The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an 18th-century movement in Western philosophy and intellectual life generally, that emphasized the power or reason and science to understand and reform the world. Some classifications also include 17th-century philosophy, usually called the Age of Reason. The style it favored is called "classical" (as opposed to the earlier Baroque and the later Romantic styles.) The Enlightenment saw major advances in philosophy, the sciences (especially physics, chemistry and mathematics), economics, political theory, geography (especially exploration), and technology (especially the origins of the Industrial Revolution.
The Enlightenment advocated reason as the primary basis of authority, downplaying emotion and ecclesiastical authority. As presented by Voltaire, Isaac Newton was the great hero for his demonstration that rational thought could explain the heavens. Developed in France, England, Scotland, and the German states, it influenced the whole of Europe including Russia and Scandinavia, as well as the American colonies.
Intellectually the Enlightment was identified with "the philosophes," who aggressively spread the new gospel of reason. They were a brilliant collection of scientists, philosophers and writers including Voltaire, Montesquieu, Holbach, Condorcet, Denis Diderot, Buffon, Turgot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France; David Hume and Adam Smith in Scotland; John Locke, Edward Gibbon, Samuel Johnson and Jeremy Bentham in England; and Johann Herder, Gotthold Lessing and Immanuel Kant in Prussia, as well as Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in America. The were endorsed by "enlightened despots"—rulers who tried to impose reform by authoritarian means, including Frederick II of Prussia, Catherine II of Russia, and Charles III of Spain.
Politically the Enlightenment was marked by governmental consolidation, nation creation, greater rights for the common people, and a diminution of the influence of authoritarian institutions such as the nobility and the Church. The ideology of Republicanism led to the American Revolution and the French Revolution. By 1800 or so the Enlightenment was replaced by the Romantic Era, with special impact on the arts.