophers exchanged Ideas.